Attacking the Myths (as a result of trauma) - by Roxane Silver

[applegrove]

Attacking the Myths
by Roxane Cohen Silver
Science & Spirit

In the days following September 11, we were flooded with predictions of how individuals and communities would fare as they processed their darkest emotions. The passage of time has taught us that much of what we may believe about how people respond to sudden and traumatic loss needs to be torn apart and reconstructed.

"It is now five years since the terrorist attacks that shattered our country’s sense of invulnerability. Even those who did not personally know anyone who died that day have been touched by the deaths that occurred on 9/11. We are different now. Most of us willingly tolerate long lines at the airport. We remove shoes, belts, and jackets, and send them through X-ray machines without complaint. We open our bags and empty our pockets before entering sporting events, musical performances, and theaters. Sometimes, we gaze suspiciously at young men carrying backpacks on public transportation. How have we grieved this loss of innocence? Have we recovered from the loss of thousands of people, even if we knew them only through pictures?

We have not recovered if “recovery” means returning to the place we were on September 10, 2001. But we have “bounced back.” People have returned to air travel and to Lower Manhattan. Many have come to terms with their losses. We are a resilient nation.

In this country, we make strong assumptions about how individuals respond to traumatic events. These assumptions are derived, in part, from clinical lore about coping with loss and from our cultural understanding of the experience. Yet many of our expectations about the coping process are wrong. How people are supposed to respond often stands in sharp contrast to the ways in which empirical data suggest they do.

Oftentimes, in fact, predictions about how people will respond to a community or personal trauma are made without the benefit of any data at all. Research in the natural environment—in the world as opposed to in a laboratory—is expensive, arduous, and time-consuming, and recruiting samples of traumatized populations can be challenging. We do, however, have enough data to know that “recovery” from loss rarely occurs after a few weeks or months, even though many lose patience with those who are unable to get back on their feet quickly. We should not look at the calendar and expect recovery for everyone by a certain point in time. Research provides little support for the notion that there is a “right” or “wrong” way to respond to significant losses. There are only different ways.

.....SNIP"

http://www.science-spirit.org/article_detail.php?article_id=658