[silverbells]

I have these VERY strange feelings, after fifty years of either doing my best to have avoided abuse or working VERY hard to heal from it, that I'm finally healed! It feels - I don't know - like coming up for air, and it seems to last longer and longer, and feel more and more solid all the time. I've learned ALL these coping skills (for YEARS I've been working on them in therapy and w/ self-help books) and - I don't know - it just feels like mastery - like when you mastered a foreign language or something - there comes a point when your work pays off. Really, in fifty years I've never felt this way before - it just feels like if some nonsense comes my way I can handle it. Miraculous! I'm interested in what you guys think. Have I just gone completely delusional or is it possible to really heal?

[Open Eyes]

Congratulations silverbells,

Yes, I do believe that it is very possible to heal and become a stronger and happier person. It often takes years of denial and confusion and supressing emotions that results in the feelings of being overwhelmed and emotional and full of anxiety and guilt and self blaming and even depression from dealing with being overwhelmed.

Through all those years of taking time out to learn how to take it moment by moment and train yourself to have the courage to heal and learn how you cannot change your past and to work on understanding and accepting YOU. You have finally gained and you have finally realized that bad things do happen and you cannot control the bad things. All you can really do is handle it the best way you can and finally stop letting the past add to every new bad experience you are presented with today.

You have now gained by your true understanding that you cannot control life, you can only control how you react to it. That takes a lot of time, but you are proof, it can work. The brain is an amazing and can heal, if you put your mind to it.

Open Eyes

[silverbells]

Open Eyes:

this is one of the most fundamental pieces of acknowledgment I've ever received. You are so absolutely right - EVERY word. Thank you so much. i can't tell you how it feels to know you get this, and that you said "Yes" to my question!

Congratulations, silverbells.