"At the core of violence lies emotional rupture, not only when harm is inflicted intentionally, but also when life is interrupted by forces beyond one's control. Forced displacement is one such rupture. It does not simply change location; it reshapes identity, possibility, and the nervous system itself. For those who leave home under threat, hunger, or despair, exile is not a chapter that closes. It becomes a psychological terrain carried within the body and mind."
"Years later, his nights remain restless. He does not describe panic, but an enduring echo of fear, as though the terrain he crossed still lives inside his nervous system. Research on migration psychology shows that stressors faced before and during migration, such as scarcity, loss, and physical threat, accumulate and predict later depressive and anxiety symptoms among migrants, long after they reach relative safety (Salas-Wright et al., 2024). This imprint reflects not weakness, but the nervous system's memory of vigilance as a condition for survival."
Forced displacement creates an emotional rupture that reshapes identity, possibility, and the nervous system, not merely a change in location. Exile becomes a persistent psychological terrain carried in body and mind, especially for those who leave under threat, hunger, or despair. Emotional costs of displacement often remain invisible and require attention to trauma, survival, belonging, dignity, and the fractures caused by xenophobia. Individual journeys reveal how accumulated stressors before and during migration predict later depressive and anxiety symptoms. The nervous system can retain a memory of vigilance as a survival mechanism long after immediate danger passes.
Read at Psychology Today
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