'Time Heals All Wounds:' Is There Any Truth to This?

Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsDoes Time Heal All Wounds?Time’s Role In HealingWhat Can Prevent Healing?How to Promote Healing With TimeTechniques to Speed Up the Recovery Process

Table of ContentsView All

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Table of Contents

Does Time Heal All Wounds?

Time’s Role In Healing

What Can Prevent Healing?

How to Promote Healing With Time

Techniques to Speed Up the Recovery Process

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If you’ve experienced loss, disappointment, heartbreak, or trauma, you’ve had well-meaning people say that the pain will fade with time. Does time really heal all wounds, as the popular saying goes?

Time is certainly an important factor when it comes tohealing. Although it may take away some of the pain, sorrow, or other negative emotions associated with an experience, time on its own is not a healer.

At a GlanceTime can help make things hurt less, but it isn’t a healer on its own. Whether you aregoing through a breakup,grieving the loss of a loved one, or going through something else emotionally taxing, plenty of other factors are involved in the healing process. In this article, learn why the cliché that “time heals all wounds” doesn’t tell the whole story, as well as time’s true role in healing, other factors involved, and where you can focus your efforts to speed up the healing process.

At a Glance

Time can help make things hurt less, but it isn’t a healer on its own. Whether you aregoing through a breakup,grieving the loss of a loved one, or going through something else emotionally taxing, plenty of other factors are involved in the healing process. In this article, learn why the cliché that “time heals all wounds” doesn’t tell the whole story, as well as time’s true role in healing, other factors involved, and where you can focus your efforts to speed up the healing process.

While the saying suggests that grief and pain tend to lessen with time, evidence suggests that this isn’t necessarily true for everyone.

The nature of the wound itself can affect how time influences healing. In one study, researchers found that time did have an effect on whether people were willing to forgive an interpersonal transgression. As time passed, people became more likely to forgive, suggesting that time played a role in healing the hurt.

However, research has also found that time does not heal all wounds. In one study, bereaved people had high levels of prolonged grief one to two years after a loss.

It’s important to remember that pain and trauma can carry lasting effects. The effects of childhood trauma are a perfect example that demonstrates that time alone does not heal all wounds.

Adverse childhood experiences, for example, are traumatic events that occur during childhood that have effects that last into adulthood. Such experiences can include things like neglect, abuse, violence, substance use, divorce, and the loss of a loved one.

These adverse early experiences are linked to later problems, including depression, unemployment, financial difficulties, substance use, and health problems. Despite the passage of time, these wounds leave a lasting mark that time alone does not heal.

How Time Can Help You Heal

What is time’s actual role in healing? According to licensed psychologist and owner of the Baltimore Therapy GroupHeather Z. Lyons, PhD, time essentially equates to opportunity. Therefore, how someone heals over time ultimately depends on how they decide to use that opportunity to shape their present and future circumstances.

She explains that people can use time to gain insight, healthier relationships, and an orientation toward growth. “Some people will use time as an opportunity to collect experiences that orient them toward their values and dilute or challenge difficult experiences,” she says.

For example, people canconnect with friends, develop new relationships, or engage in activities they find rewarding to aid in the healing process.

Heather Z. Lyons, PhDTime also allows for reflection on the difficult experience in a way that promotes insight and the ability to move on.

Heather Z. Lyons, PhD

Time also allows for reflection on the difficult experience in a way that promotes insight and the ability to move on.

She notes that this is contrasted withrumination, which is reflection that doesnotintegrate thought and emotion.

“Rumination is usually all emotion or all thought. Healthy reflection integrates the two to help people gain new understandings,” she explains, noting that when people ruminate, they usually confirm negative beliefs about themselves or others.

For example, this may include a belief like “I knew he’d leave me, that’s just the way all men are” or “I won’t let my guard down next time so I don’t get hurt.”

Press Play for Advice On Dealing With RuminationThis episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcastshares how you can learn to stop overthinking and ruminating.

Press Play for Advice On Dealing With Rumination

This episode ofThe Verywell Mind Podcastshares how you can learn to stop overthinking and ruminating.

It’s possible (and highly likely) that time will not heal all wounds for several reasons. So, what can prevent someone from healing as time goes on?

The following things may prolong your healing even though a notable amount of time has passed:

In addition to ruminating, people can use time to support the limiting beliefs that they have that keep them stuck in a cycle of negative experiences.

“[They] find themselves stuck and living in the past as though no time has elapsed after the experience of a difficult event,” says Lyons. “Of course, some experiences are so traumatic that they leave us scarred for a while, and this scarring is our brain’s way of keeping us healthy,” she says.

Denial as a Defense Mechanism

Time can help with healing, but there are also things you can do to help ensure that you move forward in a way that brings you greater peace.

Heather Z. Lyons, PhDSome factors differentiate those who move on with time and those for whom time seems to provide the opportunity to become more entrenched in a loss, trauma, or other difficult experiences.

