Last night I suddenly grabbed my head and said, “Oh no!” because I realized I’d forgotten four huge traumatic events in our contemporary lives, events which certainly should have been included in my chronology of events we’ve all had to live through.
- February 14, 2018. I had not forgotten about the Parkland school shooting. I couldn’t; I went to Washington to join March For Our Lives a month later. The mass shootings, the deaths from weaponry which one political party refuses to deal with are not events we forget about, nor are we enured. Every time it happens — which is with a frequency that is more nightmare than accountable — I react emotionally and physically.
- On February 25, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine. The full horror of this war has been thoroughly reported on and recorded ever since. (I did not believe Putin would do this, even after his threats.)
- October 7, 2023. Hamas’s violent incursion into Israel. A simultaneous shock: Hamas’s brutality and Israel’s lack of defense. I’d always thought of Israel as the most fiercely protected country anywhere.
- Bibi’s horrific retribution, visual evidence of which covers the front pages nearly every day.
Why hadn’t I remembered these events when I compiled my PTSD list? I’m not sure. Perhaps because the wars, the murders, the rage go on and on and on, every day. I’m not sure whether post-traumatic shock can define current and ongoing shocks, not sure whether the wars and killings have to end before the syndrome sets in.
Regardless, each of us in this world has been living under a monumental aggregation of awful happenings.
Whatever we call it, this has done something dreadful to any of us with a soul.
And now I’ll find out about the definition, causation, effects and prognosis for post-traumatic stress disorder.