The level of arrogant ignorance of many areas in our current society is staggering. The two common themes I see in this is a simplistic, almost punitive approach (think our war on drugs) toward "solutions" and a lack of compassion toward suffering, the most common of human conditions. I find our collective psychic numbing to suffering as understandable as repugnant. The largest form of terrorism in the world is child abuse and good research on the long term economic costs of this might be one way pragmatic compassion can break through the icy numbing. Felitti's decades-long work on ACEs is exactly that data we need. Our work is to form networks and get this information out in as many venues as possible.
When I teach trauma education to the psychiatry residents at our Department, I always include a short piece I wrote for Milspeak, and artistic communication blog for the military and their families.
The Wound
Gene Tinelli
Sometimes, we do best when we learn from the millions of years of adaptation of our bodies. When we have physical wounds, we have an open port to the world that can be contaminated and is often painful. Our initial response is to cover or bandage it, thus protecting the wound from further harm. If someone or something attempts to touch the wound, we push or pull away and withdraw. Over time our wounds weep and leak and represent a chronic source of potential infection. We become sensitive to anything near the wound and avoid even the remote chance that it will be identified and further traumatized. Sometimes the wound becomes a source of chronic awareness from which we cannot escape. Sometimes the bandage becomes so much a part of us that we think it is normal, our identity.
We start to heal when we gently remove the bandage and clean the foreign bodies from the area. Removing old crusty bandages too quickly can further damage the area. Often, the bandages are first soaked in a warm, neutral liquid so that they can be removed relatively gently. Cleaning a wound can involve some discomfort but our bodies tend to attenuate some of the pain. Our wound then slowly heals.
Healing is natural process of a healthy body and encompasses two general principles. Time heals clean wounds and wounds heal from the inside out. These processes are the same whether our injuries are physical wounds to our skin or wounds to our souls.
Soul wounds are acquired in simply passing through life's journey. They can also be acquired via the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. The traumas range from child abuse and neglect though loss of loved ones to war, which encompasses all known human traumas. Soul wounds are very similar to wounds on the surface of our body. They weep and allow our essence to seep away, giving us the sense emptiness and never being whole. To avoid feeling the pain of emptiness, we apply soul bandages to the wound. These bandages can take many forms. We can attack others or ourselves, thus protecting the wound by temporarily displacing the pain. We can withdraw from human contact, protecting our souls from human touch and intimacy. Or we can avoid the pain and emptiness by substituting psychoactive substances and/or behaviors that dull the pain or numb the emptiness. Drugs, sex, gambling are only part of the cornucopia of potential human avoidant responses.
In intimate human interactions, it is the sticky skin covering our souls that touches, adheres, and transfers our affects and emotions to others. Open wounds prevent this bonding, as touch in these cases can be painful, and we withdraw from human contact. But our souls, like our skin, heal via the same processes as the rest of our bodies. Our tears wash our soul wounds clean and time heals clean wounds. Soaking the old crusty soul bandages requires love and compassion. Cleaning the wound requires courage. Soul wounds, like skin wounds, heal from the inside out, which is why this whole process is ultimately spiritual.
Like our skin, our soul wounds heal to scars, tissue that holds normal skin together. We're different, marked for life. Yet, our souls stop leaking and can fill with basic human joy. They grow and can bond with other souls. When we bond and feel the scar on another soul, we know their healed soul is a testament to basic human courage and resilience.
Healing is the source of our strength.