Denial is the gift that helps us survive as children. I get it. I lived it. However, when we have children of our own or have a responsibility around children, denial most often becomes a tool of destruction.
“Trauma denial may be helpful in the short term. It allows the trauma survivor to stand up and get back on their feet,” says Sabina Mauro, a psychologist in Yardley, Pennsylvania.
article in pysch central, Trauma Denial: How to Recognize It and Why It Matters By Hilary I. Lebow
Yet, just like a trusty old pair of shoes, the comforts we learn to rely on may start to fall apart, if given enough time.
“Ongoing trauma denial causes more suffering than there needs to be. Although trauma survivors may learn how to suppress this unpleasant experience from their past, their body and mind will continue to carry it until the trauma is confronted,” says Mauro.
Denial begins to hurt us and block healing. Deeper still, it often allows abuse to continue around us because we have blocked our unique skill to see harm.
Denial blocks the ability to spot an abuser. It just does. How, then, are you supposed to protect a child if your skill to determine good and evil has been hijacked through denial?
Sadly, you won’t protect the child by you because you are not equipped to see. Break denial as soon as you can for yourself and those children around you that you love. It’s the only way to healing, freedom, and protection.
I pray added strength to you today. God, open the hearts of the broken person reading this. Allow them to understand you stand beside them, with them, strengthening their inner being. Father, speak words of comfort that allow them to walk out of the prisons of denial into the light of truth.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.