• ... When the trauma in life has been hidden from the conscious mind, the integration of new information about one's own past can be deeply disorganizing and disorienting. It can also disrupt one’s sense of self and worth.
• ... Nature "knows" when to shut people down because of PTSD. It also often knows when it is time to open people up again. The reintegration process needs to reintegrate the pain, the shame and the memories of the past. One needs to come to understand that compartmentalized pain and shame can only be held in at great cost to the beholder.
• ... Conversely, it is important to understand that the reopening process is also a costly/painful experience.
• ... It was disturbing for some to realize that to recover their own feelings and their lost humanity, they had to both realize and grieve just how inhumane their pasts had been.
• ... The path of recovery often takes people to a place of greater unhappiness while enroute. It is the Way of Things, and the Way of Things will eventually release the pain of the past in the present and give us back our future. So we can have the life we were intended to have.
Adapted from Ed Schmookler
observations on the healing process
from Post Trauma Stress Disorder
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