Dear Trauma: If I could write a letter to my PTSD or Trauma, I would say... [fill in the blank]

It's only fair that I start, so let's give this a try...

Dear Trauma / PTSD,

Hello. It's been a while. I'm still here. I see you're still here too. I wish you weren't. You complicate things for me. You take and give nothing back. You gang up on me with my depression and my anxiety. I don't know if you're having fun, but I'm certainly not enjoying this. You're not allowed to hurt me. As soon as I think I have a handle on myself, you remind me that you're there. You make it hard for me to think clearly. Sometimes you make it hard for me to breathe. It's not okay. I hope one day you go back to the past where you belong. I suppose it's not your fault that I have you, but I wish you would leave me alone all the same...

See you later,

- Me.

@wontsleepwontwake

Gosh, that was profound.You nailed that. I could not have expressed it better. Thank you.

Keep going This is a good thread

@scarletPear1945 - thank you so much for your support <3 it was a bit strange but a bit helpful too

@wontsleepwontwake

Keep it going a good job

@wontwakewontsleep

Wow that was definitely right on the dot!

You nailed it! Well done!

Hello PTSD. When they first told me I had PTSD I felt like they were just pointing out all of the things that seemed to be spinning out of control. You represented panic attacks and inconvenient 20 drives out of my way to avoid driving down a certain street. Your title felt like a stamp on my forhead saying, 'unstable', 'hysterical'.... I cant say that I appreciated any of your attributes. But today I am feeling like knowing you were there may have been the start of me seeing the actions of evil people and what they caused in me. I started to see that I am normal. I have resonded normally to very abnormal experiences. Yes I feel broken and fragile but you have shown me that it isnt my fault. My brain did what it was supposed to do to protect me. You did what you were supposed to do to protect me. Thank you for showing me the beauty in my own resiliency. Thank you for helping me to survive and to heal.

@copingwithtrauma

You are so strong! You wrote a beautiful letter and I am so glad you are on the path of healing I believe in you and your courage! :)

@TheHoneyDoll

Wow! Thanks for the encouraging words! <3

Finding beauty and peace in a traumatic situation has been extremely hard. Making sense of all the madness has been a daily chore.

I hope to see more of these letters :)

I would say something that I

Hey there trauma, it's me again I do wish you'd quiet down, I never asked you to be there in the first place and frankly I don't think I deserve you. You've spent your time shouting me down, telling me nobody wants me, that I'm an aweful daughter, sister, partner, friend.. that I'm just bad, and I'm stupid for ever thinking otherwise

You get in the way of everything, every little bit, give it a rest already please, I'm tired.

I'm willing to work with you but you've gotta give me something ..

You used to be quieter

Dear trauma ,

I am grateful for you because it has made me who i m today

I get it. Things were really bad, what I felt and when I feel you only makes sense. I wish I could move on but also know that I am not in a space to move on yet. I do respect you, even though I probably neglected myself for far too long, and everything I am feeling is just letting me know that. I wish I would feel better, but I know that it only makes sense you are there. I hope we can figure this out together eventually with the support of someone if necessary.

@KittyKeats

I really like this perspective. It's okay to not feel ready to move on. I think it's cool that you'e willing to work with the trauma, and not deny it, push it way, pretend it didn't happen. In my experience that's how a lot of healing happens. Hope you've been able to find the support to work through anything that you've been ready to tackle. You deserve to feel better.

@wontwakewontsleep

Dear PTSD,

I am very glad we haven't seen each other for almost a year now. I thought you would never leave. But you did. And I am very thankful for that.

I know now that I am a very strong and lovable person who didn't deserve any of this.

Lots of love

Marlee

@LovelyMarlee

Love this! Hope that you are still feeling these words!

You absolutely did not deserve whatever trauma you experienced, and I love that you acknowledge that!

