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Posted in personal
September 12, 2016

Trauma Recovery is A Never-Ending Fight.

Picture of Whitney Drake

Note: If you’re one of the parties in this ongoing drama, stop reading my site. This post is about my Trauma recovery. I am posting it in the hopes that it might help someone dealing with Trauma feel like they aren’t broken. Or help loved ones understand what someone is going through. I’ll be sad to miss one of the 10 regular readers of this site, but you really aren’t going to find what you’re looking for here. I’m not going to out anyone. I just need to work through this stuff.

The Situation

Last night, I had a weird freak-out. It’s all related to The Tape. While TheBoy still has The Thief in his life, there’s no direct conversation with me. But TheBoy is friends with someone who is also friends with The Thief.  And they don’t know the whole story.

Because TheBoy is friends with this person, The Thief and their immediate circle pop up in my social media feeds.  (I should note I have no issues with who he chooses as friends, that isn’t the problem at all)

Back to the freak out. It’s a testament to how far we’ve come, that he sat and let me talk and talk.  He listened while I fumbled for the right words to explain exactly what was bothering me. So that I could clarify that the friendship wasn’t the issue. In years past, that wouldn’t have happened. (Neither of us were patient in our 20s, which shouldn’t be too surprising)

Once he understood this was Trauma related, he knew exactly what to do. Told me to pour myself a drink (I got through the Tape incident thanks to the occasional glass of sipping rum to help me unwind) and made sure I didn’t feel alone.

It’s been so long since I freaked out like this, I forgot about rehydrating before bed. So I woke up with a headache.

The Takeaway

Emotional hangover. It’s a thing. Learn from my mistakes – if you get in a big fight with someone or have a meltdown, drink something with electrolytes. And do the same thing when you wake up.

So for those who have a loved one who is dealing with Trauma – you don’t just “get over it.” Sure, they might be fine the majority of the time. But just like grief, sometimes you run into unforeseen landmines that trip you up. All you can do is support them through it.

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