PATHLIGHT by Annie Wenger-Nabigon Meltdown!

**MEET ANNIE: if you’d like to meet Annie in person she and her husband will be speaking at “A Family afFair” presented by the Manitouwadge Family Health Team May 4th, 2013 at the Manitouwadge Recreation Centre, keep watching OntarioNewsNorth.com for more information!

Originally from the U.S., Annie now enjoys retired life at Pic River First Nation. Annie Wenger-Nabigon, MSW, RSW has been a clinical social worker since 1979 working in mental health, family therapy, and addictions services. She is a doctoral candidate at Laurentian University in Sudbury, ON. Annie also works part-time as a consultant for LYNX, owned by her husband Herb Nabigon, MSW. Herb provides traditional Anishnabek teachings and healing workshops for both Native and non-Native organizations. Together he and Annie provide training and education to professionals on a wide range of topics blending mainstream and traditional approaches in healing. They also provide cultural safety and anti-racism training. Do you have questions re: mental health, living a good life, relationships, etc. ?Annie would love to hear them and may even include your questions in a future column (published by-monthly exclusively on OntarioNewsNorth.com) Send your comments or questions to Annie via email to Pathlight@OntarioNewsNorth.com

___________________________________________________________

April 26, 1986 the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Pripyat, Ukraine exploded and burned, resulting in severe radiation contamination over large parts of Europe. 27 years later and untold numbers of dead and still dying, the sinister reactor sits in an empty “zone of alienation” 30 Km in diameter.

Some people called the event a “melt down” – scientists have more complex descriptions of the event. It was the worst of its type ever to have occurred in human history, paired only with the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. The mental and emotional anguish that whole cultures have experienced as a result of “man-made disasters” will have a ripple effect forever.

Have you experienced a disaster in your life from which you believed (or know) you will never recover? Do you know what it feels like to have a major “melt-down” of your functioning, or feel as if you will never be happy again? Has something happened in your life, or your family’s life, that has left you “Chernobyled”? If so, you are not alone.

Mental and emotional anguish is a human experience, and in times of trauma or illness it is normal to grieve and have a wide range of emotions and reactions. Strange things happen to our thoughts, relationships, and actions after personal or community disasters. When the abnormal happens, it is normal to feel unimaginable emotional pain, distress, anger, fear, loss of control, frozen feelings, coldness, having distorted perceptions or thoughts…the list can go on. It is important to name what is happening and what you are experiencing, because it is real and it has real consequences, some of which can last a lifetime. There is help and support available – from a minister, doctor, clinical social worker, counselor, friend, family member or neighbor.

The rest of the story is that life goes on. The Ukrainian “zone of alienation” is recognized by biologists as a unique recovery site despite the fact that radiation levels are too high for human habitation, probably for the next 20,000 years! At the same time, the area has reforested itself, and the severe ecological disrepair is booming in eco-diversity with rare species of European animals establishing themselves there and not outside of the exclusion zone.[1]

What does this mean? I’ll leave it to the biological scientists to form their own conclusions, but I’d like to use this as a metaphor for what can happen with humans when disasters, traumas or losses occur. Nothing will ever be the same again after death, divorce, loss of a limb, abuse, rape, a move or job change….yet while that is true, it is also true that some surprisingly good things will appear down the road. We just don’t know yet what they will be. It may be a very long time before we can make any sense or meaning of what happened – if ever!

What is most important is that we hold on to ourselves and our values in the midst of the anguish, and to our connections to family, friends and community. Our strength to recover from mental and emotional disaster is in our connections to ourselves, our social world, and the larger spiritual and physical world around us. When we are suffering the most is when we most need to reach in, and reach out. Shutting down, pretending, denying, and deceiving ourselves and others will only push the suffering underground. Eventually we will still have to “pay the piper”, to use an old phrase. Our recovery will be much more amazing if we stay open and work at acceptance and being real.

We don’t have to “move on”, or “get closure”, after a traumatic loss or event in our lives. That will be taken care of when the time is right. All we need to do is keep picking ourselves up again and again, never putting ourselves down for how badly we may feel, and practicing acts of faith in the future and ourselves. The Earth may never get “closure” on the man-made disasters that occur but the Earth keeps on re-creating, restoring, and rebounding despite whatever damage happens. We have the opportunity to sit by and wring our hands, or stand up and make helpful choices.

People, too, can have this resilience. We can go through a process of moving forward in spite of loss and pain. Who knows – maybe 27 years down the road some amazingly wonderful things will be happening that would never have happened if the disaster had not occurred. That doesn’t mean it was a good thing to have a disaster – it simply means that we can move forward and prevail despite problems and unresolved issues. It means we can choose to have a good life if we accept reality and work for what we want.

The best thing you can do for someone having a “meltdown” is let them know you are thinking of them, caring about what they are going through, and are willing to listen. Judging, giving advice, trying to “fix” them – none of that will help. Have faith and don’t give up on someone who is in anguish. Have patience, be positive and hopeful, and don’t give up. You can give, and get, help…and better things really are around the corner somewhere, even if you never see it.

I like knowing about the European Bison roaming around the silent forest at Chernobyl. I’ve never seen them, and doubt that I ever will, but I know they are there, and I’m really inspired by that! It reminds me of all the things that are important about life, like knowing that while bad things happen to good people, life is about a whole lot more than just what I am going through. It is possible to recover from a meltdown – eventually!

Tags: Annie Wenger-Nabigon, Annie Wenger-Nabigon MSW RSW, PATHLIGHT
Posted in Biigtigong Nishnaabeg, Health and Wellness, Northern Ontario Headlines, PATHLIGHT: Journey to a Good Life, World | Comments Off on PATHLIGHT by Annie Wenger-Nabigon Meltdown!

• 
  Digg
• 
  Facebook
• 
  Delicious
• 
  StumbleUpon
• 
  Twitter
• 
  Technorati
• 
  reddit
• 
  Mixx
• 
  Newsvine