How do we protect ourselves from nightmares in times like these?
#22
Dear Friend of Democracy,
Today I want to tell you something about my childhood.
I grew up in a divided country. In Germany in the 1970s and 1980s, I was lucky, I grew up in the West. The so-called Bundesrepublik Deutschland.
I was lucky – and I was frightened.
As I remember it, I was constantly afraid throughout my entire childhood that my life of consumerism and freedom could end abruptly.
The enemy in the East, mainly the ones in power in Moscow, was seeking our freedom, I was steadily and forcefully told. And as a result, many dreams of my childhood were dreams of war, separation and destruction.
I dreamt of it even though I had never experienced war, separation and destruction. The dreams arose from the adults' stories that freedom could soon be over if the Russians came. And they would come if we, the West, did not fully arm ourselves militarily against such a war.
That was the story told in times of the Cold War. That was the story told to me. And so I dreamt of war. While walking through the pedestrian zone of my home town, I spotted the planes coming with the bombs, and I hide in the basement of a magazine and lottery store. I dreamt of bombardment while I was hiding in that basement, and that everything around me was being destroyed, that after the air raid, I could hardly get out of the basement, and when I did, there was no one left to go to. I was completely alone.
I remember having this dream many, many times as a child.
Luckily, it was just dreams. Unlike many people, I never experienced the end of democracy and freedom. And yet, I was frightened. The fear was always within me.
Maybe it still is.
I believe that this decades old memory drives me today, to stand up for freedom, for democracy, for people's self-determination. I want nobody to have to experience the end of democracy, nobody to experience war. Not even having to dream about it.
But I'm afraid many dream of it. And I suspect that people growing up in today's digital society may be even more haunted by the fear of war and serfdom.
Not only civilians within a targeted homeland and the soldiers on both sides of a conflict are susceptible to negative mental health consequences, but also those consuming the images, videos, and audio of the war through social media apps, television, radio, and the web.
"Studies have shown that consumers of a war via television, social media, or other forms of media can be just as impacted as the actual individuals within the conflict", says Steve Sugden, a colonel in the US Army Reserves and a psychiatrist at Huntsman Mental Health Institute (HMHI).
Why the same impact while not directly hit by the effects of war?
Less trauma may result from civilians' ability to talk immediately with their social network and process their emotions, which helps to build resilience, Sugden argues.
This might mean we don't have to close our eyes to what is happening worldwide to stay sane. We can bear it. But we have to unite. We must talk about our suffering, experiences, and fears. We have to exchange ideas with others. This alleviates suffering. And it allows us to change things for the better. So that we can thrive. Personally. And as a society.
Plus, I hope it can be a recipe for preventing nightmares.
See you,
Johannes Eber