FEELINGS | EMOTIONAL PAIN | SELF CARE
Your Pain Is Just as Important as Anyone Else’s
Don’t dismiss your feelings.
This article was inspired by a comment made on a memoir piece about the loss I suffered when I lost my four front teeth and got false teeth at age 13. I felt so sorry for your cousins. While they have the dentist, they were abandoned by their parents. They must deal with that every day of their lives.
What the reader might not have realized was that she had made a comparison and judgment about which loss was worse.
Comparing loss is something we so often do.
This way of thinking keeps us from recognizing and dealing with our inner pain. I know first-hand because this kind of comparison kept me from my inner pain for a long time.
How could I have trauma when I had two parents? How was I not privileged by my status as the only biological child in my family? How could I complain when I received the best gifts? How dare I hurt when others in my family went without?
Because of my special place in the family, I told myself those kinds of lies for half my life. Convincing myself that I had nothing to complain about.
It is important to remember, however…
