Elizabeth Smart - 2008 People Magazine interview

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http://earthnocentric.blogspot.com/2008 ... eople.html

Unforunately, while I wish I could find a link to this article and post it, I've had no luck. I took my car into the mechanic yesterday for some maintenance work and saw an old issue of People sitting there with the cover story of: My Untold Story. Having the curiousities that I do about human experience, werewithall in recovering from crisis, I had to read this.
What she said was truly amazing. She took charge immediately, as soon as she got home she went to bed the first night in the very bed she was taken from. She also made it a point to go back to the place where she was tied to a tree and bring her parents to see it. From a psychological standpoint her attitude on it, aside from being very iron willed in her recovery efforts and breaking the bad memories, its amazing as well that she was lucky enough to have that much insight into how her own mind works and what she needed to face down in terms of coming out of that experience.

The article genuinely reflects someone who saw a floating block of memory in their life, knew what it was and what it was capable of doing to them if they were not careful in how they addressed it, and someone who with iron willed resolve refused to let a bump in the road of life to end up being a fork. I think what she said that struck me as something that I had used a lot in dealing with not only past but repeated traumas - particularly at the hands of others - she'd given her captors 9 months of her life, she refused to give them another second.

Stories like this one I'd love to post more of in here because, even when you're dealing with stories of people who are dealing with traumatic situations that fall outside the realm of what we're dealing with - it seems like the best practices in coping mechanisms are much the same and when you realize the profundity of what many people have been through off spectrum, many stories like this can be incredibly inspiring regardless of the direct paradigm.

BTW, if anyone does have any better luck than I did finding this article feel free to tack it in; there's a lot in the way of particulars that I left out.

Very interesting article.

Most I think are resilient and do find ways to survive the worst sorts of circumstances, even very young children do this when they have to, and her natural instincts to heal and bounce back after such a horror are equally natural, intuitive and instinctual in the right kind of circumstances. It's fortunate only in that her abductors or captors, terrorists and abusers were not also her own family and that her captivity was relatively short lived. That isn't to minimize her experience by any means. It is truly horrific and terrifying. I know well what happens to the mind and body in that sort of circumstance, though more long term. It is amazing what a person can survive and come through, seemingly unscathed. There are deep ramifications however, I am sure, even in the most supportive and healthy environments after such an ordeal. I'm very glad that she has such a loving, supportive family that she was able to return to. It's one of those stories that one only dreams of and the outcome typically a tragic one.