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Y
ou might think that life makes no sense,
that it is not worth living, that it is a mat-
ter of luck, or wonder why this happened
to you or your loved ones. People tend to have
the idea that the world is a place where things
happens for a reason, and where we will be able
to control the difficulties that arise.
The horror and lack of control involving a terro-
rist attack fit poorly in our way of thinking and
seeing the world. We cannot find a sense to what
happened and, in an attempt to assimilate it, our
body comes up with common reactions that, whi-
le violent and strange in some cases, are normal
when trying to find order in this sudden chaos.
The reactions that we are going to discuss below
are deemed normal, and are part of the assimila-
tion and organization process of what happened:
•
Images and thoughts about the event
co-
ming to your mind are deemed normal, even
if you don’t want to think about them or try to
keep them out (flashbacks).
•
The same goes for nightmares
about sub-
jects more or less related to the attack and its
consequences.
•
Chaos in your recollection of the attack is
deemed normal.
You may feel like you are mis-
sing parts of a larger puzzle.
•
Concentration, attention and memory pro-
blems may also appear,
and make you feel
WH AT AM I S U P P O S E D TO T H I N K ?
upset, as if you were not your regular self or as
if something serious happened to you.
•
It is normal to wish for the "worst"
and even
want to take revenge on those who caused the
attack, but it is not healthy to devote too much
time to these thoughts, because they cause great
unease, and may eventually turn against us.
•
It is normal to be wary of everything and
everyone, wary of the world in general,
and of
human beings, as they are capable of committing
such cruel acts.
•
It is normal to doubt everything that you
believed in,
to lose confidence in a just world,
to doubt your system of values, your faith,
everything that had guided your life up until then,
and your way of doing things, everything that you
believed in, and that gave you strength and a
sense of confidence.
•
Feelings of guilt
for having done, or for having
failed to do this or that to avoid damage are also
normal, but it is important to accept that these
situations are inevitably beyond our control.
Sometimes guilt comes from things said, done
or not done to the deceased. In these cases,
we need to weigh the importance of such state-
ments in everyday life, instead of now, from the
perspective of what happened.
•
It is normal to realize your own vulnerability,
and to think you may lose everything in a matter