Back in December a couple of years ago, I helped clean out the house of an 87-year old man after he died. It’s amazing what a person accumulates over the years of his life.
One of the things I found were three copies of the same Pink Floyd album. Something about an 87-year old listening to Pink Floyd just struck me as ‘odd’. Perhaps in dealing with his illnesses, he listened to their song ‘Comfortably Numb’.
Listening to Pink Floyd over and over produces a calming, numbing effect. Over the years, they’ve been a go to for many stressed people during trying times. (Ironically, on this day, January 18, 1980, Pink Floyd’s album, The Wall hit #1 on the charts.)
I pictured him listening to the song over and over. I even entertained the thought he may have a secret ‘hippie side’ to him. It is said that 1 in 12 people in the world have a copy of Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark Side of the Moon’. So, he may be in line with the trends.
Although I want to assume he was a Pink Floyd groupie, I would’ve thought he’d have more albums being a groupie.
Another thing I know is that many of you dealing with the trauma of an affair live your life ‘comfortably numb’. Rather than face what happened and the feelings, you either avoid them or numb yourself out in some way.
The pain is more than you’re willing to face. You make the choice to numb yourself out rather than face the issues. I understand that you need a break. The problem comes when that ‘break’ extends to become a way of life.
The tragedy about being comfortably numb is that you’ve likely grown so accustomed to it, you don’t recognize it. Accommodating the numbing of feelings is what I’m referring to as ‘comfortably’.
Just about any obsession or compulsion has a numbing effect. It’s amazing how many ‘helpful’ things are turned into distractions or numbing activities that keep you from feeling anything.
If you’re one of those whose grown ‘comfortably numb’, each day you continue it, is a further prolonging of healing. Your brain knows you’ve been traumatized and is likely releasing numbing hormones into the mix.
When you’ve been numb for so long that you don’t know what’s in your best interest, it’s a sure sign you’ve been there too long. You may be telling yourself you’re dealing with things, yet if you’re still avoiding the emotions, you aren’t dealing with it.
In the video, “Overcoming Affair Trauma”, you can learn ways of getting out of that state of numbness. Getting well includes learning how to live again along with waking up to life itself.
Keeping It Real,
Jeff
