I thought of you the other day when I heard this story: http://www.prx.org/pieces/90132-1312-ptsd-lost-art-and-the-berlin-wall-5-7-201 (click on “segment 1″). He went through it — it took time but had a happy ending — I hope one day you will look back and realize that enough time has passed and you’ve made a lot of progress since then.

You are a great writer — you just need to decide if you want to be a “professional” writer, but bear in mind that even professional writers agonize and procrastinate.

Starting to go through your photos is an excellent start. Maybe the snapshots will remind you of all the good things that happened to you on this trip and motivate you to start writing the travel posts that we are all eagerly waiting for!

I think sometimes you have to just fake it ’til you make it. Start going through the motions until your emotions and passion catches up.

Movies do distort the way we think about life. (Although I didn’t think Silver Linings lived up to the hype either). I think in real life, it’s more likely that we slowly reach a new stage and don’t even realize it’s happening until one day we wake up and realize we haven’t thought about whatever the thing that was bugging us was in a long time.

In the meantime, drink beer and eat ice cream. That for sure helps.

The fact you want to feel normal is a great step forward. Be patient with yourself. The very best thing you can do for yourself is to take good care of your health and maintain your friendships, even when you’re not feeling at your best and everything they say sounds insignificant and stupid.

Most of the writers I follow put off writing until deadline time, drink an entire bottle of wine and then finally write. I don’t recommend drinking an entire bottle of wine.

You’ve got a lot going on—recovery from trauma, reintegration to “regular” life after a world tour, a long-distance relationship, job search—so t’ain’t no surprise that you’re not in the groove you want to be in. Ease up on yerseff!

I disagree with the writing notion though. Maybe it’s hard to want to write when other anxieties are pressing — I know my creativity suffers when pressured and I can’t relax, but I still think you’re a writer and can do awesome things even with material you already have here from your blog. I think writing is like exercising or brushing your teeth. Sometimes you crave it but usually it’s a habit that has to be established. Lots of great writers have said that they’ve forced themselves to write even when they didn’t want to. And output wasn’t always worthy stuff, but it was the act of doing itself that mattered because it kept the channel open to that special place.