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Coping with the Zombie Apocalypse: Lessons From The Walking Dead

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Fear itself is seldom a cause of trauma in everyday existence, but having to face close-range interpersonal aggression is a traumatic experience of an entirely different magnitude (Grossman). During the initial outbreak of terror while everyone is scrambling to save his or her own life, survival mode kicks in and an individual starts to plan on saving one’s self. The need to be a powerful motivator drives an average person to do what any normal person would consider unthinkable. Abandoning monsters plaguing the entire world, helping others in need, or deciding to save one’s self is a decision that will be made. The decision to save one’s own life will bring a person to question his own humanity while discovering the benefits of self- …show more content…

A person will think that the decisions that everyone around him makes will be his demise and he will abandon others in order to keep himself alive. After losing all family and friends, a person will put up a wall and become numb to his surroundings. In order to help someone else survive, people must be able to survive themselves (Grossman). Persons with PTSD will cope after the chaos of the apocalypse by considering their environment and making adjustments to fit in. Exploring thoughts and feelings about the trauma is the next step in self- healing and also working through feelings of guilt, self-blame, and mistrust. After getting connected with others, challenging one’s sense of helplessness and concentrating on the strengths a person has will bring that person back to reality, and life begins again (Smith and Segal). In The Walking Dead, Carol is a very timid person who not only loses her abusive husband but her little girl after a zombie outbreak. She is with a group of survivors led by a man named Rick who is an experienced police officer. He confronts her about the murder of two people. Carol tells Rick that she killed the two people because of an infection they had contracted and for others to survive the people had to die. Carol does what has to be done; therefore, she becomes hardened to becoming a killer. The change that Carol experiences because of all the trauma she has experienced

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