having a "broken toy" morning

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Beginning last night and continuing into this morning, I've found myself reliving my abuse, and for some reason ended up re-reading the letter I wrote to him as part of therapy which is published here:

https://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/fiction/18037/letter-from-bro...

Comments

Having your past ...

... coming back to you like that sounds really awful! I only have flicks of memories to deal with, and even that's rough. I hope things get better for you soon.

{{{warm hugs}}}

Heather Rose

"reliving" may be necessary

From my readings on Trauma and recovery and Trauma treatment, I have the impression that healing from trauma often requires revisiting the trauma, or at least making it conscious. The explanation I've seen is that the essence of trauma is that it's experiences your conscious mind couldn't deal with, so they are left in "sense memory." Most experiences get dredged up on a regular basis (dreams?) and converted into narratives. Traumatic experiences don't get that, so they linger in your brain like open sores or infected wounds. Healing involves making them conscious enough to remember them the way you remember normal experiences -- i.e., as narratives -- so they become part of the past rather than something that feels like it's still happening.

The hard part, of course, is making them conscious without "tripping the breakers," so to speak. That's the part I've been having trouble with: once I get close to remembering what it was like during my "Hell Years," I either dissociate completely or have really unpleasant reactions which distract me from the remembering. I'm able to remember the outlines of what happened, the way an adult who knew something about what was going on might have reported, but what it was actually like is still too overwhelming.

BTW, I notice that the pages you link to ("letter from a broken toy") say "As a Christian, I must forgive". In practice, the expectation that one must forgive is just a continuation of the abuse. Until you have healed enough to be free of the monkey on your back that the trauma represents, trying to "forgive" amounts to denying the severity of the crime you've suffered, or even forbidding yourself to take whatever measures are necessary to protect yourself.

At some point, when (and if) you've healed, you may be able to look at your abusers and feel sorry for them being the way they are, and maybe forgiving them will feel natural. Or maybe not. There are people and institutions that abused me which, while I don't waste time hating them, the damage they did is still warping my life, so there's no way I will "forgive" them. Until then, your "rageasaurus" (a delightful term used at CaptainAwkward.com), i.e., your anger and hostility towards your abuser and the abuse, is your friend and protector.

Do something else, just about anything else.

This is the kind of thing you need to de-rail, get your mind-brain out of a bad rut.

Try to keep bad memories from cutting ever-deeper groves in your brain.

Go for a walk, pet the cat, have some tea, walk in the woods, play music you like a bit louder than usual, take a hot shower, whatever ...

---
And, I've just dumped another load of hugs into the ether.

Stuck in the past

RobertaME's picture

I have a lot of experience with getting stuck in the past. Mine was not nearly as horrific, but I get stuck there much more easily.

My best advice to you is to focus on something that puts you in the 'now'... some activity that centers your mind on where you are and what you're doing that you enjoy. I've found it can help break the cycle of reliving painful memories over and over.

That and know that you are loved... you are thought of fondly... and you are needed by this community. Your presence helps give this place life and laughter and even the necessary tears once in a while.

You are not just a toy... you are Dorothy and Dorothy can overcome anything!

::huggles::
Roberta