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The Trauma of War (Part 2): Surviving an Explosion

By Sakshi Agarwal





What does it feel like to be in an explosion?


If a mortar hits a large rock you’re hiding under, it feels like “being punched hard in the back of the head with a big fist” while someone throws rocks in your face.

If you’re in an armored Humvee and a roadside bomb goes off right under where you’re sitting, it feels “like ice picks plunging in both ears at once” followed by a “throbbing headache comparable to [your] most vicious hangovers.”

If a huge mortar hits a doorway you just walked through, it feels like your “bones for a second had turned to metal, and someone had rung [you] with a sledgehammer”




To read more articles on this topic go to http://nonviolenceny.org/nonviolent-journal.

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