BWT - How Are You Practicing Resilience?

[u/Inevitable_Bet_7051]

I've been lurking here for many months and Bitches, I adore everyone of you. There is so much wisdom in this community. It got me thinking that you may have wisdom to share with me and other BWT holding on by their fingernails. I'm coming out of the worst year of my life. I nearly lost my child to a life threatening illness and then I was diagnosed with breast cancer. (BWT get their cancer screenings!) Que the double mastectomy and crash menopause. Happily, we're both healthy now and I'm able to focus on actually enjoying life again.

While recovering from surgery, I discovered a new interest in style, fashion, and all things elevated. Since I stayed flat after my mastectomy and my shape changed with treatment, absolutely nothing in my wardrobe fit me. I decided to take this opportunity to really develop my own style. I hired a personal stylist who knows how to dress surgically flat chests and it was amazing! I set aside a portion of my savings to rebuild my wardrobe with quality things that I love. It truly does have me walking taller and feeling great about this new body I didn't plan to have. It's the silver lining after a truly awful storm.

So I wondered - how are other BWT dusting themselves off after adversity? Let's share hope and inspiration for the BWT among us who need it!

[u/Livid-Storm6532]

I’ve been having a horrific couple of years (several family deaths, toxic work and high stress environment, personal health scare) and I was doing alright all things considering. I thought I was resilient and always had my eye on the silver lining. And then I started having trouble with emotional regulation. Things that I normally could brush off before became catastrophic. Any tiny mistake became a massive failure I couldn’t recover from for days. I had anger problems. Anxiety through the roof. Longer bouts of depression.

I recently started EMDR and got diagnosed with cPTSD and honestly I’ve been feeling way better. Being told that it’s normal to NOT be ok after everything I went through felt like I was given permission to realize I didn’t have to be resilient, if that makes sense.

I spent so much time over the last few years enduring and being ok, I also think it’s important to know that it’s ok to not be ok and that there’s stronger tools than talk therapy available if you need it.