Today I watched on national TV a woman receive a new car for her heroic efforts during the terrible flooding in North Carolina storms. You would have expected it to be a joyous moment but her face went white. Of course she was happy, surprised, grateful. BUT...... When they asked her about this moment she said "Thank you, what I did seems so far in the past and I thought I had forgotten it all but in this moment the reality of the hardship, trauma, fear just came rushing back."
I can identify with her sudden reliving of past traumas that were buried because I/we had to survive. We think we have forgotten but we never do. Something as simple and should be a wonderful event of receiving a gift or award opens our flood gates of the past.
We are the only ones that really understand the seriousness, the heaviness of what we went thru. How deeply we were affected on a physical level, and emotional level. Certain events in our lives change us forever, even if we think we have "forgotten" them.
For me what came rushing back was the seriousness of my physical condition(s) and I was going thru it alone and trying to maintain a positive attitude. Trying to maintain composure because I was a doctor and had clients that I needed to show up for to help. But, underneath it all like the woman from NC, I was going thru much trauma myself.
Maybe having to serve others helped us get thru. Having a bigger cause than ourselves to focus on.