It's like a scary dark tunnel; just keep remembering you WILL come out the other side! And tunnels rarely have real lions, and tigers, and bears, only the imagined ones from the past :-) The past is past and the rubble has to be cleared away. Just like one has to debride wounds so the infection can clear, got to do the same to all the other crap of one's life.

When I terminated therapy in 2005 with my T I'd been seeing since 1978, one of her last pieces of advice she gave me was "just keep putting one foot in front of the other." Turns out is is one of the best pieces of counsel she ever gave me. It works! I wouldn't trade any of my therapy for anything, best thing I did with/for myself and my life. Yes it was long, hard, confusing, painful, interesting, boring, exciting; any list of adjectives you wish to list but I'm here now on the "other" side and the view I've been looking for ain't going nowhere this time, it's mine to keep!