Real Heroism

Although we don’t have the language for it,

many of us sense traumatic injury at the soul level.

Each of us must take the responsibility for healing our own traumatic injuries and our soul.

We must do this for ourselves,

for our families,

and for society at large.

In acknowledging our need for connection with one another,

we must enlist the support of our communities in this recovery process.

Most modern cultures,

including ours in the United States,

fall victim to the prevailing attitude that strength means endurance;

that it is somehow heroic to be able to carry on regardless of the severity of our symptoms.

A majority of us accept this social custom without question.

Using the power of the neocortex,

our ability to rationalize,

it is possible to give the impression that one has come through a severely threatening event,

even a war,

with ‘nary a scratch’;

and that’s exactly what many of us do.

We carry on with a ‘stiff upper lip’,

much to the admiration of others-

heroes,

as if nothing had happened at all.

REAL HEROISM comes from having the courage to openly acknowledge our experiences,

not from suppressing or denying them.

In post-traumatic anxiety,

immobility is maintained primarily from within.

The impulse towards intense aggression is so frightening that we often turn it inward on ourselves rather than allow it external expression.

This imploded anger takes the form of anxious depression and the varied symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

Like the pigeon that tries frantically to escape,

but is recaptured and held prisoner once more,

when we begin to exit immobility we are often trapped by our own fear of abrupt activation and our potential for violence.

We remain in a vicious cycle of terror,

rage,

and immobility.

We are primed for full out escape or raging counter-attack,

but remain inhibited because of fear of violence to ourselves and others.

#PTSD