Four years ago, in honor of World Mental Health Day, I wrote a piece for Action on Armed Violence with Jane Hunter. She and I discussed my thoughts and feelings about the mental health response to the Boston Marathon bombing. As someone who thankfully walked away without physical injuries, I felt invisible. Mental health wounds like mine were not discussed publicly. Nor did the news media include these kinds of injuries in their quantification of the tragedy.
The words I wrote in that article still ring true today.
“I write and talk about my experience as an invisible victim, to help others understand that there were more than 260 injuries that day. Many, many more members of our community were harmed. We suffered our injuries in private, under the societal stigma that what we were feeling wasn’t real and didn’t matter.”
I stay away from a lot of news coverage of violence and trauma. It’s a self-protection mechanism. Yet, information still gets through to me. And what I’m seeing incident after incident, large or small, is that we still don’t do a good job of acknowledging the psychological side of trauma. And especially not for those who don’t also have physical wounds.
A few stories have broken through, with a glimmer of hope.
This story in Wired looks at the mental health impacts of a natural disaster – the October 2017 Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa, CA. This kind of article is critical to sharing how tragedy impacts the human psyche. It also make clear something I’ve learned since the day a bomb exploded across the street from me: The mental health community is well aware of the mental health impacts of this kind of trauma.
The story just isn’t making a big enough splash to get from the hearts and minds of those who know it – either as responders and helpers or who have lived experience – to the public. It isn’t making it to the very people who need to know this information when something happens to them or their loved ones.
Most of the stories I see that look at the mental health angle are written well after the event. They’re written as a follow-up or recognition of an anniversary, usually just the first one. I argue we need this recognition in the first hours and days. Not merely after the initial flurry of news has slowed down and we are looking for new angles to the story. Sharing this information right away helps people who are experiencing post-trauma reactions. This information can help them know from the start that their reactions are normal. And enable them to understand what’s happening and take the steps they need to heal.
On this year’s World Mental Health day, with its focus on young people and mental health in a changing world, I write this piece in honor of all victims of trauma, no matter how long your own healing journey took or is still taking you. I see you.