Can We Change as We Get Older?

Doyou ever wonder if people can change? If we can heal? Become better people? Overcome our weaknesses and worst flaws? Be the kind of people we really want to be? Or are we all just a mess? Is it inevitable that we fall into patterns of chaos and mediocrity? We are human, after all. I find myself asking this question a lot as I’ve been diving into therapy these past two years, while the half-century mark creeps closer and closer. There is a truth to what they say about middle age. Stuff gets real here. Whatever has not been called up for review will rise to the surface. There will be a struggle and it will be a mess. Sometimes, I feel like I’m doing so well. I’m healthier than I’ve been since childhood. But…that’s not saying much. When your teen years saw you through cycles of abuse and sexual assault that manifested into severe eating disorders and suicidal ideation, the bar for happiness and fulfillment in adulthood gets set pretty low. It’s hard to make it past survival mode. And then consider the fact that when you were gaslit into believing the abuse and violence you experienced weren’t really abuse and violence, and you only just recognized it and started to deal with it in your mid-forties, you have two or more decades worth of pent-up emotions inside you that literally will not stop spilling out no matter how many coping strategies you learn in therapy. <a href="https://medium.com/liberty-76/can-we-change-as-we-get-older-ec096cbd0a32">Read More</a>