162: because you can’t demonize your trauma

I mean, you can. You’re a goddam adult who does whatever they goddam want.

But please, don’t demonize your trauma.

Don’t hate it.
Don’t wish it away.
Don’t bury it.
Don’t deny it.

Don’t misunderstand:
Don’t celebrate it, either.

Because, fuck trauma.

I am sorry for whatever trauma you’ve had to go through. Sorry that life took that choice from you. Sorry that now you have to carry a burden you don’t deserve.

Because you don’t deserve trauma.

But that trauma happened, and it happened to you. And if you shut it out or close it off, that part of you shuts off, too. And that part of you is just as important as the rest. Deserves just as much love as the rest. Is just as beautiful as the rest.

If you demonize your trauma, you demonize yourself, too:

Never say the words ‘this is not my life’
Say ‘This is my life
This is my precious life
This is how badly I want to live’

Andrea Gibson, “An Insider’s Guide on How to be Sick“