If you have experienced any type of trauma, you understand that it can be challenging to overcome. It can even be even more difficult to know when you have been fully recovered from your traumatic experience. What are the signs? Should you feel happy at the end? Are there certain emotions that you should obtain in order to feel recovered? Depending on how you feel and process trauma, there are several ways to get past it. For instance, if you are feeling depressed, you may or may not have had someone encourage you to spend time with others. And, hopefully you listened to them. But, what if you still feel depressed or unsure of your thoughts and emotions? Here are three signs that you have been fully recovered from your trauma.

1. You Have Recovered a Broken Circuit.

            Think about an electrical circuit: too much energy, the circuit breaker activates and shuts the whole system down. Your body’s nervous system is similar, in which too much stimulation, danger or trauma, also shuts down. You may feel emotional numbness or no motivation to do anything. Your body will run on basic functioning, such as walking, breathing, digesting, but will shut down aches, arthritis, and other pains. This also shows physical numbness, leading you to feel nothing.

            When the circuit, or your body’s system, begins to recover, you start feeling again. Slowly, your body takes on more energy and stimulation, and it restores itself to process higher level functioning. Therefore, if you feel changes in mood, body functions, and emotions, you are likely working towards recovery.

2. Return of Feelings

            The more you feel, the more you heal. Have you been expressing your feelings in a healthy way, including journaling, talking to a loved one, or seeing a therapist? Communication with a trusted individual is a major step in recovery, in which you need to talk about your feelings and emotions related to your trauma. If you have revisited the traumatic event in your memories over and over again, you are likely to have revisited feelings as well. In this way, it can be a good thing to bring back those emotions, despite how unpleasant it is. You may have, at first, expressed your feelings aggressively or erratically, but if you are now able to talk about them in a healthy way, you are truly healing. Now, you have gotten to know your feelings better, identify them, adjust, and accept them. 

3. Taking Action

            Trauma, marked by a sense of powerlessness, can be controlled by taking actions for yourself. Specifically, you might find yourself helping others who are going through hard times in their lives. You may have meaningful conversations with them or send them letters, however you feel helps them. These small acts of kindness may be impactful for you while recovering as you are making a difference in their lives. Other actions you can take include doing things you like to do. Say, while you were depressed, you did not enjoy gardening like you used to, but you slowly found yourself gardening more and more. If you are participating in hobbies you enjoy and make you happy, you have taken control of your mental health.

            Everyone processes trauma differently, of course there are several ways to perceive recovery behaviors because it all depends on who you are. And, although trauma recovery may seem like a long, gruesome process, every step counts. You will know that you have recovered when you get there, in your own time. If you find that you need help with your journey, contact a therapist or psychologist in your area, in which case, you don’t have to experience this alone.