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Talking about trauma on the anniversary of 9 [1]
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Date: 2024-09-11
I can’t believe it has been 23 years since 9/11. If you’re like me, you can remember exactly where you were when you heard that terrorists had attacked the World Trade Center. Where was I on 9/11? Sitting at a desk in my high school physics class. I will never forget how my teacher interrupted class on September 11, 2001, to show us the flaming wreckage of the Twin Towers. I will also never forget the trauma that this horrible event caused.
In fact, 9/11 served as one of the primary reasons for why I decided to join the Army. And, in the Army, I experienced things that had a lasting impact on my life, especially those events that I experienced in 2012 in Panjwai, Afghanistan. I guess you could say — whether I would like to admit it or not — that many of those experiences were traumatic.
With the anniversary of 9/11 fresh in our minds, and knowing about the more than 23 years of nationwide trauma that this event caused, I thought it fitting to talk about trauma. In life, everyone goes through suffering. Yet, some traumatic events stay with us, and affect us, longer than others. Unfortunately, past trauma can hinder our present lives by manifesting flashbacks, causing extreme alertness or anxiety, or by making us feel sensations of guilt or shame — like survivor’s guilt. Trauma can also cause us to relive or fixate on horrible moments, which negatively affect our present lives. That is, unless we address our trauma by talking about it.
I recently read an article by Judge Ted Sandberg in “The Gavel,” a North Dakota legal publication, about how practicing law becomes more difficult for attorneys the longer that attorneys practice. It seemed analogous to how we experience trauma. Specifically, Judge Sandberg wrote that “(f)or every day a lawyer practices, the difficulty increases. The more you know, the more work is required, because you know all the ways and means a project can go wrong.” In my view, this is exactly how trauma affects us. Because, once we experience trauma, our mind tends to consistently remind us about this traumatic event to prepare us for it in the future. It is as if our brain is telling us, after suffering trauma, all the ways our life can go wrong.
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