Post Traumatic Growth

I just want to give a space for people to share their success stories for other people who may be struggling in here right now. Answer the question as to why we keep pushing forward with healing when it's so long and painful.

Also I want to take the space to celebrate my own journey. I would say that since the age of 33 I really dedicated myself to healing my trauma. Like, going to treatments and integrating lessons in my life was the number one priority. I was struggling hard, feeling like I was drowning in anxiety and I just prayed for a day where I could feel ok doing nothing instead of feeling haunted.

I recently turned 39 and life is good. I quit my job that paid well but I was unhappy with. I plan to study and start my own business soon which I am very excited about. I just had my family come to visit me for the first time since I moved to Germany. It was a 5 day trip and 4 of the days were pleasant which I could never have imagined even last year. My first lesbian girlfriend every met my family for the first time and that went better than I could dream of. My girlfriend really cares about me and supports me with my plan for unemployment / studying and then to start my own business. My weight is stable where it should be because I'm no longer anxiety binge eating.

I had a session with my therapist today, the first one in a month. I caught her up with everything and she said that "this sounds like post traumatic growth. You haven't had any dissociation for a while now and this is what happens." I realised that yeah, I haven't had a really down day for over two months. I'm just shocked to see what I can do when I am not battling my inner demons. Life isn't perfect, my dog is currently ill and I'm scared about navigating German bureaucracy to get my unemployment insurance money but I know it'll be ok. I've been though lots more difficult things. It wasn't ther long ago where I wondered if I was dead inside or just getting older... I found it difficult to be excited about anything. Now I'm so excited about my own life and building a business.

I don't mean to brag but I am proud of myself and hope that other people can benefit in some way from my story.