WRITE NOW THERAPY!

Getting over something whether its a death, a break-up, or a traumatic event can be crippling. Some people can remain in a place of grief and depression for years or even the rest of their lives if they do not get themselves help to process what has them frozen in life. Everyone goes through an episode of losing someone they love, dealing with a personal breakup, and even some form of trauma in their life that renders them stuck and hopeless. It is a part of the human experience. 

How a person copes with that event in their life differs greatly. People use various methods to deal with loss. Many even choose the wrong way to deal with it and are forever locked in a place they wish they could break free from. With you reading this article you have chosen a different path. You know better than most that you need to do something that will successfully put the issue in your past and allow yourself to move forward. Forward progress can be difficult. 

Easily the most hateful and hurtful thing you are going to read here is the headline: “the only way to get over something is to push yourself through it.” I’m sorry. The old adage of “anything worth pursuing takes hard work” is sadly true. I am not going to beat around the bush and tell you that getting over what is holding you back in life is going to be an easy victory. It’s not.

However, it is my hope that I can show you a way through it that will be the least troubling. It is something you can begin on your own and won’t require medication, thousands of therapy sessions, or shows of public support groups to get started. I do want you to understand that those things may be necessary at some point and are positive aspects of recovery in due time. That said, it all starts and ends with you and your own commitment to help yourself.

COMMITTING TO PUSHING FORWARD IS THE HARDEST PART

I assume since you are still reading this you have the goal of putting the pain of the past behind you. You are the first and most important commitment to your own recovery. If you don’t commit – nothing is going to happen.

Depending on how pained you are with what is holding you back and how far down the rabbit hole you have fallen will decide how committed you are to your own success. Ignoring our issues is the easiest thing to do. The world provides us plenty of “magic pills” that give us quick relief that requires continued “prescriptions” (treatments or remedies) to glaze over our pain.

MAGIC PILLS NO MATTER HOW YOU TAKE THEM DON’T WORK

Here’s a short list of what I like to call pill popping remedies. Pills because it requires you to pop more and more as they wear off in short doses. Here are the typical short-term, easy remedies to help us forget your pain (how many to you take?):

• Alcohol, marijuana, narcotics (legal or illegal), other drugs, or additives we ingest in our bodies.
• Sex, porn, masturbation, illicit sexual activities both legal and illegal designed to release dopamine into our system and glaze over what we are trying to forget.
• Spending habits: shopping (spending more than we should) or gambling to release the dopamine given from spending/buying or risking money in games of chance.
• Eating habits: binging or over-eating, purging or withholding of food to elicit comfort or immediate peace in addictive ways.
• Cutting, burning, body mutilation, skin picking, repetitive tattooing, plastic surgery or things you do to your body to purge pain, localize pain, or to comfort uncomfortable feelings. These can cause sudden releases of dopamine due to risk, pain, or pleasure rushes brought on by such acts.

While most of these things can be done casually and without addictive repetitiveness, if you see yourself doing any of these and notice the aftermath of doing these things cause you additional pain, shame, or other problems in the process, you may be doing it to avoid the pain you are desperate to forget. The repetitive nature of such pleasure principles can cause addictive properties in your body that make it difficult for you to stop.

Let me say again, doing any of these things in a casual, not addictive, habit-forming ways are not naturally problematic. Only YOU can decide for yourself what you are using to coat pain in your life. However, know that any of these things if done repetitiously can lead to life-altering or life-ending results if problematic to a point that they cause you to lose what you cherish in your life (your spouse, family, job, security, peace or life).

These things represent easy ways to deal with your pain. None of them are going to end the pain you feel in your life. These “magic pills” only coat our feelings in short bursts. They are easy solutions to immediate pain but only have lasting results if done chronically. All the while you are avoiding the pain you could have gotten over without any of the magic.

In order to get lasting peace and joy, you need to face the pain head-on and overcome it by going through it. Through this process, you are likely to face deep short-term pain with lasting peaceful results by going through it. Let’s work through your pain in a way that puts it to an end once and for all. In order to process your pain properly, have you ever thought about writing as therapy? Let’s write.

LINK TO WRITING AS THERAPY