Episode 16 - Introduction to the Emotional Recovery from a Critical Illness

When you make it through a critical illness you might expect to feel happy, relieved and even energized. You may think that you should be ready to move on with your life and leave that awful event in the past where it supposedly belongs. Afterall, you have overcome the illness or at least the illness’s current hurdle. Those around you might presume that you have moved on too. Even if they don’t say it outwardly, they might assume you will act as you always have, resume your normal work duties, your home and educational duties, your parenting duties and so on because to them - you have recovered, at least to a certain extent. To everyone else it might seem that life is moving on and that part is true, life does move on. This is one of the aspects of the human experience that we can rely on even if at times, it seems like the world should stop to honor what has happened to us or those around us, it simply does not.

What is not talked about enough and what you might not expect is to not feel happy, not feel relieved and not feel energized or motivated at all. Getting back to life as you know it is not as simple as it seems. The thing is, after surviving a critical illness you are forever changed. There is no life as you know it anymore. You do not see or feel life in the same way. I can spot critical illness survivors easily - I have witnessed the ones that have had major breakthroughs and truly cherish life, I’ve seen the ones that run away from the experience right into the hands of substances and I’ve seen the ones that remain in a constant state of depression. The ones I see most clearly, are the ones like me, the ones who move on with their life so quickly and get hit so hard with PTSD that they don’t see it coming, and they don’t even recognize it at first.

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Until the next time - warmly yours,
Renata