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MENTAL HEALTH
Healing Beyond The Scar
My body takes care of its own recovery; now it’s time for my mind to catch up
On 22 March 2025, it was four months since I learned about the thing in my tummy, and two days before that, it was nine weeks since the removal surgery.
It’s been quite the ride — physically, but also mentally.
I’m always the last to know how hard it’s been, or maybe still is. Somehow, I always need to see it through someone else’s eyes.
Like when I met my best friend twenty years ago. As we got to know each other, I told her about my teenage pregnancy, and she was in awe of how I’d handled it. That was when I had the realization that it was a remarkable thing I’d done.
But that wasn’t all. Seeing my 16-year-old self through my friend’s eyes made me understood what impact those events had on me, and the rest of my life. It showed me my younger self, how she went into survival mode, switching off her feelings and just doing what she knew she had to do.
You might think acknowledging that to myself would’ve helped me in the years after that. That I would be mindful of my feelings. That facing future hardships, I would care for all of me — mentally and physically.
