Who is Allowed to Dictate Your Trauma?

I’ve heard throughout my life that I need to understand and accept my trauma.

At first, I would sort of just nod and smile and put it on the very last page of my incredibly long mental to-do list.

After a while, I started questioning this in a bit more depth.

“Why do I need to accept my trauma?”

“What does accepting my trauma mean?”

“How does one go about accepting one’s trauma?”

“What makes people think I need to accept my trauma?”

The response to these questions was always interesting. Cloaked in vagueness and obscurity, I never felt like I received a proper response.

My understanding of the trauma I have been through is that I am as at peace with it as humanly possible.

Over a period of self-reflection, I’ve understood that the way I deal with my trauma is through a somewhat dark sense of humour. This is how I best cope, and it’s worked well for me to date. I wouldn’t recommend this coping technique to everyone because understanding and accepting trauma does not have a one-size-fits-all approach.

The people who are close to me can identify that the only way they know for sure that I have dealt with and accepted my trauma is through this same sense…