When I first started thinking about self-care, I was stumped. I know self-care is important and I know I must do something to help myself, but I wasn’t sure what. I started thinking, I don’t go to the salon or spa, we don’t travel much right now due to the state of the world and my PTSD, and due to my PTSD I hate leaving the house.
So, I began thinking, what do you do for yourself that makes you feel better? I run, but really, I don’t call that self-care as much as must-do.
Then it hit me: I go to therapy.
Once a week, on Thursday afternoon, I leave the house and go to therapy. Just leaving the house is part of the therapy, it makes me uncomfortable, but I know it is good for me. I drive 10 minutes to my therapist's office and then spend the next 50 minutes talking to a stranger. I need you to know that I have serious anxiety when it comes to leaving the house, talking to strangers, and just sharing things about the incident that caused my PTSD. But I do it. Every week. Some weeks I sit down and do not want to be there, not because anything good or bad has happened, I just don’t want to talk. I do it anyway and by the end of my session I may have cried or laughed or both, but I always feel better.
I realized recently that therapy saved my life. I told my therapist last week that if I had not come to see her when I did, I would be gone. She said what do you mean by that? I said I am not sure if I mean gone or not here in this town, or what I mean, but I would be gone. Therapy is my self-care and it has changed and saved my life.
