[MotownJohnny]

I'm really coming to a new realization about something - the "cure" I have sought for 2 years may not exist in the way I have been looking at it.

I kept thinking that there must be some "big thing", a big revelation, a big breakthrough, that will "end it" for me, like I'll have this big moment in therapy or whatever, and suddenly say, "oh, yeah, that's it, that make sense" and walk away feeling a million times better.

I don't think that is how it works.

The Chinese used to have an execution method that was really barbaric, and they saved it for the people who they thought deserved the most suffering, traitors, mass murderers, etc. "Death by a Thousand Cuts". Instead of killing the condemned outright, they killed them slowly, in stages, by a lot of small wounds all over the body. It usually took 3 days for the condemned to die, slowly, of blood loss, shock, and infection setting in.

PTSD is like that. I think any mental illness is pretty much like that. Slowly, by degrees, it can drain the life out of you.

I also think now that there isn't a "Eureka, that's it, I'm cured" moment.

I think it's the opposite of death by a thousand cuts, it's cure by a thousand little bandages, healing each little wound, one at a time.

I think it takes a lot of little things - physical and mental, kind of like "working the program" - watch your diet, exercise, sleep, medications, social life, work life, strive for balance, take good care of yourself, keep working on positive affirmations and beliefs, etc.

Does anyone else feel that such an approach is more of an "answer" than some dramatic "cure" or "treatment"?

[Open Eyes]

Yes, what it really is about is "healing" all the cuts that one had experienced that "hurt" them. Understand all these things that hurt you and finally working through them all emotionally, along with finally getting enough input to process whatever is there.

[A Red Panda]

That's a great post Motown. There really isn't any miracle cure, no matter how much people might wish there was one.

It's the whole "one step at a time" thing.

[JaneC]

Originally Posted by MotownJohnny

Does anyone else feel that such an approach is more of an "answer" than some dramatic "cure" or "treatment"?

YEs. I've always known there was no magic door to step through, no magic pill. It doesn't stop me asking my therapist for it every so often though! We laugh heartily at that.....then my therapist gets his serious face on and says......but Jane if there were one I would want to give it to you.