The piece today is dedicated to an esteemed friend and colleague, Prof. David Ratnavale, from whom I learned a great deal on the subject today and with whom a small group worked as a Presidential Task Force on Human Disaster Management commissioned by President Chandrika Kumaratunga.
When disasters strike, individuals and the societies in which they live will experience various forms of stress reactions, both mental and physical. People who have been psychologically traumatised are known to run a spectrum of reactions from denying the emotional consequences to living in constant dread of re-exposure. While everybody understands why war and violent communal conflict are traumatic to the individuals involved, the concept of a traumatised society remains poorly defined.
This is partly due to the fact that the consequences of collective trauma are variously interpreted, and the signs or symptoms are harder to measure. Besides, the underlying psychological processes affecting societies under stress or in transition are inevitably intertwined with unstable political, military, and economic forces. In conflicts, each side aims to traumatise the other collectively.
Although individualised interventions are clearly beneficial, attention to the enormous number of cases of post-traumatic stress disorder or syndromic variants goes untreated due to a lack of early detection, adequate remedies, and appropriately trained professionals.
Community’s capacity
Unrecognised and untreated, distressed individuals exert added stress upon the community, which, in turn, constrains the community’s capacity to support and contain its distressed members. A vicious cycle develops consisting of alternating exacerbations and remissions very similar to a chronic illness. Quite apart from the mental and psychosomatic implications, the losses from underemployment, disability, and the harmful behaviors of crime, family breakup, and addiction exert a heavy economic toll.
Failure to address the consequences of collective trauma prevents a serious examination of the multiple influences bearing upon communities under stress. In addition, subtle yet pervasive forces tend to impede effective relief, reconstruction, and reconciliation. Furthermore, strategies aimed at primary prevention tend to be ignored or overlooked.
Societal trauma must, therefore, be examined under different lenses and in the proper context.
HISTORY – (Collective Mental Representation): Understanding a group’s behavior in the context of current affairs, particularly in times of crises, requires insight into the history, beliefs, and values that have shaped its collective identity.
Remembering the past: The concern with collective memory, its control, manipulation, and preservation is not a monopoly of certain groups. For many people, safeguarding memory is integral to saving and preserving identity. This is true for individuals, families, and large groups. The connection between preserving memory and preserving identity is common among subjugated people or those fearing extinction. The destruction of treasured artifacts, monuments, cemeteries, and the burning of books and libraries may represent an attempt to destroy memory (and identity).
Safeguarding memory: For many people, safeguarding memory is integral to saving identity. These ethnic, racial, or national identities are usually shaped (and frequently manipulated) by various versions of ancient history that focus on traumas (collective traumas) or collective triumphs, which become crystallised in memory. When societies are traumatised, these collective identities may be resurrected. Reminders of collective traumas tend to stir negative emotions such as revenge and hate, while the recollection of collective triumphs aims to sustain pride.
Stirring emotion: Political entrepreneurs are adept at reviving (echoing) age-old events (chosen traumas) to stir emotion and rebellion in the younger generation. These chosen traumas are invariably linked to the loss of chosen triumphs, those past golden eras destroyed by one’s adversaries. Through the phenomenon of a “time collapse,” all the horrible traumas visited upon one’s ancestors by their enemies begin to sound like they happened only yesterday.
Unanticipated triggers: Examples of unanticipated post-conflict conflagrations abound. Indeed, with the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, splits that lay hidden or suppressed for 40 years erupted with horrible violence during the early 1990s. Similar splintering of sub-groupings appeared soon after India was divided, and also in other British colonies in Africa and Asia (Sri Lanka) when their former masters departed from the scene.
Secondary effects: As a result of the war and the collapse (or dismissal) of the former central administrative government in Iraq, new conflicts appeared as fissures along the fault lines that separate ethnic and religious groups previously less vocal or possibly suppressed. It is hard to know if these newly emerging conflicts were inevitable, or if they could have been anticipated and prevented. One could ask the same question concerning Britain’s responsibility to the new nations gaining/granted their independence, as in Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, where serious post-independence conflagrations have arisen.
Existing risk factors and early warning signs: What were the existing risk factors and early warning signs that were missed or ignored? And what did anyone know of the pre-disaster (risk factor) circumstances in Rwanda, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Darfur in Sudan?
It has fallen to the historians to alert us to the recognition of the common strands and dangerous trends that lead to national crises. Objective, dispassionate assessments are difficult in the midst of crises. The situation in Iraq stands out as an example.
Each situation must be understood as unique, but if viewed only through the lens and filters of our own experience, we will fall short of the ground truth.
What is Trauma?
Trauma is the result of a negative event. It occurs when you feel emotionally or mentally hurt by something that has happened, and it may lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly referred to as PTSD. Examples of traumatic events include the death of someone you love, experiencing abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional, domestic violence), a plane or automobile crash, an extremely difficult relationship or breakup, or a natural disaster like an earthquake or hurricane.
The trauma isn’t the event or experience itself but rather your body and mind’s response to it. Traumatic stress affects the brain, making it crucial to take steps toward recovery and mitigate its negative effects and impacts as much as possible.
****
Signs and Symptoms of Unresolved Trauma
Even when memories of the trauma are hidden from a person’s awareness, there are signs that will become noticeable in his or her daily life. Below are some of the most common signs that someone is suffering from unresolved trauma:
1. Anxiety or panic attacks that occur in what would be considered normal situations.
2. A feeling of shame; an innate feeling that they are bad, worthless, or without importance.
3. Suffering from chronic or ongoing depression.
4. Practicing avoidance of people, places, or things that may be related to the traumatic event; this also can include an avoidance of unpleasant emotions.
5. Flashbacks, nightmares, and body memories regarding the traumatic event.
6. Addiction and eating disorders in an attempt to escape or numb negative emotions.
7. Sleeping issues, including trouble going to sleep or staying asleep.
8. Suffering from feelings of detachment or feeling “dead inside” (This is perhaps the most devastating of the signs, because it creates a feeling of loneliness and isolation).
9. Dissociation as a real disconnect in situations and conversations.
10. Hypervigilance (a constant feeling of being on guard).
11. Suicidal thoughts or actions.
12. Uncontrollable anger; acting on it.
13. Self-harm, cutting, and mutilation.
14. Not being able to tolerate conflicts as they once would have.
15. Unexplained or irrational fears of people, places, or things.
If you identify with any, or all, of the signs above, then you may want to ask yourself if it’s time to find healing. The writer hopes for greater empathy and responsiveness as we address triggers, aftermaths, and trauma amongst us.
