It Never Completely Goes Away: You Just Get Better at Handling It

One of the biggest misconceptions about healing from trauma is the belief that the symptoms will eventually disappear.
We think the anxiety, fear, shame, guilt, overwhelm, and self-doubt will one day be gone forever.

They won’t.
And that’s not a sign of failure, it’s simply how healing works.

Even now, after five years of intentionally working on myself, I still have days where I feel overwhelmed and anxious.
Just this morning, I felt that familiar rush: my mind spiraling from stress → to catastrophizing → to imagining everything going wrong → to worrying about losing my job.

This used to be my automatic pattern, and honestly, it still tries to pull me back there.
The difference now is that I have tools:

• Self-talk

• Breathing

• Grounding

• Evidence from my past successes

These tools help me interrupt the spiral and bring myself back to center.

Healing Doesn’t Erase Symptoms — It Strengthens Skills

Whether you’ve been through trauma or not, life will always involve growth, stress, and struggle.
Trauma adds another layer, of course, but the principle remains:

The symptoms don’t vanish.
You get better at managing them.

The goal isn’t perfection, it’s improvement.
Just a little better each day.

The Perfect Storm Moments

When I get overwhelmed, it feels like everything stacks up at once.
I’m trying to calm myself down, and suddenly someone asks me a question or something unexpected happens, and irritation flares up fast.

This is still one of my biggest struggles:
Staying regulated when I’m overwhelmed and interrupted.
I have to be very intentional with my attitude and thoughts in those moments because my mind wants to go straight to negativity and victim mode.
There’s still a part of me that wants to say “fuck it” and shut down.

But now, I don’t give in to that voice.
I fight it.
And that’s the difference between who I am now and who I used to be.

You’re Not Alone in This

I’m writing this while journaling, because journaling helps me process the negative emotions instead of suppressing them.

I’m also sharing it because someone needs to hear this today:

You’re not alone.
You’re not broken.
You’re not the only one who feels hopeless, overwhelmed, or “sick of this shit.”

We all go through it, every single one of us.
Trauma makes it harder, yes, but these feelings are part of being human.

Manage Your Expectations

One of the most important parts of healing is realistic expectations.

We often expect ourselves to never mess up, never fall back, and never have bad days.
This is a cognitive distortion called all-or-nothing thinking, and it sets us up to fail.

I lived in that mindset for years.

We are not the exception.
We are human.

We’re going to have bad days.
The question is:

What did I learn from it?
What can I carry into tomorrow?
How can I come back from this?

Bad days do not predict your future.
They are simply part of the journey.

Healing Is a Rocky Movie

I’m a huge fan of the Rocky movies (my sister might even be a bigger fan than me).
Rocky’s life is full of highs and lows, setbacks and victories, and no matter what happens, he keeps getting back up.

That’s what healing looks like.

• Fall down

• Learn

• Get back up

• Try again

• Improve

• Repeat

You keep fighting.
Not perfectly, but consistently.

The Bottom Line

You’re not failing because the symptoms show up again.
You’re not weak because you feel overwhelmed.
You’re not broken because you still struggle.

The real measure of healing is that you keep fighting.

And if you’re reading this, you are.
You haven’t given up.
You’re still here.

And that means you’re already stronger than you think.

Stay positive and take action!

Thank you for your support!

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