Is Healing Possible?

[Freedomfighter]

So you believe healing is possible?
Do you believe that you will heal?
What would healing look like for...

A brain disorder, a damaged brain may improve, but certainly not heal.

 

[Friday]

I've led a full, happy, (mostly) symptom free life after trauma, so I know it's possible. It's also a cyclic disorder, and has been kicking my ass, again.

Last time my entire goal was a full/happy/symptom free life.

This time my goal post has changed. I don't JUST want that. I'll get there, if I don't die trying.

- I want to set my life up in such a way as to be able to handle / absorb the cyclic nature of this beast, so that the next time it kicks my ass my life doesn't get destroyed and have to be rebuilt -again- from the bottom up.

- I want to be able to keep/use my past. The first time around (first time I got better after being all symptomatic for several years) I lost my past. Past chapters burned, ashes locked in a box, and forward was the only way through. Except the chapters didn't burn. Or the ashes reformed into pages. And those?... They scattered, to get blown back at me, and death by 10,000 paper cuts. This time I'm trying to bind the sucker. With a thousand pages all out of order, and each page needing to be read in order to place it. Instead of a novel that I burn each chapter as I finish it; Like my life is a reference book, that I can flip through and use at will.

 

[PTSDisweird]

So you believe healing is possible?
Do you believe that you will heal?
What would healing look like for...

My opinion is that healing is possible for all of us with the proper support. I also believe that some people can be cured, depending on the case. Well, for sure i am not one of them. I am almost certain that i can be successfully healed but not cured since the scars are deep. My trauma is a childhood one, even though it hit me in mid puberty and then came the ptsd. Also, i had emotional flashbacks since i remember myself, which a lot of therapists believe it is trauma before i was able to remember things. No surprise for me, since those years were the worst for my mother and my family life has always been extremely crap. Most likely ptsd exists in me almost since ever. Going deep in myself through therapy my wounds are slowly healed. So yeah, with the proper support, and a lot of hard work and will to get better, yes you get better and eventually heal. Now, being healed doesnt mean you cant slide back in ptsd. You have to do things to maintain your progress.

 

[Hope69]

Now, being healed doesnt mean you cant slide back in ptsd. You have to do things to maintain your progress.

@PTSDisweird - True that. WIsh my therapist had spent time on discussing this with me!

 

[PTSDisweird]

Now, being healed doesnt mean you cant slide back in ptsd. You have to do things to maintain your progre...

But you have the experience now and know better how your ptsd works. Go from the beginning again with baby steps. If its about you feeling better, its worth every try :)

 

[Changing4Best]

Yes, I lead a socially active life. I help others by giving them support in various things. I lead a Bible Study at my church. I lead Overeaters Anonymous Meetings sometimes. I am reaching my goal weight, just 3 pounds more to lose. I have written and published a book. I have shown my paintings in galleries around the country. I had a successful marriage until the day he died in 2005. 23 years in all. Yes, someone with PTSD can have a life, and a good one at that. I thank God every day for all the blessings in my life.

 

[bunty220]

So you believe healing is possible?
Do you believe that you will heal?
What would healing look like for...

I want to heal so bad every day. But there's something awful, dark, ugly haunts me. I can't describe it any other way. This terrible feeling inside me that is all bad. I have to admit I have more better days than bad now. I imagine on my good days that, that is what i would be like if i didnt have my ailments. But. Still day after day I still feel empty, lonley, worthless. Now I'm a single mother of 3 married twice. I have no other choice but to keep going. I am the only one these children have. Fighting custody of my youngest from a sociopath. As if I didn't have cptsd bad enough from the all my years, he is just is icing on the cake. I am tired of being walked on. I'm tired of being bulli3d. I'm tired of all this heavy pain in my heart. I'm a survivor of dv and sa. I want to heal. I want to stop hurting inside. I want to not feel like everyone in the world can see the looser sign on my forehead but me. I don't want to live in fear of what might happen. I'm an adult. I don't want to be afraid of the dark, I don't want to fear disappointment from my mother. I want to find my peace. I want to be OK with me. I want to heal..

 

[Deleted member 34328]

Irkk I want more than anything to be able to ditch the title! I guess I know on some level that'll never happen.

Sorry to be a downer. Just that so many of you agree that PTSD is a lifetime "disorder" is discouraging-depressing.

I have come a long ways. It's been 4 years of hard work but worth the effort to realize that so many things that caused such high anxiety and flashbacks no longer have that control over me. So I'm very thankful.

I've just always held on to the hope that a day is coming when I'll move completely away from this and just be able to look back and maybe even shudder at what used to be. Maybe not.

 

[Lionheart]

Yes, I believe healing is absolutely possible and if one is determined and has the guts, it is probable and likely!!!

I can't say what healing looks like, but I know that I am strong and I feel like a grown man instead of a frightened child and that is what healing is like for me!

 

[Naoru]

So you believe healing is possible?
Do you believe that you will heal?
What would healing look like for you?

Yes, I believe varying degrees of healing are possible with determination and dedication to the hard work that entails.

I believe I have already come far in healing, but have a tremendous amount to still face and work through. As my t says almost every session, I have to work through each feeling and each incident; I cannot continue to go around them... truly experiencing and processing...

So healing for me involves facing many emotions I'm normally unable to tap into and in doing so, I'll face fears, memories, and the past to really experience the present. I know that sounds broad, but it really does impact my day to day well-being and decision making. Some days I'm not just walking through life and I'm not as cut-off from every experience. I'm also able to recognize now when the past is weaseling it's way into the present and stop anxiety, the different types of flashbacks, and the flip-switch rage before they happen... well, sometimes. ;) I'm also making some pretty big decisions for myself lately... all evidence I'm making some healing progress.

I don't think having PTSD means we cannot heal. Those symptoms will come and go and that may always be; however, healing can allow us to face those symptoms and be able to dig our way out each day... and ease each cycle as it comes.