Why Them, Not Me?

When someone close to you has been murdered. It is an understatement to say that your life has been changed. The pain and anger of thinking that it should have of been you in that car accident or whatever may drive you to almost the brink of insanity. People who feel this way may be suffering from survivor guilt. There is no real cure for this, people may only be able to "manage their grief."

Not to long ago, there was something that was one of the world's most devastating and tragic wars ever to take place. For the six million jews that were murdered, raped, and robbed during the holocaust our world weeps. On the other hand, the ones that survived feel responsible. For the survivors of the holocaust, they were so relieved to be freed, but for some, they were heart swept. Shortly after being rescued, the thought of losing their loved ones, drove some survivors to feeling guilty. This is called survivor guilt.

Symptoms of survivor guilt is not being able to sleep at night or find it very hard to get out of bed in the morning. These symptoms are a part of many phases. Every day survivors need to talk to someone they can trust so they can relieve their emotions and not be stuck in the first phase. To really treat survivor guilt you really need to know what happened to trigger the feeling of guilt. Whether it not being there enough for that person, or being their too much. If you took to good of care of someone in the concentration camps, they grew dependable and were not strong enough. However, if you did not watch over someone enough they felt alone and just decided to give up. Either way you would feel like it was your fault that the person or persons were killed and not you.

Every survivor is stuck with those famous "what-ifs." These people suffering from this disease need to be taught that no one person can change the past, and continuing to blame themselves would only lead to more destruction.

The biggest mistake and problem with those who suffer from survivor guilt is anger and revenge. survivors need to be reminded that by killing the people that killed their loved ones will not bring back their loved ones, it will only make them a killer.

What is so hard about treating survivors with survivor guilt is that each one of us is an individual. We all like different foods, wear different clothing, and choose unique lifestyles. It stands to reason that, at the most painful times in peoples lives, people also would grieve in different ways. How people choose to grieve is determined by three things; individual personal views of death. how society views death, and people's individual personalities.

All the survivors of the holocaust reacted in different ways, some took their own lives because they could not cope with the thought of losing their loved ones. Other survivors rejoiced at the thought of being able to live again without the thought of being persecuted. Yet everyone still feels the same pain and heartache of what the nazis did to the jews. Even today, when serial killers and rapists take the lives of some ones loved one. Some people still ask themselves "what if I would have went to the store instead of him, what if that was me in the car," there must be a million voices and thoughts like this. Although there is no proven cure for survivor guilt, we can help these people by letting them know that there still is more to live for. They have to know that they are not responsible for what happened and that they thoughts of those that were killed will stay with them forever.

Bibliography

www.encarta.com

compton's encylcopedia

www.aolhealth/survivorguilt.com

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