Emotional Resilience

Abstract

This chapter considers mental health and the potential impact of memories of conflict, fleeing civil war and trying to settle in a very different environment to home. Women look back at their younger selves and recount the huge emotional challenges that their journeys and settling brought with them, and how they coped. The chapter includes the early evidence of PTSD and the pioneering health professionals who first noticed and responded. It covers the interventions of women from the community who understood well the pressures men were under and the way in which post-civil war trauma was negatively affecting relationships and family life. Finally, community led responses and healing initiatives, from women and men are presented.