Hello this is
Christopher Jenkins, normally I blog about balance, but today I had the
opportunity to guest blog for Ryan Bunney… I couldn’t turn down the offer!
America is
known for its resilience after awful terrorist attacks. September 11th was an example of
how our nation bonded over a common tragedy.
The most recent Boston Marathon bombing also reveals how Americans react
to acts of terror. But how do Americans
and humans in general respond to terrorism psychologically? Do terrorist attacks have the same
psychological impact as a trip to war?
So what is the difference between terrorism
and war? How does the human mind react
to each of the events? World Psychiatry reports that in a test on Israeli citizens PTSD (posttraumatic
stress disorder) was relatively low, only 5.3%. Israel, a country that is victim to many more
acts of terror than the United States is a much better representation of how a
group of people react to terrorism, mainly because more families and more
communities have been affected due to the size of the country and the frequency
of attacks. Melissa A.
Polusny, Ph.D., of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Health Care System and the
University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, and colleagues, surveyed
953 combat-deployed U.S. National Guard Soldiers, and showed that 18.2% of
those surveyed showed strong signs of PTSD.
So, in comparison it appears that the daily stress of war has stronger
psychological effects on a human.
I would describe the daily psychological effect of terrorist attacks on the United States of America as “stress.” Stress manifests itself in many ways. Stress can be fear of getting on plane; it can be reluctance to attend major, public events; or it can be keeping a gun under your pillow when you sleep. Stress is known to provoke a fight or flight response. In my opinion, America unifies after catastrophe with a fight response.
I would describe the daily psychological effect of terrorist attacks on the United States of America as “stress.” Stress manifests itself in many ways. Stress can be fear of getting on plane; it can be reluctance to attend major, public events; or it can be keeping a gun under your pillow when you sleep. Stress is known to provoke a fight or flight response. In my opinion, America unifies after catastrophe with a fight response.
Terrorism is all about creating fear. The goal of terrorism is to change the daily lives of others. 9-11 certainly changed our daily lives. It changed our lives forever. There are multiple similarities between war and terrorism. Soldiers that go to war do not expect to go through traumatic events that effect their entire lives. Certainly victims of terrorism also do not expect to be attacked. Therefore, I believe both situations are similar.
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