Continually picking at the ‘psychopathic scab’ won’t give the wound a chance to heal

Editor’s Note: Sarah Strudwick, based in the UK, is author of “Dark Souls Healing and recovering from toxic relationships.”

By Sarah Strudwick

heal

verb \ˈhēl\

: to become healthy or well again

: to make (someone or something) healthy or well again

This week I had to have two teeth out, which turned out to be pretty painful. I also ended up with an infection. I’ve had wisdom teeth out before many years ago but didn’t necessarily want to remind myself of how uncomfortable it was. Despite the pain and infection, I know in time the gums will heal, albeit they may feel and look a little different after.

We get hurt

When we fall in love or become victim to a psychopath, often our hearts and/or minds become broken, albeit temporarily. It can take time to heal old wounds. It doesn’t mean the scars will vanish or the pain will never go away, but sometimes we are able to forget about the original trauma and make a decision to move on. Just because something is damaged or has been broken doesn’t necessarily mean you have to keep on reminding yourself of it all the time.

Five years ago when I split up from my ex, I wrote an article called “How Long Is a Piece of String,” referring to the time it takes to get over a psychopath. I cannot speak for others, but my own journey has involved putting as much energy as possible into helping myself overcome any patterns or self destructive behavior that might encourage me to go back into ANY kind of relationship with a disordered persons.

Sharing the hurt

During the time when I first started blogging and writing books about it, I was in contact with a number of other targets, many of whom had had similar experiences. Some were fellow bloggers and writers; some ran support groups. My own journey also included not spending an inordinate amount of time around other victims who were not prepared to move on.

Enough is Enough

There came a point at which I decided enough is enough. No more regurgitating and picking at old wounds. When I wrote the second book, “The Phoenix spirit,” I touched briefly on the reasons some targets remain stuck in the mode of the victim. I was quite shocked at the amount of people who want to keep others in victim mode with subtle suggestions that it’s not possible to ever get over a psychopath.

Time to fix

My personal view is for someone to want to remain as a victim for too long is not necessarily healthy. Why would anyone want to be talking about pathology for more than a couple of years? Talking about it for a couple of months is bad enough, but then it’s time to start looking within.

First of all, no one really wants to listen anymore. Then victims get stuck in this syndrome that my brother aptly called, “my leg is more broken than your leg.” This is where victims share stories and no one actually ends up really listening to the other person’s stuff. They’re just talking about what happened to them. There is a fine line between sharing stories, empathizing and literally regurgitating all of our stuff.

Fixing requires a  journey of independence

As a result, I decided to ask my friend and fellow author, George Simon, about his own thoughts on victimhood and forums, and his reply was as follows:

The non-aggressive but fiercely assertive, independent life is undoubtedly the healthiest, but also without a doubt, the most daunting. To take the truly independent path means parting company with everything that we’ve become accustomed and attached to, including all the junk baggage we’ve lugged around for most of our lives. But in the end, every journey down the independent path begins with a from-the-gut firm and irreversible “goodbye.” Some folks simply wallow forever in the fear of that first step. And sometimes the forums you speak of and even therapy itself only “enable” that paralysis.

Focused on healing

So it came as no surprise when the other day I came across a very long post from a fellow victim who was still going on about how much pain she was going through and how hurt and wounded she felt. This was the very same person who had gotten extremely angry with me when I moved on, and told me that it was not possible to ever heal from a psychopath because you always PTSD. At the time I decided to disengage from this person, and it enabled me to focus on the rest of my “healing.”

The word “healed” has many connotations. I prefer to use the description “to become healthy or well again.”

If you use an analogy of a scar or a scab that has replaced the original wound, knowing what is underneath is the key to real healing. You may well be who, or what, caused your injury in the first place — be it an emotional or physical pain — that may have kept you stuck in the past.

The wound under the scab

For example, if you had a scar on your leg, would you constantly keep telling someone how you acquired it? Scars from being with a psychopath run deep. Many are invisible to the naked eye. However, in order to let it “heal” properly, there comes a point at which you need to stop constantly picking that invisible scab off as your way of validating yourself to others. You may need to put your injury in the past and no longer discuss it.

Stop picking the scab

Acknowledging and processing the pain from the past is one thing, but constantly picking off scabs and checking what’s underneath is, in my opinion, not always going to help. If you needed therapy and have done all the necessary work on yourself, such as dealing with your own crap, then there is often no need to keep on attending the wound.

When you run into people and situations that differ from your reality or experiences, citing things such as you can “never be healed” or that you “will always be damaged,” is disempowering, to say the least. Not only does it take away that hope that got you far enough in your journey that you feel better, or are happy, it puts you back into a place where you may feel that your experiences were all your fault all over again.

Time heals the scab and the wound

There’s an old expression time heals everything. When it comes to getting over a psychopath, pick away until such time as your body says enough. Eventually you will get better and your battle scars will be a subtle reminder as to why you don’t ever want to keep on picking away. Whilst I feel deep empathy for the woman who is still clearly suffering, I’m also relieved that I am no longer in contact.  I might still be stuck as a victim, believing that I, too, can never get over my experiences.

In my humble opinion, I believe eventually you will come to a point, as I did recently, when someone asked me what happened. Whilst they sat jaw dropping listening to the story, I continued in a matter of fact way, without being triggered or getting upset. I reminded myself that evening, with a moment of clarity, that I never really want to talk or discuss what happened ever again.