“Some things aren’t easy in life,” said the young girl, who had so often wished away her entire future and wondered if giving up was the solution. She talked to her therapist every week, sometimes more often than that. But she had never quite found the words to express her longing for the life that felt completely out of reach and unachievable. She had been opening up about her past for nearly two years now. Therapy was her safe space. In today’s session, something was holding her back from crying. She didn’t quite know what. On reflection, she knew she wanted to be able to look back in five years and feel like she hadn’t stopped trying to chase her dreams of stable recovery. That’s what they felt like currently, make-believe dreams that were a figment of her imagination, while her reality was very different. She longed for recovery to get easier, even just a little bit. However, her life was really just beginning, and as you can imagine, things shifted… nothing was going to remain the same forever! The leaves were falling outside as the autumn wind blew them off their branches. ‘Just like the leaves fall to the ground’, she thought, ‘I also have fallen away from my comforts, my place of safety, and my recovery’. What she wanted most in the world was to be able to feel proud and take the recognition for getting through everything put in her way. This mindset changed something inside her. Not all of a sudden, but actually quite gently. It didn’t erase her past traumas, or her bad days that would inevitably happen for anyone in her position, but she felt a sense of comfort knowing that she was doing everything she possibly could to help herself and support her own future. Yes! She has dreams and for so long her perspective was that anything that felt difficult meant that she would never manage it, so she set out to cope with her life differently. She didn’t quite have a plan, or step-by-step instructions. She didn’t know what was coming her way, but soon, soon enough, she’d learn to love her past for the lessons it taught her and the advice and empathy she could show to others who feel the same way she did. She can truly, confidently say that she gets it. She understands on a more personal level than how textbooks teach. She doesn’t have a due date for her dreams anymore. Instead, she takes things day by day, knowing that when small steps forward are made, big results in the longer term are in sight.
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