Some factors differentiate those who move on with time and those for whom time seems to provide the opportunity to become more entrenched in a loss, trauma, or other difficult experiences.

Essentially, how you utilize your time directly correlates to how well and quickly you will heal. So let’s take a look at some factors that help facilitate the healing process.

Integrate Lessons You’ve Learned

“People need the opportunity to express their pain in ways that marry insight and emotion,” says Lyons. This could mean creating art based on your experience, making music, creating journal entries, or writing stories.

Ultimately, you can express your pain in a way that feelscatharticand healing to you so it doesn’t stay bottled up or turn into an unhealthy expression down the line.

Honor Your Emotions

Give yourself grace to fully process your emotions. This is especially important after experiencing a traumatic situation, like a breakup, adeath, or a physical injury. Release any judgment associated with the experience, and allow yourself toaccept and feelwhatever comes up for you in order to move past it.

Receive Support

Lyons notes thatpeople benefit from social support. So spend time with those you trust who can offer you emotional support in your time of need. This can be friends, family, or a trained professional, like a therapist or coach.

Align Your Actions With Your Values

“People benefit from engaging in activities that help them live lives aligned with their values,” says Lyons. So pursue the hobbies you enjoy and make new memories doing what you love to help yourself achieve a deeper sense of healing.

Instead of solely depending on time to heal your wounds, there are other areas that you can focus on to promote healing. To achieve a deeper sense of healing, you can try any or all of the following techniques:

Lyons reminds readers that “when we open ourselves up to new people and experiences, we also retrain our brain to understand that yes, there are places and relationships that are dangerous, but there are also places and relationships that are safe.”

What Is Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG)?

Keep in Mind

“Time heals all wounds” is one of the most popular sayings, but it may not be completely true. Although time is not exactly a healer, it can have healing purposes. Ultimately, though, it’s up to you to find ways to achieve healing during the time that passes after experiencing a wound or trauma.

Try not to guilt yourself if you heal slower than you want to. Everybody heals on their own timeline, so offer yourself grace and patience.

If you find it difficult to overcome an experience, consider seeking the help of a therapist or qualified mental health professional. An experienced professional will be able to guide you through the healing process in ways that offer much deeper healing than time alone can offer.

Can Depression Go Away on Its Own?

3 SourcesVerywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Wohl MJ, McGrath AL.The perception of time heals all wounds: temporal distance affects willingness to forgive following an interpersonal transgression.Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007;33(7):1023-1035. doi:10.1177/0146167207301021Titlestad KB, Dyregrov K.Does ‘time heal all wounds?’ The prevalence and predictors of prolonged grief among drug-death bereaved family members: A cross-sectional study.Omega (Westport). doi:10.1177/00302228221098584Jackisch J, Ploubidis GB, Gondek D.Does time heal all wounds? Life course associations between child welfare involvement and mortality in prospective cohorts from Sweden and Britain.SSM Popul Health. 2021;14:100772. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100772

3 Sources

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Wohl MJ, McGrath AL.The perception of time heals all wounds: temporal distance affects willingness to forgive following an interpersonal transgression.Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007;33(7):1023-1035. doi:10.1177/0146167207301021Titlestad KB, Dyregrov K.Does ‘time heal all wounds?’ The prevalence and predictors of prolonged grief among drug-death bereaved family members: A cross-sectional study.Omega (Westport). doi:10.1177/00302228221098584Jackisch J, Ploubidis GB, Gondek D.Does time heal all wounds? Life course associations between child welfare involvement and mortality in prospective cohorts from Sweden and Britain.SSM Popul Health. 2021;14:100772. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100772

Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.

Wohl MJ, McGrath AL.The perception of time heals all wounds: temporal distance affects willingness to forgive following an interpersonal transgression.Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007;33(7):1023-1035. doi:10.1177/0146167207301021Titlestad KB, Dyregrov K.Does ‘time heal all wounds?’ The prevalence and predictors of prolonged grief among drug-death bereaved family members: A cross-sectional study.Omega (Westport). doi:10.1177/00302228221098584Jackisch J, Ploubidis GB, Gondek D.Does time heal all wounds? Life course associations between child welfare involvement and mortality in prospective cohorts from Sweden and Britain.SSM Popul Health. 2021;14:100772. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100772

Wohl MJ, McGrath AL.The perception of time heals all wounds: temporal distance affects willingness to forgive following an interpersonal transgression.Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2007;33(7):1023-1035. doi:10.1177/0146167207301021

Titlestad KB, Dyregrov K.Does ‘time heal all wounds?’ The prevalence and predictors of prolonged grief among drug-death bereaved family members: A cross-sectional study.Omega (Westport). doi:10.1177/00302228221098584

Jackisch J, Ploubidis GB, Gondek D.Does time heal all wounds? Life course associations between child welfare involvement and mortality in prospective cohorts from Sweden and Britain.SSM Popul Health. 2021;14:100772. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2021.100772

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