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A few years ago I was sitting in a bookshop in Seattle with my coffee, and I overhear a conversation about severe political unrest in a country far away.
The two people seemed lively and spirited, like they were having fun, as they debated about extremely disturbing topics like war. I was in intensive mental health care for PTSD at the time, so my main focus was on getting the heck away, feeling more and more ill as they went on.
But my secondary thought still stays with me today: I never want to be like those people. I always want to retain my empathy to the point where it is difficult to have that kind of discussion, and if I can’t, I want to stay in my damn lane and learn more quietly.
I see discussions like the ones those people had *all the time.* Unless you’re a survivor of that trauma trying to make light of it to recover, how can people enjoy talking about trauma like war & assault? I have to stop even close friends who know I hate this, it’s so normalized
I think part of it might be a distinction between real life trauma and a fictional story, like a game or dramatic movie. Fictional stories can let us work out & experiment with fears in a safe place. Lines can blur, but real life needs to be treated with care.
