If you do not understand a problem ...

When we connect with family and friends through giving and receiving encouragement it makes our journey a little easier.

If someone is going through something we want to make their journey a little easier, don’t we?

Our support can strengthen and uplift.

There is a kind of depression that is associated with loss and usually happens when the grieving process goes wrong. Grief is one of our emotions and it can become unbearable and then defenses kick in to help cope. Defenses are used when we can’t face the emotional truth. I developed some very strong defenses while I was growing up because I had no other way to cope with pain.

Repression is one of my defenses. Denial is another. Memory suppression is another.

Memory Suppression is defined as a motivated forgetting of the overwhelming emotional states experienced during, or as a result of, the abuse experience. It is a way of keeping the pain of abuse away from day to day conscious awareness.

Sometimes I feel hopeless about ever getting better.

Maybe there is something that happened in the past that you’ve never gotten over. Maybe you can identify. Maybe the memory of it is still painful. Do you try to run away from it or put it out of your mind? I do.

I’ve been looking at some of my old journals from a very painful time in my life and it calls for courage … looking back on that part of my life. It seems important though. If you do not understand a problem, you can never solve it and it is also often true that if you really understand the problem, you can see a solution.

Today, I found an entry in my journal where I am clearly using repression and denial and memory suppression.

I wrote, “I can’t speak to any of them anymore. They remind me of things I’d rather forget about, so I ignore them now or pretend they don’t exist anymore. They don’t, not in my life anyway, and I guess I feel hurt by them all -- forgotten by them and I’m just tired of being used and having them not care about me or my feelings much at all. How can I even hope that You, Lord, have wiped the slate clean and cast my sins into the depths of the sea or saved my soul? Everything in my life seems to be so upside down. Please keep me on the right track. I do love You. Thank You for all Your help and for thinking about me.”