How do our emotional wounds heal?

We all want to remember memorable moments of childhood. And although not all of them were enjoyable, even some of them were painful, we can consider that most of those moments they give us lessons that we never want to let go of.

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Experience brings wounds

One of the first special experiences in which perhaps we will agree is that of learn to ride a bike.

There were many moments, and all of them were special. By the second day that I was practicing pedaling, I asked my father to remove the support wheels from my bicycle.

Every ride was exciting. I managed to balance myself on the bike and keep moving, as I recall, in a few hours of practice. I remember the first time I came home to tell my parents that I had had my first run-in with a stopped car; It was a minor shock, but it made it clear to me that I had to be careful.

I remember well that my mom told me that you have to be careful when you consider that you already "master" an activity because you can fall into excesses of confidence and take unnecessary risks.

One of the first days that a good friend came home to whom I told him that he had already learned to bike, he invited me to go to the ramps; it did not took her long to arrive the first big scare. In that first outing on the track and in the third shift, the young man whose time it was to jump into his bicycle, Raúl, took flight and flew through the air, only that when he descended something happened to the control on his bike; he apparently twisted the handlebars as he fell and hit his chest.

Seeing him fall, I felt the blood run down to my feet; It was then that I left terrified not to see more details of the accident, in my opinion very spectacular. My friend Arnoldo realized how scared I was and tried to catch up with me on his bike to reassure me and tell me that Raúl was fine. I think it was one of the first experiences where I thought that I would not take any risks anymore; so I could avoid hurting myself.

Physical injuries seemed to be one of the things that scared me the most and I thought I couldn't bear to see them, didn't even hear about them.

Years passed. I kept riding my bike and gaining experiences and the occasional scrape that healed in a few days. Some time later there was a particular experience that I remember riding my bicycle, when wearing shorts, my tibia was severely scraped with the pedal, at the level of bleeding.

It was a wound that required a little more attention and needed to be healed; and just on the way home one of the neighbors saw me and told me that he had to go to the pharmacy to buy "sulfas". So I did, and he helped me put the crude remedy on my leg. She explained to me that in the war that had been one of the treatments used and that it would heal very quickly. The wound on my leg healed quickly and I completely forgot about it. I went out to play with my friends a few days later.

My mother saw that she had one of my legs swollen; I told her it was because of the soccer balls, but this did not seem normal to her and she began to investigate. She discovered that what had been treated as a minor physical injury had turned into hers an infection that she, not having suppurated, she was still inside my body, especially in the leg.

My parents kept investigating until they came to the hypothesis that what I could have was erysipelas, but if it wasn't treated, it could become something as serious as rheumatic fever, a disease that affects the heart or other organs. My case was not so serious because fortunately my mother was able to identify and resolve very opportunely a situation that she might not be talking about right now had it not been for her timely care.

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the emotional wounds

However... What about emotional wounds? Yes, those wounds from our past that are not seen, but that by trying to forget them we have downplayed them to the point that we deny them or that we do not want to feel pain for them.

We human beings have an enormous capacity to overcome; however, this does not imply that there are no things that should be attended to by someone who can be of help.

Friends, siblings, other family members, and even strangers become valuable help. They become part of our support network.

But… What happens if the person trying to help is not empowered to give the best help? As I learned with sulfa drugs, not every short-term remedy that seems to have an immediate effect works. The experience in life and the degree of specialization, as well as the human sense, are very important aspects to be able to help others.

The best specialists, who understand the role of psychotherapy, know that an emotional wound that did not receive attention is in any case less serious or less complex to attend to than a physical wound. Everything depends on the depth, the moment and the way in which we assume our emotional wounds.

Giving yourself the opportunity to identify what in your stages of life were emotional wounds is, in principle, a good start to be able to vent. That expression in itself is already therapeutic and with the help of a psychologist, you will realize that it is even easier to heal.

Although it is not the easiest thing, go for the help of a professional It helps you from the first moment to manage thoughts and emotions, to identify feelings and to resignify the past. To ask more about your options so that when you need it you can work on what is happening and find better solutions.

Healing our emotional wounds is a personal process, but sometimes it requires the help of a third party, a person who is specialized and who can provide us with the best guidance. Psychotherapy is one of the most effective ways to heal our emotional wounds.