NEXUS
HINENGARO
WHELMED
健康
Traumatikos the Greek The Greeks were some smart as dudes (and women, but men took all the credit). I think of their mythos often. Sisyphus with his constantly pushing shit uphill. There was that dude with liver issues. And Dionysus loves a good tipple. The reason I bring up the Greeks is cos of this concept of trauma. The golden rule of columns is never to start with a definition, but the etymology of the word trauma is Greek. The word is traumatikos, meaning “pertaining to a wound”. Now my mental health has improved lately which is awesome, but it got me thinking about this idea of trauma – which I’ve spoken about as being the source of some of my difficult experiences of life and my issues. Now this isn’t specific to me, in my opinion. So many of us are affected by shitty things that happen to us in life. It’s also relative. Something traumatic to one person, may not affect the person as much. That doesn’t make your trauma any less than mine or vice versa. The experience is what matters. There’s some important discussion points I want to bring up that are relevant here, and I’m going to throw in a bunch of platitudes to jazz this up. But in short – we don’t choose whether we’re born or not. That decision is made for us by some other person, or the lizard people if you believe David Icke. Someone once told me this premise: To be entered into a life or death lottery without permission is unfair.
Given that none of us really know why we’re here (if there even is a reason) and we were born without our input into that decision, potentially against our will, doesn’t it make sense to help each other out? Here’s another platitude sound bite: If only some of us win, then none of us win. The other discussion point I have, is that if our experiences of life, or at least the tough bits, are shaped or influenced by our trauma, why not spend more time healing it and giving more support for those whose trauma is potentially dominating their life story? Personally, no amount of mindfulness is going to mend the fact that my brain calls me some pretty awful things at times. CBT is not going to change the emotional reaction I experience whenever I walk into a hospital – and ironically I’ve chosen to work in a hospital. Damn masochist. But I digress, CBT may work for some, but this seemingly linear process is unrealistic in my experience. Life is not a flow chart. This column really has turned into a soapbox of sound bites and random discussion points. But before I go, one last criticism. I hear people when they say that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger or helps us grow. However, to offer an alternative perspective:
Life is a lottery.
“I've had enough bad experiences and growth to last me plenty… Right now, I'd be glad to trade some growth for happiness”
Therefore life is unfair.
– Harvey Pekar
14
N.15 / V. 55
