A Psychological Explanation Of 'New York Calm' After Chelsea Bombing

During the hours between a Saturday night explosion in Manhattan that left 29 people injured and the arrest of 28-year-old suspect Ahmad Khan Rahami in Linden, New Jersey, late Monday morning, New Yorkers seemed remarkably unruffled. “It was only a matter of time,” Graham Mills, who lives near the site of the 23rd Street explosion, told The New York Times. “There’s kind of this New York spirit that’s like, ‘Whatever. Let’s get on with life.’” Of course, others seemed rattled. “The whole city looks different to me,” Kyle Li, the father of a 3-year-old and who lives across the street from the explosion, told the Times. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people who are closely exposed to trauma are at a greater risk for negative effects, such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and generalized anxiety.  In the aftermath of the explosions in New York and New Jersey, however, New Yorkers defied the rule of proximity to terror ― at least on Twitter ― by joking about city residents’ stoic respondence to the bombing:  The world freaks out while New Yorkers push on and get a coffee and a bagel— Colin Jones (@colinjones) September 18, 2016 This subgroup of hard-nosed New Yorkers may be experiencing a form of resilience in the face of trauma, or what’s known as post-traumatic growth. After Hurricane Katrina, for example, 30 percent of surv...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news