Hello and welcome to the forum
When I was 15 years old, I broke my back in an accident. When I was 17, I did it again—only fracturing a different part of my spine this time. Two traumas, two recoveries involving learning to walk again and two episodes of completely interrupted life. Thankfully, I fully recovered each time.
Now, this was about forty years ago, and there was absolutely no consideration given to my mental health. In our house, nobody would have even considered it or talked about it. Same goes for my friends and teachers.
Both accidents have been somewhere in the back of my mind my entire life and feelings related to them—whether it’s anger, sadness, grief, frustration, fear, relief or gratitude—pop up from time to time.
You wouldn’t be human, if you didn’t experience a range of emotions related to your trauma. My best advice is to make space for those feelings and let them out. Write about them in a journal or if you think it would help talk about them.
Your friends may have “moved on” but I would hope that if you reached out to let someone know you’re not feeling okay that they would listen and be there for you. Another thought is to talk things through with a counsellor or the community here.
In my opinion, nothing good will come from keeping your feelings hidden in the dark.
Always happy to listen.
Kind thoughts to you
