Working through your emotions, confronting dark and hurtful experiences of the past- doesn’t sound very fun. The idea of spending a length of time in a clinical environment for working through trauma might not be an inviting one. Trauma hurts. The pain of trauma is real. For however real the pain of trauma is, the beauty and liberation of resolving trauma is equal, if not tenfold.
Learning to have fun, to play in the natural cosmic mystery of life, is one of the greatest gifts of recovery. Through a myriad of therapeutic treatment options, each individual in treatment finds the avenue of life which is most invigorating for them. Slowly, they crack a smile, chuckle a giggle, and eventually, move with the freedom life promises them. Learning to have fun takes time because trauma can cause one to forget what fun feels like. Many who experience trauma in early developmental stages never learn how to have fun.
“Many survivors of developmental trauma forget (or never learn) to frolic, play, be silly or frivolous,” writes Andrea Bell for Good Therapy. “They become involuntarily stuck in the trauma response, to some degree, even at times when it would serve them better to loosen up and be playful, or at least relaxed.”
“Not surprisingly,” she continues, “fun, play, and frivolity are often very good antidotes to the seriousness of the survival response.” Returning to a child-like state before the very adult responsibility of trauma takes therapeutic time. Treatment for trauma does not have a distinct timeline because the severity of each person’s experience and their manifestations of that experience are unique. “Sometimes, we first have to work with some trauma-induced rigidity before the person is able to loosen up and check out the fun,” Bell explains. It can take time before the thick walls of survival response are loosened up and the natural flow of life begins to exist again. “Other times, people are able to dive right in,” she describes, “laughing and questioning why they’d forgotten to do this all along.” Whenever the moment happens for people, it does eventually happen. All of a sudden, they learn to have fun again. The more that trauma is resolved, the less the past impedes on the future. Colors become more vivid. The sun shines brighter. Lungs take in more air than they have in years. Rather than a lightbulb turning on, those who are working to resolve their trauma see a series of light bulbs go off- the distracting, blinding lights of the past which have blinded their vision of the beautiful present right in front of them.
Your life is waiting for you on the other side of trauma. You can heal. You can smile. You can learn to have fun again. The Guest House Ocala specializes in trauma treatment and the treatment of related issues. Call us today for information on our private residential treatment programs: 1-855-483-7800