My little family and I live pretty transparently. We are very open about hurts, habits, hang ups, memes, solutions, world issues, etc. Mine is probably the only table you can sit around and talk openly about the panic attack you had earlier in the day with zero judgement over a piece of chocolate cake. You see, in my family, we all have PTSD. Lots of people use that diagnosis flippantly. “I have PTSD from almost falling out of the chair too many times”… umm, no.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a trauma that occurs repeatedly over the course of time and the brain doesn’t quite know how to deal with it so coping skills that the brain deems necessary for survival become hard-wired. It effects every part of your life. Let me say that again. Every. Single. Part. Of your Life. Things that most people would say “oh that’s not a big deal” can become an OK Corral Shootout in the mind of someone with PTSD.
Mostly associated with military, EMS workers, and law enforcement officers, it is doesn’t discriminate about ethnicity, religion, gender or socioeconomic status….Nor does it stay within the bounds of the above listed occupations. People of abuse and domestic violence situations also step into this brain disorder.
I write an awful lot about healing. Being responsible for your healing, seeking God to unlearn these thought patterns that short circuit the life you were meant to live. I have come to realize in the last month that some people, no matter how much they desire to be whole and healthy, will not seek that healing. Why? If they feel so bad, if they have such depth of misery, why not seek healing in those “hot spots” so that life can become a new higher level of functioning and normal? Because healing can be extremely painful.
Kicking these demons out that have taken root in your mind, heart, spirit, psyche, etc, is like trying to uproot a 150 yr old oak tree. That tap root goes deep, to the core. The root of this issue is not “all of a sudden”. See, God designed us to be resilient. We are made to withstand “some” terrible things. The problem comes with repetition. This reality, this new normal, becomes very painful to undo because it is now part of you. So, when/if the person seeks healing, the trauma is relived as it is pulled from the person’s psyche bit by bit.
So why bring all this up? Because this pervasive demon has struck again. Not someone that I knew, but someone who was married to someone I knew. No, I didn’t know this person, but it could’ve been someone I knew. I know several people who fight this demon on the daily. We walk around knowing nothing about the battle behind the eyes of people we see.
Do we take a minute to see them? Or anyone for that matter?
How often do we ask ourselves what solution we can be part of today?
In my healing, I have learned that if I can encourage someone, lift someone up, have opportunity to show genuine kindness, it helps me to stay healed. It helps me to understand the life I am meant to life in Christ. A life of love and good fruits. A life that, though not perfect, seeks to serve rather than be served, living selflessly in my calling.
Fighting beside those who fight this demon. God fights for you. God also sends others to fight with you.