How do you put past traumas behind you?

[JamSandle]

I've had a few life traumas including relationships and grief.

I've just had a cry and hit a low.

How do you put the past behind you so you can keep going on?

Unfortunately it is the old trite phrase time is a great healer..Post traumatic stress is a great healer.

Have you tried therapy OP? Chronic post traumatic stress disorder does not always just yet better over time : therapy (such as EMDR or Narrative exposure therapy) can be really helpful in processing past traumatic memories , making sense of grief and moving forward with your life.

I used propanol in the short term to be able to keep moving and had CBT.

I do lots of exercise and occasional trauma release exercise (TRE)

I read Florence Williams the 3 day effect -
About how time in nature effects on the brain on ptsd.

I changed my career to work out doors in nature, with likeminded people.

I try and keep my focus on the things I can control and effect.

After all this something totally out of the blue triggered me a few months ago and I was shaking all the time and the thing that actually stopped it was a bottle of Prosecco with an old friend one lunchtime time. I wasn't expecting it to but it totally reset me.

jam 💐 I've had family related trauma that really affected me. It's seven years on now. I pause when I think of it and feel sad but I try hard not to let it overwhelm me. Recent attention to weight lifting and diet has helped mood. I try to focus on my own family and on doing good more widely. It has affected me but I'm trying not to let it be the defining thing that's happened to me. And I always remember that everyone is struggling with something.

If you can get therapy and talk things through it might help. I've had some good advice over the years, including be kind to yourself, put the thoughts in an imaginary box, seal it and pack it away in an attic in your mind (I know it sounds daft, but it kind of helped!), and remember dwelling on it doesn't change anything, it has happened and can't be changed, keeping busy so the thoughts can't creep in, mindfulness.

It's hard I know. Time does help, but it can take a long time.

You have therapy and take meds but each person is different. I have been involved with people who have suffered with trauma at the extreme end, victims of trafficking, women who had been exploited as children as sexually abused. We used to try and get them to find a positive in situations however bleak. I think trying to just bury and forget is what’s dangerous, you will carry stuff about. You also need a therapist you click with, one you feel comfortable with.

This article may help, though it isn't aimed specifically at people in severe mental distress, so some of the advice may sound a touch crass.

Release the Past

Hope I've copied the link okay.

For me it’s being time. Then the reminder to not be so hard on myself, cut myself some slack.

There comes a point where you get thoroughly sick of re-running that very familiar old film in your head.

That's when you need to make up your mind that as soon as the title shot comes up you're going to turn it off and just not go there. Think about something entirely different. I sometimes go for a walk with my old dog (in my head).

This. I got to the stage when revisiting the trauma bored the bejesus out of me. I don't care that I was treated badly and shit things happened. I just want to get on with a fresh new start. I don't want to waste a single minute more of my life on it.