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Trauma in the Church

Trauma in the Church 800 800 Paula

Before I share my heart with you on this topic I would like you to know I am not a doctor, psychologist or therapist. What I am is a person who suffered a long time with anxiety, depression, an eating disorder and many other self-harming behaviors. After I gave my life to Christ I still suffered from these things even though I didn’t want to. I heard many sermons that promised me I could be free, that Jesus came to set the captives free, you are a new creation in Christ Jesus. I’ve been to many services where you were invited to leave everything at the altar that was holding you down. I have been prayed over many times and I begged God to help me. But why was I ‘stuck’ when I so badly wanted to be free. The reason I write this blog today is to help the church understand trauma and mental illness from the perspective of someone who suffered a long time until God showed me the hidden wounds in my heart that needed to be healed, or you could even call this hidden trauma from my childhood that was stored in my brain.

What is trauma? The definition to trauma can be fairly broad. Trauma can be a response to a one-time or numerous traumatic events like crime, death of a loved one, child abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, combat, natural disaster, domestic violence, or a loved one being incarcerated. The list can go on and on… One thing that we need to know is that it is not up to us to determine whether or not the event was traumatic in the other person’s life. That is up to them to decide. We all handle traumatic events in different ways. Some of us may repress the memory for many years because it is too painful at the time to deal with. We develop mental illness symptoms that vary from depression, anxiety, PTSD, schizophrenia, or bipolar. For a lot of people they will start using a substance such as alcohol, drugs, or food to numb out the pain of what happened to them or there are many people that act out, especially children because they can’t express how their body is feeling. They struggle with bursts of anger, depression or anxiety.

My story was I grew up in abuse, neglect and was surrounded by addiction from the time I was born. As a child I had no idea that my needs were not being met when my father was in prison and my mother was absent because she struggled with her own addiction. I ended up pregnant at fifteen years old and initiated into a Hispanic gang because I was longing to be accepted into a family. I struggled through school, I was placed in special education classes and many behavior programs until I was kicked out of school and sent to an alternative education program.

As an adult woman these things still plagued me as I tried to get a job and found myself reading at a third grade level. I was addicted to cutting myself to relieve the pain and confusion that was in my body and I was very sick from my eating disorder.

I found myself feeling so alone and isolated to the point I tried to take my life. A friend told me about Jesus and this gave me hope that someone might really love me. She told me that God had a purpose and plan for my life. This sent me on a quest to wanting to learn more, but when I grounded myself in a church for years I was still confused because I had all these issues that I was trying to hide from everybody and I didn’t know who I could turn to for help. When I went to Christian counseling for many years they assured me that if I learned more scripture and spent more time with Jesus I would be okay.

So how can the church help those who are suffering from trauma and mental illness? We need to first understand that it’s a deeper issue and that they may need outside help like a mentor who has been healed from trauma or a trauma therapist. The first step that might be helpful for the church is to learn how to recognize signs of trauma in a person, this may prevent some of the harm the church often does to trauma survivors — when it guilt’s a person by urging them to move on, just get over it, or to not “be a victim.” By saying things like, you are a new creation in Christ, it’s time to let go of your past.  

 

What we need to remember is that trauma by definition is something beyond a person’s natural capacity to heal from. Trauma overwhelms a person’s body leaving them with the feelings of feeling “stuck” — like when a computer freezes because it is taking in more than it can handle. Therefore we can’t just tell someone suffering from trauma to “move on,” and let go of the past because you are a new creation and you need to just “trust God more.” All of these platitudes ignore the nature of trauma and what it does to a person — it is not something that a person can heal from by willpower or renewing their mind, even though this helps, it’s a lot deeper than that.

 

I found my help the day that I hit my bottom and I told God I couldn’t go on anymore pretending I was okay. I told him I needed help. I looked for a therapist in my area and without knowing it she was a trauma therapist. At this point in my life I never heard about trauma until my first appointment and she asked me to explain my childhood to the best of my ability. I spent years in her office recalling traumatic memories of all the things that happened to me like being sexually abused starting at the age seven. Then I witnessed Jesus taking those wounds and healing them. It was a long process and what I learned is healing takes time, but it was all worth it.

 

Do you feel there is something in your heart that may be holding you back from enjoying the life of peace, joy and freedom? I would like to encourage you to not be afraid to ask for help.

Holidays Can Be Painful

Holidays Can Be Painful 800 800 Paula

After reading my title you might be wondering what I mean when I say holidays can be painful, but I feel it’s important for others to know how I feel around the holidays, because I know I am not alone. If I am the only one that feels this way, then maybe I am writing this just for me. 🙂

Yesterday was the 4thof July and I had a horrible day, but not on purpose. Right away when I woke up I was lacking energy and I literally felt like I was dying inside. That may seem a little extreme, but that is exactly how I felt. I’m learning that there is a pain in my heart that is still so fragile when it comes to the holiday seasons.

During the holidays when I look on social media or hear about everybody getting together with their family it still triggers my childhood trauma. I would be completing lying if I said I was okay being around other big families.

All day yesterday I kept telling myself you need to just snap out of it, you need to have fun with your family, but I just couldn’t bring myself to do that. Instead I wanted the day to be over with but it seemed like it was dragging on. I even crawled back into bed a few times to try to speed of the process.

