Floating Out of EMDR

I felt like I floated out of my EMDR session today. I floated down the stairs, gliding a hand down the rail, as much for support as for orientation. I traced the curving end of the rail with my palm for assurance that I was at the bottom. There was nothing wrong with my eyesight, it's just that I couldn't trust what I was seeing...not just yet.

I slipped into the second floor bathroom before taking on the next set of stairs. I didn't look in the mirror. I was afraid of whom I would see. Not before I had sunk to the floor and held myself and told myself that I was safe...that I was here...that I was OK. Then I inhaled and exhaled, and looked in the mirror to see me...mother of three...pharmacist...adult.

And I ran down the next flight of stairs into my van the cocoon.

I'm Still Here

I'm still here...still writing. I don't want to stop now that I've started. I want to keep purging and vomiting and looking at the truth in the face. That's hard...but so is trying to get through a night without cutting.

I went back to counseling today...and it was good. I laughed, I needed to. I needed to know that I am so much more than the mess I was last week...still feeling the shame. I thought I would be, but I found I wasn't ready to fully address the shit that led me to cutting. Maybe a little superficially. I still couldn't look at my therapist...still feeling the shame. Except once, I deliberately made eye contact with him, because I needed to feel the connection. Sometimes I feel like I need to be rescued from the grim world into which I slip when I look away. Eye contact with him is my rescue.

I can't say that I'm out of the woods yet...but the leaves are thinning and letting in a little light. "I love you", says me to the teenage girl.

Writing, Threats and EMDR

Tomorrow I go back to counseling. I think I'm better today than I was last week. I could probably still drag a blade across my thigh, given the opportunity. I might even go through a bucket of ice cubes tonight. But I have written a lot more during the last five days than I have in the last year. And THAT was helpful.

Writing always helps me to see things more clearly. It doesn't always or necessarily offer a solution, but it helps me to categorize thoughts and feelings and maybe draw a map to what I can do to make things better. I don't actually have a map yet, but I'm considering EMDR for tomorrow...or the next time maybe...depending.

So where will I start with EMDR? And why EMDR? My therapist suggested EMDR about threats. This seems to be what triggered this episode for me. What threats? That's the scary part. Remembering them...recognizing them...acknowledging them.

"Don't tell anyone", it's those words. "No le digas a nadie". " Si se lo dices a alguien, la policia me va ha meter preso, y ha ustedes lo van a llevar a otro lugar." He made it sound like we would all be raised in foster care...if I told anyone. He made me feel like it would be my fault and my wrongdoing if he were arrested because I talked.

I wish I could have talked to that girl. What if I could have told her that nothing bad would happen to her or to her Mom or to her siblings? What if I could have convinced her that she was absolutely right in feeling like sending him to jail was what needed to be done. It was the right thing to do. What if I would have done that? Spoken up then. Would things have been different? We were all so afraid of him.

Is There a Cure?

In times like these, I wonder what healing looks like. In mental health, there doesn't seem to be such thing as "cured"...at least not for me. I know I've come a long way. I have to remember that when I am feeling such failure and setback. The thing is that I want to reach a point where I don't actually have the urge to drag a blade across my skin.

Sure, the ice helps...it doesn't injure me. But I can hold an ice cube against my wrist until it melts into a puddle and take the pain as punishment. When will I stop punishing myself? What will it take? More EMDR? Prayer? Both?

So much Ice

Holy shit so much ice tonight. I won't cut because I'm afraid that I won't go back to therapy if I do. I would be too ashamed...and I think he would be mad at me.

Dreaming about Mom

I dreamt about my mother last night. I was participating in some kind of educational program for girls/women It was of short-term duration, such as a weekend or something like that. We (the students) were all very excited about this opportunity, and the atmosphere was high-spirited, giddy and chatty. The grounds were gorgeous, and I felt special to be involved in such and event.

We were walking as a group to have lunch. It would be outdoors on one of the grounds' many beautiful sites. A woman who seemed to be an organizer (but not an instructor) approached me and let me know that there was a girl who was interested in learning some things about us and the program...ask us some questions. I told her that we would be happy to have her join us for lunch and that she should jut follow us to where we were going and sit with us.

