Don’t beat yourself up. Just get back on track.
I know, that reaction “shouldn’t” have happened.
Don’t beat yourself up. Just get back on track.
I know, you “should” be “better” by now.
Don’t beat yourself up. Just get back on track.
I know, “other people had it worse.”
Don’t beat yourself up. Just get back on track.
I know, you hate having to even think about this “trauma” or “addiction” or “recovery” stuff.
Don’t beat yourself up. Just get back on track.
Trauma Brain, the internalized voices of your abusers and bullies, is going to try to get you to weaponize your “fight” response against yourself.
It’s probably already tried, am I right?
But that “fight” response is supposed to keep us safe— and attacking ourselves is the literal opposite of safety.
Attacking ourselves teaches our nervous system we are not safe with ourselves. That we can’t count on ourselves to have our own back, be on our own side.
When I say don’t beat yourself up, it’s not just because beating yourself up hurts.
It’s because that pattern of beating yourself up is going to undermine everything else you try to do in trauma or addiction recovery.
Plus, we need the energy we’d otherwise spend beatng ourselves up, for the project of getting back on track.
I understand you’re frustrated.
I understand you’ve been conditioned to believe you “deserve” punishment.
I understand part of you is champing at the bit to punish yourself before someone or something comes along and punishes you at a time and in a way you don’t choose.
It will be uncomfortable to push back against all that. No question.
But don’t beat yourself up.
Just get back on track.
Again, and again, and again, and again.
