War, conflict, and organized violence

Surviving a terrorist attack or mass violence event

Being present during a terrorist attack, mass shooting, bombing, or other large scale violent event. Surviving something that was designed to cause maximum harm to as many people as possible. The randomness of it, the scale of it, and the way it reorganizes your sense of safety in the world.

If some version of this is part of your story, you already know that the hardest part is rarely the memory itself. It is carrying it in a world that mostly does not want to hear about it. This fellowship exists so you do not have to carry it alone, and so you never have to explain it to someone who has no idea what it means.

What can follow an experience like this

No two people carry the same experience the same way. These are some of the effects that people with this experience often describe. Having some of them, all of them, or none of them says nothing about how real what happened to you was.

Not knowing who to trust Trust that was broken, repeatedly, by people who were supposed to be safe. Emotional numbness Not depression exactly. Dissociation or feeling detached from yourself Dissociation is what the nervous system does when what is happening is too much to stay present for. Thoughts about not wanting to be here Thoughts about not existing anymore. Staying busy or moving because stillness feels unsafe When the nervous system learned that staying was dangerous, some people learned to keep moving. Exhaustion that sleep does not fix This is not tiredness. Deep loneliness or never belonging anywhere This is different from pulling away. Loss of faith or not knowing what to believe anymore Something happened and the belief system that held your world together stopped holding.

Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and nothing here decides what is wrong with you, because nothing is wrong with you. Something happened to you. This page exists so that when you are ready, you can find people who understand it from the inside.

You do not have to carry this alone.

Bridge of Hope Recovery is a free, anonymous, peer-led fellowship for trauma survivors. Meetings run throughout the week by phone, by video, and in person. No cost, no waitlist, no one asking for your real name.

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