She did not understand what I was saying, and I stepped out of the line to explain things better to her. My group moved on without me, and I saw that my Mom and my youngest daughter had come to join me for lunch. I was ecstatic but had now lost my group and didn't know exactly where to go. I told them we should move in the direction that they went and try to find them so that we could all have lunch together.

The ground was very bumpy, and my Mom fell out of her wheelchair twice while we were pushing her. She became very quiet, and I could tell that she was sad and embarrassed that this had happened...despite my consolation. I looked and looked but never found my group. As much as I was happy to see my Mom, I felt crushed to have missed out on the opportunity to learn and eat with the other women.

I woke up feeling depressed and lethargic. I knew I had to write. Today, I will throw myself into my work and try not to think or feel...except about pharmacy. I understand why people do this. It certainly is better than alcohol. I'll see how I feel tonight and probably write again.

Tonight is Self-Care

I took care of myself tonight. I didn't cut or numb my wrists with ice. I didn't think about my shame or my hurt. Instead I listened to a meditation app while I floated in a hot bath of oils and salts. It was heavenly. Every step that I took towards self-care was deliberate, because every cell of me would have gravitated towards self-hate. It was well worth it.

When Fear Leads to Cutting

It's hard to believe that I wrote what I wrote last night. Yet, I know that I did...and that I needed to. I needed to purge...to vomit...as ugly as that may be.

Things are a little clearer this morning. I slept so well and so much last night - eight full uninterrupted hours! I didn't even know that my brain could still do that! But it can, and it did, and I am hoping that today I can explore a little more into what the hell is driving me batty. Why do I insist on punishing myself?

In therapy, we talked about fear. My fear. I am afraid of my stepfather's threats from so long ago. I am afraid of seeing him again. I am afraid of his family. I am afraid that they would hurt us. I am afraid to even say all this.

So why does all this fear lead me to hurt myself? Why do I feel somehow deserving of punishment? I have forced myself to eat, because I know that allowing myself to feel hungry and weak is part of the punishment. I have deliberately taken myself to bed, because denying myself a good night's rest is part of the punishment. But what have I done to deserve all this punishment?

I have talked. I have spoken up...used my voice when he told me not to tell. And all the time that I didn't tell, I was his accomplice. I was his other woman. I was his secret. And for this, I want to cut myself to pieces. I want to slice through my skin feeling the sharpness of the intense sting until...until what? Until I feel like I've paid? Until I've purged? Until I'm satisfied? The problem is that that feeling doesn't come from cutting. As much as I seek it, it doesn't seem to come, and I only want to keep cutting thinking that the next cut will bring me to that place of acceptance and satisfaction. I don't stop until I call or see my therapist for help.

He suggested EMDR again. I think I might agree.

All I Want to do is Hurt

My mind and my wrists are both numb...one from the alcohol and the other from the ice. How long can I do this? All night long.

I told my therapist that I wouldn't hurt myself this weekend...just ice. But, shit, it's going to take a boatload of ice to get through this. All I want to do is hurt...in a sick kind of way. To feel the sharp sting of the blade carving tracks in my skin. But I substitute the ice instead, and hold it indefinitely against my wrist letting the numbing pain draw out the rage, the fear, the hurt and the tears.

Mostly, though, I don't want to hurt anymore.

When Writing is the Only Option

Three days ago, the tears hovered between my lids and my eyelashes...on the verge...like a glass filled just so above the rim to make a lip without spilling. Yesterday, I couldn't summon the tears. They had somehow dried out with the surge of emotions that I was not able to make sense of. I was not able to make coherent.

So I cut.

Never a proud moment for me. Today I feel the shame and disappointment that inevitably follows this violent act...and the overwhelming sensation that I am not finished...that there is more left...that I didn't quite get it all out of my system.

And I know that I can't continue doing this. I know that I have committed to staying safe this weekend. So I write. In a desperate and agonizing manner, I return to this blog to write anonymously and, I pray, privately.