Trauma

Many of us often have the idea that because it’s been years since we’ve been to treatment or started recovery or therapy, we shouldn’t have the “negative feelings” that we do.  This can start us down the “shame spiral” or what some have referred to as “feeling bad about feeling bad”. 

            What is recovery anyway?  What’s the difference between sobriety and recovery?  Both concepts may seem equally undesirable during the first phases of   help-seeking for addiction, alcoholism or other behaviors that no longer serve us.

Brene Brown, a self-proclaimed “researcher/storyteller”, says that our ability to feel loved and accepted comes from having the belief that we are worthy of love and acceptance.  Huh?  Basically, we have to buy it.  If we don’t allow it to be true, it won’t be.  But how do we allow this to be true for us if we don’t feel it?

The spring season brings up many images of renewal.  Flowers are blooming, babies are born; the world wakes from its winter sleep.  This idea of rebirth can be easily applied to the inner work we do when we embark on the path of recovery.  We leave the old way (soil, womb, sleep) for a new one (above ground, alive in the world and awake).  I have a professor, Dr. Michael Wapner, who talks about change and how scary and threatening it is for most of us.  Dr. Wapner likens our journey of change to that of a hermit crab. 

Increasingly horses are becoming trauma healers through the fast growing profession of equine assisted therapy. Trauma responses are the human mind’s attempt to cope with the unimaginable. In some survivors, trauma can produce post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with symptoms ranging from depression, anxiety, and drug and alcohol abuse to rage, dissociation and thoughts of suicide. These occur because the stress accompanying traumatic events demands coping strategies of the individual that far exceed their capabilities. Equine assisted therapy offers hope and encouragement for trauma survivors.