What Does 'processing' Mean For You?

[Suzetig]

I agree with @joeylittle, for me processing means I'm untangling my experience bit by bit, making sense of them and putting them away in a more tidy sensible, manageable form than before. What's working for me is a long term therapeutic relationship with someone who gets me, works at my pace and holds me safe while I pick through everything. I can see the benefits in a particular area I've been struggling with, which gives me hope the rest will sort in time too.

 

[Lucycat]

I think of processing a trauma memory as taking its power away. I can still remember it but it is no longer intrusive and controlling.I can't change history. I can't actually change my memories, but I can change what I think and feel about them. For me that change process by whatever means equals processing.

 

[katiekat]

I think I'm at the beginning stage of processing my trauma. To me, processing trauma means talking to my therapist about my history and my trauma, then my therapist will recap/repeat/clarify my experience and then she will make connections to various symptoms/feelings/issues I have in the present that are linked to the trauma. Validating what happened in the past, looking at it from various angles, finding negative underlying beliefs, and reframing my experience and beliefs to help me respond differently to future situations that may be similar. But again, I am just starting to give my therapist the full story so my idea of processing might change as I get further into therapy.

 

[Lucycat]

and then she will make connections to various symptoms/feelings/issues I have in the present that are linked to the trauma. Validating what happened in the past, looking at it from various angles, finding negative underlying beliefs, and reframing my experience and beliefs to help me respond differently

I don't want to invalidate your experience and hear that you are new to therapy. However what I am getting from your post is that you are expecting your therapist to do the processing for you. In my opinion it does not work like that. Your Therapist is a tool used in the procedure sure, but it is for you to use. Just like a spade won't dig your garden for you...

 

[ghotiff]

However what I am getting from your post is that you are expecting your therapist to do the processing for you. In my opinion it does not work like that.

Like @katiekat I am new to therapy to and very much relate to her post. My T makes lots of connections for me between how I respond in a situation and what past memory that response comes from. These insights are invaluable and I don't see it as my T doing the processing for me.

For me (at my stage) processing means leaning to accept that what happened was actually that bad. And, currently accepting all my parents lack (from their choice of denial).

 

[katiekat]

@Lucycat I can see how it may sound like I'm having my therapist do all the work, but my trauma was minimized by my parents, so by my therapist validating that what I experienced was traumatic helps me move past denial. And because I'm still in denial, It's hard for me to make the connections between my past and my current problems. And on the other hand, I am starting to make my own connections between sessions.

 

[Friday]

I'm pretty literal at the moment

Processed = Done. Finis. Grokked. Sorted.
Processing = Happening at present. However the case may be.
Not processed = Danger Wil Robinson

 

[Deleted member 28403]

I see processing as passing through something and being able to deal with it quite well (like walking or something). But I am not good at it, not at all, so I can't say much of what processed stuff is like.

 

[Deleted member 28740]

I only think of processing in the clinical sense. Bear in mind, I remember all of my trauma.

So, if I started with a bunch of memories that were a big knotted tangled ball of yarn, every time my therapist and I work through a moment in my memory - that is equivalent to getting one tangle to be untangled. And then, we move on to the next knotty part.

Most of it is done in a linear fashion (chronological time), but sometimes there are knots within knots (memories that draw on or are informed by other memories), and then we work on untangling all those snarls.

Eventually the mass of tangled yarn will be able to be wound back into a fairly smooth ball; it's not gone, but it's manageable, and I can put it in the bin with the other balls of yarn (other parts of my life and experiences) and not worry that it's going to snag another ball and make an even bigger mess.

Joeylittle! Untangle. It is not going away, but acknowledged, identified and contained. My mind is already at an easier place with that picture of all those balls in a bag, don't have to carry it around, eventually. great goal, and will be my approach.

 

[Ronin]

I go with processing = moving on with whatever it was, active process, something I'm working on instead of something that just keeps happening to me and I'm mostly let go. Processed = something with which I've worked on it in the past already and got the crappiest monsters away from me / something I have healthy coping mechanisms for. Everything else = acknowledged, known or unknown, not concern for the time's sake if it's contained. If it's not, moved to 'needs processing'.
Ah, mental boxes. How do I love these.

 

[Deleted member 28740]

@Kala I have (or used to before) good mechanical aptitude. Big picture to identify the issue, and what needed to be addressed, fixed replaced to function. Example turn signals don't work. Troubleshoot, check bulbs, y/n, check fuse y/n, then to wiring always the hardest part. That skill does not work with PTSD, beyond my processing skills solo. Can't even do the auto stuff anymore as anxiety intrudes. First step, did the bulb work, and if not fixed with that I get lost in anxiety reactions. Have lost my ability to move on to the next step, fear that the anxiety will break me further, and that has happened. My old me knew just what to do to resolve, but panic takes over now. That is about mechanical things, but also about this new path to seek out a good 'mechanic' to get me back in tune, and functioning. Losing my biz and work, and I am overwhelmed trying to find work to survive, and each time I try I am less of me.

12/18 will be first time with a mental health service. It seems a difficult path to find the right help, but also need to be your best you to find and navigate that. Trust your own gut served me well until… and the aftermath. Pull myself together as best I can to start the P/T process. Best advise on how to do that. My secure life (home, $, Work) are within weeks gone. So entering this process very vulnerable.

I used to have all my tools (mech). While losing my House, a broken foot and ankle 2 weeks post surgery. Brothers helped with the move. All of personal docs (correspondence, photos, journals, my tools) none of them somehow survived the move. Ugly past in my head, and the good gone.

Rebuild the new me.