Personal Narrative: Life After Trauma

Have you ever experienced something so traumatic, that you felt you were trapped in? Even if your experience is different from others, it still personally defines your story. Well memoirist who choose to write about their trauma, they have felt lost and trapped before too. Once the memoirist start writing the details of their incident, it’s like a weight has been lifted off their shoulders. They are sharing details that may have been difficult to verbally express. Therefore, when a memoirists is ready to write and share details of their trauma, they should be able to express themselves freely in order to define their truth. Memoirists who experienced great trauma, and then later feel ready to speak out. They should be able to freely do so.
So when the memoirists is ready to reveal that part of them they should be able, it’ll further their healing. When a person experiences trauma the aftermath is bad for their health. It causes stress, depression and also their personal life, like school and work starts to go downhill. According to Jamie Pennebaker that one of the best therapies to assist with healing is writing. He describes a procedure done in 1996 in Psychological science. Art Markman, Ph.D states that “People are asked to spend three consecutive days writing about one or more traumatic events.” Throughout the writing they are encouraged to really dig deep into the incident. He expressed it was difficult during the writing but the effect of the procedure was outstanding. He stated the results of writing while healing was that “They suffered fewer symptoms of depression in the future. They were less likely to miss work and school, and their performance at work went up. These effects lasted for months and years after
Some are still mentally trapped and suffering in silence. When memoirists write about their trauma they also help others who are living in silence. They can benefit from hearing another victims story, it’ll be a stepping stone to seek closure. Which will leave them empowered and liberated. According to The Bureau of Justice Statistics “majority of rapes and sexual assaults perpetrated against women and girls in the United States between 1992 and 2000 were not reported to the police.” There are several reason why women and girls choose not to report the crime such as guilt, shame, fear and lack of