Posting my own to give this thread some attention because I think it could be a really beneficial and powerful exercise:

Dear Trauma,

It's me, the one who's life you tore to shreds. The one who's been forced to rebuild her life a dozen times because you just keep showing up, uninvited. You've tried to destroy me, you've tried to tear me down, you've tried to keep me from living my life. While at times you've left me feeling defeated and you have almost won. This letter is to say that I'm taking my power back. I may still struggle with the flashbacks and the panic attacks, and the unjustified fears, for now, but I will heal, I will learn to trust, I will learn to feel safe and I will learn to thrive. I'm breaking the curse you've held on my family for years. You can not win this battle for I am stronger and more powerful than you realize. I have overcome more than many could ever imagine experiencing. I have moved mountains to create the life that I have now. While I still fear losing the progress, the fear doesn't paralyze me anymore. It motivates me to keep moving forward, to keep pushing on. Not only will I conquer you, I will be a light, a voice for others who you have tortured. Trauma, I'm not grateful for you. People like to say that my trauma made me stronger, but you did not, you gave me no choice but to be strong or die. I chose strength, I will always choose strength. I will always be a resilient warrior you will never defeat.

Consider this a break up letter, you are not welcome in my life anymore. It is time for me to heal and for you to leave, you are not my friend.

Dear Trauma,

I know you’re here, and I know you’ll likely always be a part of me. But I know this too, that I will always fight you trying to define me. You’ve done so for many years, unconsciously and consciously. For half my life, you’ve tried to break me. But no more. Despite the nightmares and flashbacks and the way you warp my thoughts, these things are becoming less frequent. I may not ever be completely free from you or my past, but I can keep moving forward with my life and keep healing. Even if you win the battle some days, I swear that I will win the war and come out more victorious than ever.

@willowsoul323

Love this! You are so strong to continue to fight the daily battles. I am cheering for you in this war and know that you'll be victorious in the end! You are amazing!

@wontwakewontsleep

Dear Trauma,

I am tired of you. I am endlessly exhausted by your presence.

My heart cries out and begs for me to do something. I am stuck in a place I cannot escape from, my childhood bedroom. Seeing every breakdown and calamity that occurred in the mirrored image of my own eyes. There is a saying you know, “If you grow up with an angry man in your house than there will always be an angry man in your house.”

But Its just not true. I mean yes, I will always live with the you- dancing in the light of the stove in the early mornings before I pack up to head to work. But I will not always live with my Father. I lived without him for a year, and I was the healthiest i’ve ever been. I was doing successful in school, involved in clubs, i had friends and a church I volunteered with. And the added advantage that when I got back only ONE scary thing was waiting for me.

I live with him and I fear that there is no world in which I can begin recovering. Overcoming you, overcoming my past and the things I’ve seen is impossible if the wound is still fresh. It is impossible to heal a wound if it never scabs over. I am so tired of being like this.

But rent is 2500$ around here and I can’t get an apartment.

I am trapped in the same bedroom, and the walls still remain the same.

You see me. Pacing my floor. Listening to the argument occurring outside of my room. Waiting for the gasoline to explode. We know it will, but never when.

So trauma, I’m sorry your on the back burner- i understand youre scary but there is something more terrifying hunting me.

I cannot wait to get out.

I need to get out.

So at least maybe someday I have a chance of being able to recover in any meaningful way.

@LonelyMarki

Thank you for sharing. I can relate to so much of what you shared. Every time I have gotten out of my parents' home I started doing well and made strides in healing, but I have had to return to their home multiple times to live and each time I took some steps back and it was so hard.

Rent everywhere is getting outrageous so I understand. In 2021 I moved 2 states away from my family by applying for and getting accepted into a transitional housing/group home program for mental health. I lived there for a few months and now I have been in my own apartment on my own for over a year and I'm doing better than I ever have before.

It is hard to heal surrounded by the environment where you were wounded, but escaping, getting away isn't impossible. You did it once, you can do it again, it just might take some creativity and thinking outside the box of possibilities.

Sending you positive thoughts that you're able to find some peace, get away from the environment that is keeping you stuck, and that you can eventually find some healing.