Hello Community,
There are some experiences that happen once but somehow stay with you for a very long time, even when life moves on, a small reminder can bring back memories you thought you had already forgotten.
I would not say that I have gone through clinical PTSD, but I have had experiences that affected me mentally, and one that comes to mind is a road accident I witnessed a years ago, I was not involved, I was close enough to see everything, It was one of those moments where everything seems normal one second and then completely changes the next, The sound, the panic, the crowd gathering and the confusion all stayed in my mind.
At first I thought I was fine and I went home that day, I continued with life as usual, then I noticed something strange, anytime I was in a vehicle and the driver suddenly applied the brakes hard, my heart would start racing, Even when there was no danger I would feel uneasy, whenever I heard tires screech on the road my mind would go back to that day,I realized that some experiences leave marks that're not physical.
People often expect healing to happen quickly, they think that because an event is over, the mind should move on, It doesn't always work like that, sometimes your body and mind are still trying to process what happened long after the event has ended.
For a while I became more anxious when I travelled, I paid attention to how people drove and found myself constantly watching the road, it wasn't something I planned to do, but what helped me eventually was time, talking about it.
I found that keeping everything inside didn't really help, the more I discussed the experience with friends and family, the less power it seemed to have over me, hearing other people's perspectives also helped me realize that my reaction was normal, Another thing that helped was simply continuing to live life instead of allowing fear to control me,If I had completely avoided travelling because of that experience, I think the fear would have become even stronger. Instead, I gradually became comfortable again by facing those situations repeatedly and reminding myself that not every journey would end the way that incident did, I also learned something important from that experience.
People carry invisible battles that we know nothing about.
Sometimes someone reacts strongly to a situation, and we assume they are overreacting, meanwhile, we don't know what memories or experiences that situation may have triggered for them, that realization made me a little more patient and understanding toward others, looking back now, the memory is still there, but it no longer controls how I feel, I can think about it without the anxiety that came with it before.
I think healing is rarely about forgetting. Most of the time, it is about learning how to live with a memory without letting it dominate your present, and honestly, that lesson alone is something I will probably carry with me for the rest of my life.