Your Survivor Story: From Trauma To Transformation

As I lie restless in a cold room, I can smell a strong sweet and sour nauseous scent. There are noisy electrical machines attached to my body, a long tube jammed down my throat, and fluids are being transfused into the veins of both of my arms. I wonder,
“Where am I and what are they trying to do to me?”
As they restrain me by tying my arms to the bars on the bed, my heart starts racing and pressure builds inside my head. I struggle to free myself from these shackles because they’re trying to kill me. People keep coming into the room to pry open my eyes. As they leave the room, I immediately recognize a familiar person standing at the foot of the bed.
“Mommy, what happened?”
“You were in an airplane crash.”
“Oh. Are the others ok?”
Mommy lowers her eyes, purses her lips, and slowly shakes her head from side to side. I look at her for an answer but she doesn’t look up at me.
“Somebody must have died, but whom? And, why did I live?”

If you’ve survived a traumatic experience, you may never be the same. I’ve noticed that some survivors of traumatic events become emotionally wounded and their intense feelings linger on for a long time. Although I was experiencing the airplane crash trauma again and again in my imagination, I didn’t want to be emotionally trapped forever. So I reached out to my family and friends to find some support in my effort to adjust to this big shift in my life and to get on the road to recovery.

Due to my natural born stubborn streak, I wanted to go beyond the point of just simply surviving and recovering. I wanted all of the events in my traumatic experience to really mean something. You just don’t go through this kind of emotional turbulence for no reason. I worked diligently on self improvement to change my thinking and to change my belief system. I worked toward my goal of becoming a better version of myself. It’s been hard work but I was determined to be that person that I’ve always wanted to be. I’ve survived this deadly airplane crash accident and I had another chance at life.

I had to figure out how to incorporate my experience of trauma into my own identity. Through long and hard self study, I made my airplane crash experience a defining part of my life with purpose and meaning. With this new focus and direction, I started writing articles about my experience of survival and talking about it on radio and television interviews. I wanted my survival experience to be of help to others who are suffering from trauma.

I was able to transform myself and my life from this very intense and difficult airplane crash experience to a new life existence where I could be of help to others in their own trauma recovery.

Unrestrained Emotions:
If you’ve ever survived a traumatic experience, you might have attempted to suppress your memories and feelings of that intense mental, emotional, or physical anguish. Some people have come to a realization that their attempt at trying to control those kind of emotions don’t work. Some survivors suppress what is happening to them. They become secretive and they don’t tell anyone. For years, they may be suffering with repeated flashbacks of their trauma. They may try to make people think that they are being “normal” in their daily lives. If others make particular statements or insensitive comments about an intense mental, emotional, or physical disturbance, a trauma survivor might become easily upset by these people’s comments and opinions. These survivors may say to themselves, “Why is this happening to me? As they suffer with their emotional pain, they may feel very lonely and they may isolate themselves from people who, they feel, do not understand. They could even limit their own contact with current close friends and, consequently, not form any new friendships. In their loneliness, they could try to suppress their feelings and memories by numbing their emotional pain with drugs and alcohol.

Some survivors may build up the courage to talk about their traumatic experience with a mental health professional or with other trauma survivors in a support group. When they uncork their suppressed traumatic memories, they may try to record their thoughts and feelings in a personal journal. But they may possibly still experience the trauma in their imaginations. They could be reliving their traumatic experiences through flashbacks and nightmares. They could sometimes unexpectedly feel trapped in this feeling of trauma while just simply watching a movie, while shopping at the store, or almost anywhere they go. They rarely go out of the house because of the unfortunate chance that something may trigger a flashback episode. They probably wish they had never started waking up these memories by journaling their own thoughts and feelings.

Taking Control Of Your Spirit:
Trauma survivors may re-experience their trauma again and again in their imaginations. They might only talk about it with people who pay attention to what they’re saying and feeling. They may find, later on, that they are fine with telling a shorter version of their story without being so emotionally charged. They can have more moments of feeling relief, more times of getting more sleep, and more moments of feeling better.

These trauma survivors can now face their fears. They can confront their difficult challenges. These brave survivors can also come to terms with their own inaccurate beliefs and assumptions. The Best Of The Survivors are bold and defiant in their aim to build self-esteem and personal power. They experience a sudden advance in knowledge and understanding of themselves and others. They quit using their old lines, schemes, and ways of manipulating people. These successful survivors are pleased and delighted about what they’ve learned about themselves and what they’ve accomplished.

Stand Tall And Prominently Validate Your New Identity:
From now on, you have control over the harrowing trauma that you suffered. It ceases to take control over your life. You can block these internal thoughts of that bad experience any time you want. Little by little you acquire the ability to decide whether or not you want to talk about your traumatic experience; even when someone asks. You can choose to give them a short version of your story and then change the subject. With a very unique person, who is genuinely interested, you may feel comfortable talking to them about your experience in detail. This rare person is a good listener and will take time with you.

Your self-confidence is greater than it was before your traumatic experience. Your judgment, insight, and understanding is better. You are accessible to the survivors who are in the beginning stages of dealing with similar traumatic experiences. You speak with a variety of people and relate to them your process of transformation. You spread your valuable messages to a wider audience about the important lessons you’ve learned in The School Of Life. You speak to gatherings of people about the lessons you’ve learned. You write articles and books to reach more people. You treasure and value knowing that you are truly free of the trauma.

Your transformational process of recovery from deeply traumatic experiences has compelled you to position yourself as a helpful resource for other survivors of tragedy, mishap, and misfortune.