Living hurts.
And it doesn’t hurt once.
It hurts multiple times. Over and over again.
Some injuries form little unremarkable scabs which serve as little reminders of what we’ve survived. Others however form excavations in the deepest parts of our beings that each time we look into them, we bleed yet again.
Wound care in surgery is complex depending on the extent of the injury. No one would just leave a 3rd degree burn and tell a person to merely put pressure on the plaster and get on with their lives. We wouldn’t criticize their tissue for not repairing itself to the point where it looks like brand new. Instead we’d give it a hand. One dressing at a time.
So why do we do that with our own emotional wounds? Why do we downplay our deepest internal injuries despite struggling with the pain they come with daily? Why do we patch up the bleeding with layers of bandages and get upset when the blood still seeps through? Why do we have to wait for them to get excessively septic before we even remotely attend to them?
Truth is, emotional wounds are just as significant and need just as much care. Neglecting them doesn’t make them miraculously disappear, instead it only makes them grow and metamorphosize into sepsis presenting itself as substance abuse, depression, anxiety, the list is endless. Maybe it’s time we stopped sidelining all we’ve been through and actually start getting to know the areas of ourselves that bled once or are still bleeding now. May we need to stop being so afraid of looking at them in the eye and acknowledging them for what they are. Maybe we need to learn to recognize the smell of a septic emotional wound and instead of judging, we seek treatment for it. With this we’ll realize that these areas need just as much wound care as any other wounded area in our bodies.
To better wound care for our minds.
With love
Dr Faith
Doctors Quarters 