I did get invited to a few family parties, but instead I chose to stay home. Here is what I have learned about myself during this season, my body is still trying to heal from all the trauma from not growing up in a healthy family, and I am still witnessing how the family dysfunction has affected my entire family today even my own children.

If you are looking at this and thinking, just get over it. Quit feeling sorry for yourself. I’m here to tell you my belief is it doesn’t work that way. In order to heal you have to be real with yourself and give your body, mind and soul time to heal.

Both of my parents are now deceased and we just don’t have family parties  like we use too.(not that they were that healthy to begin with)  There is still so much brokenness and division amongst my family that it’s quite hard to get everyone together.

Here is why I share this with you:

For one I want you to know you are not alone and second I want you to have patients with yourself and understanding that this is part of the healing process and it won’t last forever. Find someone who will support how you are feeling. This is my mentor who is like a mom to me and I can talk to her about anything. 

As time goes on you will start to feel better, as long as you keep feeling your feelings and giving it to God.

During the holiday seasons I have to do what is right for me. And right now that is staying in the comfort of my own home. I know that it’s not going to be like this forever, because I am a very social person. But for now I don’t need to sit in an atmosphere where everyone is enjoying their families and my heart is still bleeding.

So if you can relate to this in anyway I would love to hear from you and be sure to share this blog post with those who may need it.

 

I would like to leave you with some tools to help you take care of yourself.

  • Spend some time with God meditating on his word or listening to worship music
  • Do relaxing exercises like yoga or go for a nature walk
  • Spend quality time by yourself doing something you enjoy
  • Find something that brings purpose back into your life (something that you love to do)
  • Donate your time or money to help the less fortunate 
  • Make it a point to SMILE (even if you have to fake it!)
  • Spend time reflecting on the GOOD things in your life each and every day( try to come up with at least 10 things)

XOXO, Paula

God places the lonely in families;
    he sets the prisoners free and gives them joy.
But he makes the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land.

Psalm 68:6 New Living Translation (NLT)

 I love what I do and I am a work in progress.  I have come along way since being illiterate since the age 21. 🙂

For Those Who Have Been Abused

For Those Who Have Been Abused 640 640 Paula

I feel others need to understand the battles that some people may face if they have experienced some type of abuse, whether it’s physical, emotional or sexual.

We might think that no one will understand the things we have went through, but to often there are many people suffering silently from their own deep dark secrets. 

Do you mind if I share a little insight inside the heart of a person who has experienced abuse? Because I am a firm believer if you’ve been abused in anyway you will have a ‘mental battle’ that you have to fight and overcome once your heart has been healed.

I will keep this as short as I can and to the point. Years ago when I was at my therapy session for my past abuse my therapist diagnosed me with dysmorphia. Immediately I wanted to rebuke the word she spoke over me, for one I had no idea what it meant and second it just sounded so serious…

Here is what dysmorphia means…

Dysmorphia is a mental disorder characterized by the obsessive idea that some aspect of ‘one’s own appearance is severely flawed’and warrants exceptional measures to hide or fix it.

So this would be the medical term for someone like myself who’s identity was broken from past abuse. But what I didn’t understand for a very long time was why did I see myself the way that I did. I hated myself so much that I would sit and curse my body. I just thought deep down inside that I needed to fix myself and I tried many things to do it.

First of all let me just say… God doesn’t create something that is flawed. We are born perfect in the eyes of Jesus!

But because of the wounds in my heart I could not see myself how he sees me.

What I needed more that anything was for Jesus to heal the secret areas of my heart that were deeply wounded.

I spent way to long in bondage to an eating disorder that made me very sick because I thought if I could get skinnier than I would be more lovable and it would make me feel better.

This was a lie that was planted in my heart.

I had a lot of wound’s from growing up in a home with a father who was an alcoholic, and for the longest the abuse and neglect I experienced from him were still controlling my life.

You see it took years of healing from all the past abuse I experienced in my childhood and adult life to heal my real identity.

There still are days I can struggle in this area if I forget to submit myself to God first thing in the morning. In James 4:7 it states, submit yourself to Christ, and the devil will have to flee from you.

If you have experienced past abuse in your life, let God heal your heart and renew your mind daily in his word.

We have to be ready to use the sword that God has given us so we can walk into true freedom.

The sword is the word of God. So before any unhealthy thought can even take root in your heart, be sure to be on guard and take every negative thought captive and bring it under the authority of Christ.

The battle we face to overcome past abuse is real… The enemy looks for anyway he can to get into our life and destroy our identity. And he loves to do it through past abuse.

I walk in victory today due to all my healing, BUT when the mind gets tired or I get triggered from something or someone those old tapes like to come to surface.

I have to be ready for the battle and so do you.

And here are some tools you can use…

I have learned to take every NEGATIVE thought captive and bring it under the authority of Christ. Also, I ask God regularly to expose any lies in my heart that I may be believing. If I don’t practice this consistently then the enemy has set me up to start self-destructing through old behaviors.

I share my heart with you today because I feel we need to know everyone is in a battle. And I do believe we can have freedom here on earth, but you do have to fight for it!

SO BE READY!