Survivor guilt

"Survivor's Guilt" redirects here. For the Mozzy album, seeSurvivor's Guilt (album).For the Haley Blais song, seeWisecrack (album).For the Joey Badass song, see2000 (Joey Badass album).

Survivor guiltorsurvivor's guilt(alsosurvivor syndrome,survivor's syndrome,survivor disorderandsurvivor's disorder) happens when individuals feel guilty after they survive a near death or traumatic event when others perished.It can cause similardepressive symptomsassociated withPTSD.Dr. William G. Niederlandfirst introduced the term to describe the feeling of punishment many of the Holocaust survivors felt for surviving over their loved ones.The experience and manifestation of survivorguiltwill depend on an individual's psychological profile. When theDiagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersIV(DSM-IV) was published, survivor guilt was removed as a recognized specific diagnosis, and redefined as a significant symptom ofpost-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). The history of survivor guilt outlines similar symptoms among many groups and individuals that experience tragic situations. Other patterns of guilt are found inmedical aid groupswho lose patients and place blame on themselves. Examples of traumatic events include situations when an individual experiences intense feelings of guilt after a loved one has passed. War and the loss of a loved one due to traumatic events are closely related to feelings ofdepressionandanxiety,that can later lead to PTSD.Suicidalthoughts are related to intense feelings of anxiety and depression from guilt related to traumatic events.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

People that have a lasting fear or other mental health issues after traumatizing events may be experiencingPost-Traumatic Stress Disorder.Almost all people experience some type of traumatic event throughout their lifetime, and a percentage (5.6%) will be diagnosed with PTSD.Symptoms include: unwillingly reliving a traumatic event, avoiding situations that are a reminder of the event, feelings of intense distress that affects everyday activities, feeling offearand horror when there is no threat, etc.An individual whose everyday activities are hindered due to recalling a traumatic event may be experiencing PTSD.

History

A mass grave in a concentration camp from theHolocaust.Survivors of such traumatic events may experience feelings of guilt or wonder whether they deserved to survive.

Survivor guilt was first identified during the 1960s. Several therapists recognized similar if not identical conditions amongHolocaust survivors.Similar signs and symptoms have been recognized in survivors of traumatic situations includingcombat,natural disasters,terrorist attacks,air-crashes and wide-ranging job layoffs.A variant form has been found among rescue and emergency services personnel who blame themselves for doing too little to help those in danger, and among therapists, who may feel a form of guilt in the face of their patients' suffering.

Stephen Joseph, a psychologist at theUniversity of Warwick,has studied the survivors of the capsizing of theMSHerald of Free Enterprisewhich killed 193 of the 459 passengers. His studies showed that 60 percent of the survivors suffered from survivor guilt. Joseph went on to say:

There were three types:

• first,there was guilt about staying alive while others died;
• second,there was guilt about the things they failed to do – these people often suffered post-traumatic 'intrusions' as they relived the event again and again;
• third,there were feelings of guilt about what they did do, such as scrambling over others to escape. These people usually wanted to avoid thinking about the catastrophe. They didn't want to be reminded of what really happened.

Sufferers sometimes blame themselves for the deaths of others, including those who died while rescuing the survivor or whom the survivor tried unsuccessfully to save.

Survivor syndrome

Trousers from a concentration camp uniform owned byShimson Kleuger,interned in three KZ camps. Kleuger increasingly isolated himself in the family mansion, likely as a result of trauma left by the experiences of the Holocaust.

Survivor syndrome,also known asconcentration camp syndrome(orKZ syndromeon account of the German termKonzentrationslager),are terms which have been used to describe the reactions and behaviors of people who have survived massive and adverse events, such as theHolocaust,or theRape of Nanjing.

In 1949,Eddy de Wind,a Dutch psychiatrist and survivor ofAuschwitz concentration camp,introduced the term "concentration camp syndrome" regarding the psychological consequences of persecution, describing the "pathological after-effects" unique to former prisoners ofNazi concentrationandextermination camps.The subsequently well-documented syndrome amongHolocaust survivorsincludesanxietyanddepression,intellectual impairment, social withdrawal,sleep disturbanceand nightmares, physical complaints andmood swingswith loss of drive. Several studies have examined the "chronic and progressive" nature of the condition, with symptoms increasing in intensity as survivors age.

Commonly such survivors feel guilty that they have survived the trauma and others – such as their family, friends, and colleagues – did not.

Both conditions, along with other descriptive syndromes covering a range of traumatic events are now subsumed underpost-traumatic stress disorder.

AIDS survivor syndrome

AIDSsurvivor syndrome refers to the psychological effects of living with the long-term trajectory of the AIDS epidemic and includes survivor guilt,depression,and feelings of being forgotten in contemporary discussions concerning HIV.While AIDS survivor syndrome has not been recognized as a pathologizable illness by theNIH(as of December 2017), scientific research and publications are available that address this issue.

Examples

Waylon Jennings

American musicianWaylon Jenningswas a guitarist forBuddy Holly's band and initially had a seat on the ill-fated aircraft on February 3, 1959, which would later come to be known as "the day the music died".Jennings, however, gave up his seat to the sickJ.P. "Big Bopper" Richardson,only to later learn of the plane's crash. When Holly learned that Jennings was not going to fly, he said, "Well, I hope your ol' bus freezes up." Jennings responded, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes." This exchange of words, though made in jest at the time, haunted Jennings for the rest of his life.

Stoneman Douglas High School shooting

Main article:Parkland high school shooting

On February 14, 2018,Nikolas Cruzwent intoMarjory Stoneman Douglas High SchoolinParkland, Florida,and shot randomly at students and staff, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others. Sydney Aiello, whose close friend was killed, struggled with survivor guilt, and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. On March 17, 2019, Aiello committed suicide at the age of 19.Less than a week later, on March 23,Coral Springspolice announced that Calvin Desir, a juvenile male student from Stoneman Douglas, had been found dead as a result of an apparent suicide.

Stephen Whittle

Stephen Whittle was aLiverpool F.C.fan who had bought a ticket for theFA Cupsemi-final between Liverpool andNottingham Forest F.C.on 15 April 1989, but sold his ticket to a friend due to work reasons. The friend (whom he and his family have chosen to leave unidentified) wasone of the 97 victimsof thehuman crushat that game. Whittle became unable to go to football matches due to his guilt and related feeling of responsibility for his friend's death, and committed suicide on 26 February 2011, almost 22 years after the ill-fated match.

The War-Related Poetry of Charles Causley

The British poet, broadcaster and teacherCharles Causley(1917-2003) served at sea and on land in the Royal Navy for most of the Second World War. Afterwards, he trained and worked as a teacher inLaunceston, Cornwall,and (in his spare time and after retiring) wrote hundreds of poems for adults and children, between 1951 and 2000. One strong theme running through his work is his own sense of survivor guilt -- a feeling in part triggered by the death of a friend who left Launceston for the war on the same train in 1940, but was later lost in action in the North Sea. For instance, Causley tells of how, when walking through the town centre years later, he would cross the road in order to avoid coming face-to-face with that friend's mother.

See also

• Impostor syndrome
• Miklos Kanitz
• Post-traumatic stress disorder
• Stockholm syndrome
• Survivors' Staircase
• Survivorship bias

Further reading

• Encyclopedia of Stress,Academic Press; 1st edition (April 2000)
• Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental DisordersIV,American Psychiatric Publishing; 4th edition (June 2000)