The Fear Factor

I woke up to the news this morning that Central London had been attacked by a lone terrorist. Even though he worked alone he killed four people and injured 40. Some of the injured are school children. I then realised a family member was in London at the time.

She posted she was OK, but I found out that she was on a bus as it unfolded and heard the shots. It was a relief to find out she was alright. How she deals with the ‘what ifs’ is for her to process. Sometimes the fallout of trauma can be delayed.

I will be going to London soon and my first thought was,

" Don't let this rattle you, don't let them win.”

Fear is with us all the time. We can prepare for trauma and we can act in a sensible way to avoid attacks or other dangers. However, in the end we cannot control or know what other people are going to do.

There is a move which stars Robin Williams called “The World according to Garp."

In it, there is a scene where Robin William's character inspects a house to buy. Whilst he is standing outside with the real estate agent, a plane crashes into the house. He turns to the agent and says, “We will take it.”

His logic is that this house has already had a major disaster happen to it. The odds of anything like that happening again are low. My partner and I have a saying now, “It is Garp proofed."

When someone or something is close to, or survives a traumatic event the odds of something happening again are low. I know I have friends who would disagree with this.

More than one of my friends have been through trauma after trauma and sometimes feel like they can't catch a break.

Life throws things at us when we are not ready. It seems just as we build trust in situations and let our guard down we can be thrown into circumstances that we are not prepared for.

I am going to London. I am going with a sense of respect for what happened today. I am not going to let this moron win in his quest of fear. But I will also not be naive' to the fact that fear and trauma can turn up at any time.

I appreciate the people in my life and the safety net I have. I am here just as everyone else is - to experience life, to process things as they happen and to not let fear win.