Pain…

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In the words of Augustus Waters, “Pain demands to be felt.”

They say time heals all wounds, but how true is that really? Do we heal with time, or do we simply forget with time?

The mind never truly forgets. What it often does is push painful or threatening memories out of conscious awareness as a form of protection. The memory is not gone, it is only hidden. In psychology this is known as repression or dissociation.

Time does not heal most wounds. If anything, time distracts us long enough to make us forget for a moment. That temporary forgetfulness feels like relief, a brief escape that can become addictive.

I know someone who struggled with addiction for years. She lived with a condition that caused constant, overwhelming pain, and this led her to rely heavily on medications. She would often say, “For a few minutes in heaven, I am willing to spend the rest of my life in hell.” No matter how much time passed, she never grew used to the pain. She simply learned to live alongside it.

Pain can be pushed aside for a moment, but as long as it exists, it eventually resurfaces. Pain demands to be felt.

Dearest reader, a writer I love once said, “The thing about pain is that it will not last forever. It kills you right now, but with time it gets better.” But does time alone make it better? I like to think not. Time may help us forget parts of it, but forgetting is not healing.

True relief comes from facing the pain, sitting with it, understanding it, and learning to live with it each day. Not shoving it aside. Not pretending it never happened. Because in the end, pain demands to be felt. If it does not hurt, then it is not pain.

Yada yada

@favvy_Okwans🖤.