“Desensitizing people to past horrors rarely prepares them to be fully available to deal with post-combat realities.” Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD (NY Times Comment)
Although written in the context of veterans, Dr. Van Der Kolk’s comment is appropriate to all forms of trauma inducing horror. After a lifetime of trauma response behaviors, the social and criminal response to those behaviors, and collateral consequences like dropping out of school, someone on the pathway to healing from the trauma needs guidance on how to enter the mainstream economic system with improved social and emotional skills.
In a recent Alaska Dispatch News article on street people, it was pointed out that one resident of the alcohol safe house moved away from the daily temptations caused by the omnipresence of alcohol. It was tough because the residents of the safe house were her friends. Our cultural surrounds are important to us, and if we have to abandon them in search of a better life, we need support. One man named in the article flew home to a rehab program. It surfaced his problems with alcohol, something he avoided by becoming a part of the homeless subculture in Anchorage.
Programs that support and surround victims suffering from the vicissitudes of trauma are required, in addition to healing programs. We must be innovative with our approach to healing the scourge of trauma, both developmental and adult onset. I thank Dr. Van Der Kolk to repeating this in a very public way.
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