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7 votes
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The effect of therapeutic doses of culinary spices in metabolic syndrome
15 votes -
Hi, how are you? Mental health support and discussion thread (June 2024)
This is a monthly thread for those who need it. Vent, share your experiences, ask for advice, talk about how you are doing. Let's make this a compassionate space for all who may need one.
33 votes -
Despite Republican opposition, citizen-led abortion measures could be on the ballot in nine US states
41 votes -
Why fish oil supplements can be dangerous for the heart
16 votes -
Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started...
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
6 votes -
The opaque industry secretly inflating prices for prescription drugs (gifted link)
18 votes -
Pioneering studies show promise in sequencing a baby’s genome at birth
16 votes -
Reuters investigation: Pentagon ran secret anti-vax campaign to undermine China during pandemic
110 votes -
The US surgeon general wants tobacco-like warning labels on social media
28 votes -
What have you done to conquer your fear?
I've been in therapy for ten years. Recently, I hit a local minimum. I saw where the rest of the curve would take me, if I did not change somehow. It would end me early—maybe even in a few years...
I've been in therapy for ten years.
Recently, I hit a local minimum. I saw where the rest of the curve would take me, if I did not change somehow. It would end me early—maybe even in a few years or less.
And I saw what was holding me back.
I've had emotional scars accumulated from an early age. That kind of trauma seems to have a way of becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy; my life has been replete with repeated traumas. I've been reliving those root traumas over and over again, in my own mind, overlaid atop later events that only found correlation due to triggering those old wounded emotions.
I understand this to be called "CPTSD" in more civilized parts of the world than where I live: the United States. (As far as I know, the DSM-V does not acknowledge CPTSD.) I digress.
In therapy, I had identified two deeply wounded "parts" of myself: one represented by an ostracized seventeen year old Exile who attempted in all but direct intent to end himself and the other an emotionally abused and rage-filled ten year old Inner Child.
Recently, I healed the seventeen year old part. I saw how it was hurting me. Its expectation, its fear, of exile fueled nearly half of my life. My therapist and I pushed on it. What was preventing me from changing?
It was the fear of what I would become without it. Would I lose my wife? Would I lose my identity? Would I lose everything?
But it was this or my life. So, in that moment, I made a choice.
Instead what happened was something unexpected. The Exile flourished. It was as though my teen and 20 something years had been rewritten: a Back to the Future moment. It was no longer The Exile. It was transformed into something else entirely. It became strong and confident. Tapping into that part, by choice, I now seem to be able face most situations that would once cause near panic with, instead, determination. I persevere. I even seem, at times, to flourish.
However, the rage-filled Child remains. He is more activistic. He still has the sense that he will be punished for some perceived wrong. When provoked, he doesn't feel anxiety from these imagined tortures, he feels rage.
In my meditations, now, I attempt to integrate with this newfound strength to then reach out to and show more compassion to the Child—to salve his fear and show him that we, together, as a being, are now strong. I am hopeful.
In these ways, I am remade.
I still recognize old pieces. And, yet, there is so much new, so much yet undiscovered, that I confound myself with what is now easy and what remains difficult (but difficult in new ways). I am increasingly kinder to myself, allowing more connection with others, particularly those I would once consider incompatible, and perhaps even beginning to become physically healthier.
I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Or, perhaps, I am only now stepping into that light, after decades.
How have you become more than your past traumas? How have you transformed for the better? How did you accomplish it?
EDIT: I shared this in the hope that it inspires. There can be healing, though it can take years and much effort. I would love to hear your stories of hope!
EDIT2: Feeling self-conscious, this all was decidedly not a humble brag. I never imagined that this sort of abrupt transformation was possible. However, it was a culmination of literally a decade of therapeutic intervention and hard work.
31 votes -
US policy ideas for lifesaving technologies
5 votes -
Fitness Weekly Discussion
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started...
What have you been doing lately for your own fitness? Try out any new programs or exercises? Have any questions for others about your training? Want to vent about poor behavior in the gym? Started a new diet or have a new recipe you want to share? Anything else health and wellness related?
1 vote -
Rapid UTI test that cuts detection time to forty-five minutes awarded Longitude prize – could herald sea change in antibiotic use by identifying correct treatments
26 votes -
mRNA melanoma vaccine halves the risk of death and recurrence
16 votes -
Buoyed by regulatory vacuums, Silicon Valley is building a booming online wellness market that aims to leave the doctor’s office behind
17 votes -
Recent French research indicates that certain food emulsifiers may increase the risk of type 2 diabetes
18 votes -
Need exercises/workouts I can do while injured
So I've been dealing with a sprained ankle for the third summer in a row. This time, however, I have been told I cannot bear any weight on my foot. I need some help with exercises I can do. I...
So I've been dealing with a sprained ankle for the third summer in a row. This time, however, I have been told I cannot bear any weight on my foot. I need some help with exercises I can do. I spent the second half of April and all of May doing nothing (but my PT exercises) and am tired of it. I went into the pool yesterday to "swim" but the kicking action of swimming was too painful, so I spent 45 minutes just floating in the pool until my friends and I were tired of being in the pool.
For more context: I'm hypermobile and injure really easily, but am also overweight. I used to be a professional folk dancer, and still have a ton of muscle/strength from that, even though it's been 13 years since I last performed professionally.
walking, swimming, dancing, and hula hooping have been my past workouts that I've loved doing, but for obvious reasons, I can't do any of them right now. So any advice is greatly appreciated!
8 votes -
Scientists pinpoint driver of IBD and other disorders; work under way to adapt existing drugs
14 votes