Turia Pitt's secret heartache: "I lost friends after the fire"
Turia Pitt has revealed that she “lost” friends after the 2011 grass fire incident that burned 65 per cent of her body.
Pitt, who recently launched her teen self-help book Good Selfie, said a young reader asked her about whether the incident changed her friendships.
“I got a question from a kid, who said they didn’t have a very big circle of friends,” Pitt told whimn.com.au.
“They asked, ‘Did you lose any friends after the fire?’ And my response was, ‘Yes I did’. It can sometimes be awkward being there for people when they’ve been through something so traumatic.”
While she admitted that the loss “hurts”, she said she decided to turn her attention on those who stayed. “Anyone who has gone through a traumatic event, you need people around you,” said the 31-year-old.
“Then when those people aren’t there in your life, of course it hurts. But I just chose to focus on the awesome people I did have in my life.”
In her new book, Pitt shares a lot of wisdom on relationships, including tips on identifying toxic friendships. One of the things she encouraged her readers to do was to evaluate how they feel after hanging out with their social group.
“If you feel really bad and down about yourself, that’s not a friend you want,” said the mother-of-one. “If you feel good about yourself, you feel enough, funny and engaging, then you should spend more time with that person. That’s a lesson for adults as well.”
In 2011, Pitt was participating in an ultramarathon event in Western Australia’s Kimberley when she was trapped in a grassfire that left her with life-threatening burns.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Pitt said she has gained valuable insights on life since the fire that enabled her to write the book.
“My accident gave me a sense of perspective over things that are really important,” she said.
“I know life can be gritty and tough and hard but it’s also extraordinary and awesome and delightful and magical.
“I now know our relationships are the most important things we have and that you have to have a strong enough core to overcome challenges. If we don’t use our resilience muscle, we don’t get an understanding of how strong we actually are.”