Whether you know it or not. We ALL have a dark side. These secrets keep us sick. They keep us feeling ashamed and unworthy. If we don’t talk about them, we can’t be healed. This is something that I’ve learned in counseling. Although, I learned it many years ago, I have to put it into practice. I don’t want my secrets to destroy my body and bring me any illness.
The above was reinforced when I read Two’s Company by Suzanne Sommers. She came to notoriety as “Chrissy Snow” in the popular sitcom Three’s Company. Her character put her on the “celebrity map.” Her situation might sound familiar – catapulted to stardom BUT keeping a secret. Her father was a raging alcoholic. It affected everyone in her family. When you’re touched by family alcoholism, it stays with you. You develop coping behaviors that you think help you cope. In fact, they hinder you, and push you into a closet.
In Sommer’s book, she realizes that her inability to talk about her secret, led her to breast cancer. She learned that her hiding (literally) in a closet, stayed in her system, and eventually came out as cancer. Why? Her secret was that she was the daughter of an alcoholic.
Throughout my life, I’ve seen how “secrets” destroy a person’s spirit. Some examples include, abortion, AIDS, mental illness and homosexuality. Each person held one of those secrets until their mortality (health) was challenged. Once their health was in jeopardy, they deduced it was due to the secret they carried. In turn (just like Sommers) they came out of the closet and revealed their secret. I was raised in a home where what happened there, stayed there. At first, keeping those secrets seemed “right.” That is, until I saw the long term effects of them. In a safe, counseling environment I was able to talk about them and heal. I don’t want to be like Suzanne Sommers. I want a life unencumbered by secrets.
I urge you to do the same!
Just 1 Page . . .
Focus: Family, secrets, spirit
Questions for you: 1) What secrets are you keeping? 2) What kind of a toll has it had on your body and spirit? 3) What steps can you take toward healing?
