Healing is POSSIBLE:

The first thing to remember is that healing from trauma and PTSD is POSSIBLE. The recovery process in therapy helps you cope with remembering the trauma, understand your reactions better and see it in a new way. Your emotions and feelings about the trauma will become clearer and more easily controlled. Finally you can have power over your trauma, and have your life back. Healing depends on factors like the intensity and duration of the stress or trauma that occurred, it may take months or years to recover, but beginning the healing process will speed up recovery if you take it one step at a time.

Remembering and Processing the Trauma

The beginning stage of therapy focuses on the establishment of safety, emotional coping strategies and support. It is especially important to have support when the survivor is remembering the past trauma. For example, people remembering that they were molested as children, may feel worse initially, more depressed and more helplessness. But with long term appropriate therapy the outcome is very positive. A person can learn to pace the memories and have stability while they work on the trauma. Survivors learn to have better relationships with others, have authority over their memories, and ability to approach life by looking positively at the present and future.

Medication

Some people may use medication to help during the healing process. If a person is depressed, has high anxiety, suicidal thoughts, trouble sleeping, or anything else that may hinder the healing process, they can get help from their doctor with medication options.

Will I Ever Be Happy Again?

Yes. Long-term trauma-based therapy is very successful in resolving trauma. There are many roadblocks in PTSD therapy. The journey is not easy and is often long. Some survivors drop out within the first few weeks after feeling some relief from their symptoms, feeling more happy and sane. But they may later return to therapy because the trauma was not fully resolved, the pain is still there, and the anger and self-destructive behaviour returns. But with persistence in therapy life becomes a lot more manageable, emotional coping skills progress, the ability to deal with stress improves, it becomes easier to the communicate and express feelings, self-esteem is raised and quality of life is much better. Finally there is a peaceful, contented resolution that allows for a good, happy life.