Healing is not Linear

Healing, recovery, wellness, “normal” - whatever you want to call it, anyone who has ever struggled with overwhelming emotions desires nothing more than to feel well. It is quite often what motivates us to reach out.

This process, at times, is straightforward. “Simply” reaching out and asking for help may well be enough to lift our mood and give us a boost. In turn, this allows us to breathe a sigh of relief – we’ve done it, we’re on the road to recovery. This is what we have learnt to expect – a linear path from A to B.

More often than not, however, the road to recovery is messy, full of twists and turns, ups and downs and at times, roadblocks.

In reality, this could mean that we might have a good morning, a few good days or even a good week, followed by a difficult afternoon, day or even year.

As we begin to break down the layers of our own experience, it is completely normal for one symptom to ease and another to bubble up to the surface.

This desire for wellness can quite often coincide with fear; fear of change, of moving away from symptoms that although at times have felt crippling, have also felt familiar, almost safe.

It is important therefore; that during recovery we focus on what is helping and what is getting in the way. Suppressing that urge to judge our recovery at every bump in the road.