Healing through #InfinityTrain
Losing a loved one may be worse than dying ourselves. Your very soul shatters and you're left lying in pieces with a heart which seems unmendable. The sting of death clouds the days, months and years. They were your sunshine, the reason to live at all. How in the world does anyone ever move on when the gash on our hearts is too wide to heal, or the pain too great to ever subside? For a while, all hope will seem lost and the future nothing more than an empty promise as we desperately search for something to patch the hole in our hearts but nothing will ever be a perfect fit. Even though we’ll always miss them and long to just have one more minute with them, life must go on and learning how is a puzzling mystery, no matter what age you are.
As children, we often think adults are wise and all knowing or we’ve been led to believe the world is nicer than it actually is. Then we grow up and are met with a depressingly grim reality and it appears all we’ve been led to believe was a lie and the censorship from trusted adults only served to exacerbate our present feelings of betrayal. I’ll admit, there are some things that need to be sugar-coated for a child, whose minds are too innocent to tarnish with knowledge of the sin of the world, but when it comes to something that’s currently happening in their lives, some struggle they’re going through which is beyond our control, it’s our duty to show compassion and let them know even though whoever they’ve lost is gone, they’re not alone with this pain. If we as adults struggle to cope with grief, how can we expect our children to do so as well?
Grief is an important mental health topic and an unavoidable aspect of life. It’s often accompanied by depression, eating disorders, anxiety and insomnia and can lead to multiple health conditions. Not to mention some unhealthy ways of coping or sometimes, the unfortunate surrender to the pain, the white flag stained crimson and the soul who felt it was their only way to end their suffering. If only, there was some glimmer of hope they could have been given, some sort of guide or intervention that may have saved their life? Sometimes, giving someone something enjoyable, even as simple as a cartoon, is enough to chase away those dark clouds, even if it’s for a little bit, it means the world to someone who thought they would never see the sun again.
Infinity Train is a brilliant show that deals with these struggles head on, and offers characters who are going through some similar situations. Being able to relate through shared pain, even to a fictional character, is like a soothing blanket, a breath of fresh air from feeling unable to breathe. Book 1 came out at the worst time in my life and my mental health was taking a nosedive from everything I had been through. Though Tulip wasn’t dealing with exactly the same issues as I was, she was a programmer like me and that alone allowed me to really connect with her even though she’s 12 and I was 21. Letting myself attempt to solve the mysteries of the train as I followed her journey gave me something to focus on other than anxious thoughts, a problem I felt I could actually solve since solving my own issues seemed hopeless. There truly is a healing and therapeutic quality to a good story and since we all have to deal with life’s hurdles and downright beatings, it’s nice to be able to use our connections to characters to insert ourselves into their stories and experience their journey of healing so we can then, do something similar in our own lives. Getting back on my feet from trauma hasn’t been easy, it’s taken a few years and I should have seen a therapist long ago, but they’re not easy to come by or afford. My healing has been done primarily through focusing on things I enjoy like cartoons which has allowed me to discover more of myself and meet new friends who’ve helped me. Yes, healing can take much more than a single show but when overcoming a challenge seems insurmountable, any little help is priceless. I am forever indebted to shows like Infinity Train for their heartfelt stories and inspiring therapeutic creativity and resparking joy into my life.
