I feel like so much of trauma recovery for adults who’ve been traumatized is “you are not the only one who feels this way, this is normal.”
But for adults who were traumatized as children, there is an important experience of learning that it is in fact, not normal. It’s good to not feel alone, to find people who get it and to not feel crazy, but the process of going through who you are and picking out the things you had accepted as normal that are definitely not is so important.
I’ll never forget the moment that I realized people have happy dreams, like frequently. Or the day I realized that most people sleep through the night like almost all of the time. Those were really sad moments, but they were really important too, because they made me understand that I am not crazy. Something bad happened, and it changed me.
It’s okay to be different, it’s okay if the trauma changed you, but if you are running a race with a broken legand beating yourself up because you aren’t as fast are the other runners something needs to change. Realizing you are different is the first step to figuring out how to heal