Emotional Trauma, ‘Mental Health’ Issues And The Long Journey of Healing

9 February 2014

 - Were you ever allowed to show your fear as a child (and to act on it)? Were you allowed to cry freely and openly? Were you allowed to get angry (at being ‘done over’ or in defense of yourself)? As often as you needed? Or were you endlessly admonished and, one way or another, terrorised into behaving blandly (with ‘acceptable’ feelings like love and happiness tolerated in particular doses and circumstances).

So if you want to deal powerfully with all of the emotional symptoms that have arisen from your war service, here is my suggestion. Focus on feeling each and all of your feelings. If you wake from a nightmare, deliberately and consciously focus on the imagery in the nightmare while you feel just how terrified you are. Focus on this feeling for as long as you can. It will be horrendous and will take enormous courage. But, after a time, it will start to fade and you will feel some relief. When your fear arises again, in any context, pay conscious attention to it. You have been suppressing it all of your life; it just wants to be heard and felt so that you can let it go forever.