Sep

8

A New Beginning

Filed Under PTSD treatment, Treating PTSD 

-by Janet Seahorn

vel-rabbit1

In a previous blog we wrote about the Wilderness and Healing. Before that we talked about how PTSD + Joy = Peace, Maybe — can move us toward wellbeing.

This week’s focus is a continuation of both ideas, an extension of how we can heal, can move forward and grow healthier. What every suffering person is searching for is a GENISUS – a new beginning, new start, a sort of rebirth.

So this is the big question, “what will be our new beginning after a trauma experience?” Trauma does not have to be the end of living, but a start of living life in a new way. It begins with the seeds we are now and grows into the people we want to become.

Imagine that person, vision it with all the bright pictures, melodies, and glory we can see, hear, and feel in our hearts. New beginnings ask us to examine what we learned from our combat/trauma experience, to go beyond the pain and terrible memories, and to rise above them.

To accomplish this mission will require that we put ourselves fully into the human arena. Isolation is not an option. We cannot lock ourselves away physically or emotionally; that means drugs, alcohol, over-working… are simply not possible choices.

The world is too rich, too interesting, too special to isolate ourselves. Yes, there are horrible things that occur. There is violence, greed, and cruel acts.  And for every act of brutality, I believe there are many more acts of kindness, beauty, and love. We must not forget to notice these during our times of darkness. We must attempt to appreciate the goodness in the world. It is present. Just look.

An old saying states, “What we focus on persists”.  What do we want to persist?  We can focus on those things. Write them up. Put them on our refrigerators, nightstands, even our mirrors. The new us begins today. We choose. By no means will it be easy.  The new us will not be perfect, but it will be real.

Like the Velveteen Rabbit, he became worn, torn, and aged only through the experience of being touched, loved, and used. And by going through all of his living, he became real. He developed into being alive, for being alive required a multitude of life events both magnificent and sad.

I am sure that if one were to inspect the experiences of the rabbit, he may have been diagnosed with PTSD. And, I am equally sure, that at the end of his days, he would not have traded these experiences for something easier and less physically or emotionally demanding.

He chose life, and so will we!

Comments

One Response to “A New Beginning”

  1. Robert L. "Doc" Baty on September 9th, 2009 4:28 pm

    PTSD didn’t hit me full force until I retired. I was not sure what was happening within me until I started researching on the internet. What I found scared me more than when I was in the rice paddies of Vietnam giving medical aid to wounded Marines. I went to the VA and found the help that I was looking for. I have purchased and read “Tears of a Warrior” after having your brother John recommend it in one of the PTSD groups that I attend. Thank you very much for your efforts. I know that I will never be rid of the demons that reside in the depths of my mind, but I can lessen the severity of their efforts to destroy me.