More Than Trauma
For most children, it is the stuff of nightmares. For many Syrian refugee children, it was real and it lives in their memories.
By Heather Murdock and Brian Williamson | VOA News
The trauma of the Syrian war is so great that a group of doctors describe it as “Human Devastation Syndrome.”
Because terms like “Depression” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” aren’t big enough.
I was 12 when I was arrested with my mom, brothers and sisters by the [Assad] regime.
They kept us in the basement of an old schoolhouse with the army upstairs.
Mahmoud, 17
They made us boys go outside and watch when they executed prisoners.
Then they made us stomp on their bodies to teach us never to defy the [Assad] regime.
When the family was released from the makeshift prison in Syria after a year and a half, authorities told them their arrest had been a mistake.
But the children paid dearly for that ‘mistake.’
Now, as a refugee in Turkey, Mahmoud still has nightmares.
His 12-year-old sister often stops eating for days at a time.
His 10-year-old brother can’t remember the name of his best friend.
‘Human Devastation Syndrome’ is a term coined by medical neuropsychologist Mohammad Khalid Hamza of the Syrian American Medical Society in 2016.
It is like PTSD on steroids.
It is devastation… mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, cognitively, neuropsychologically.
The magnitude [of the trauma] and the frequency and the length of time is tremendously much higher, much deeper, much steeper than the PTSD patient.
Humiliation is one of the major factors in Human Devastation Syndrome.
When someone takes pictures with their ... army boots on your head and drinking a cup of tea, that is the ultimate humiliation.
When someone rapes you in front of your children watching that is beyond humiliation.
It’s systematic. It’s vicious.
Ghufran Tuba and her family fled Syria in 2017.
Look at this. She was our sweetheart.
My husband and the kids went outside to get water to clean the house
when a bomb hit our yard in Syria.
He and Naseem were killed.
We don't know who was responsible.
Shrapnel ripped into the children...
...except for Toqa.
The bombing was perhaps the most devastating for her mentally.
She didn’t think she deserved to be spared while her siblings suffered.
Dr. Hamza says humiliating victims in Syria is systematic, designed to crush the human spirit.
He says warring parties on all sides are responsible.
“[They] are demolishing the human inside. [They] want him to become a walking shell.”
—Dr. M. K. Hamza
The trauma of the Syrian war is so great that a group of doctors describe it as “Human Devastation Syndrome.”
Because terms like “Depression” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” aren’t big enough.
I was 12 when I was arrested with my mom, brothers and sisters by the [Assad] regime.
They kept us in the basement of an old schoolhouse with the army upstairs.
Mahmoud, 17
They made us boys go outside and watch when they executed prisoners.
Then they made us stomp on their bodies to teach us never to defy the [Assad] regime.
When the family was released from the makeshift prison in Syria after a year and a half, authorities told them their arrest had been a mistake.
But the children paid dearly for that ‘mistake.’
Now, as a refugee in Turkey, Mahmoud still has nightmares.
His 12-year-old sister often stops eating for days at a time.
His 10-year-old brother can’t remember the name of his best friend.
‘Human Devastation Syndrome’ is a term coined by medical neuropsychologist Mohammad Khalid Hamza of the Syrian American Medical Society in 2016.
It is like PTSD on steroids.
It is devastation… mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, cognitively, neuropsychologically.
The magnitude [of the trauma] and the frequency and the length of time is tremendously much higher, much deeper, much steeper than the PTSD patient.
Humiliation is one of the major factors in Human Devastation Syndrome.
When someone takes pictures with their ... army boots on your head and drinking a cup of tea, that is the ultimate humiliation.
When someone rapes you in front of your children watching that is beyond humiliation.
It’s systematic. It’s vicious.
Ghufran Tuba and her family fled Syria in 2017.
Look at this. She was our sweetheart.
Naseem, 6
My husband and the kids went outside to get water to clean the house
when a bomb hit our yard in Syria.
He and Naseem were killed.
We don't know who was responsible.
Neighbors carried the surviving children to a hospital.
Shrapnel ripped into the children...
...except for Toqa.
The bombing was perhaps the most devastating for her mentally.
She didn’t think she deserved to be spared while her siblings suffered.
Dr. Hamza says humiliating victims in Syria is systematic, designed to crush the human spirit.
He says warring parties on all sides are responsible.
“[They] are demolishing the human inside. [They] want him to become a walking shell.”
—Dr. M. K. Hamza
The trauma of the Syrian war is so great that a group of doctors describe it as “Human Devastation Syndrome.”
Because terms like “Depression” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” aren’t big enough.
I was 12 when I was arrested with my mom, brothers and sisters by the [Assad] regime.
They kept us in the basement of an old schoolhouse with the army upstairs.
Mahmoud, 17
They made us boys go outside and watch when they executed prisoners.
Then they made us stomp on their bodies to teach us never to defy the [Assad] regime.
When the family was released from the makeshift prison in Syria after a year and a half, authorities told them their arrest had been a mistake.
But the children paid dearly for that ‘mistake.’
His 10-year-old brother can’t remember the name of his best friend.
His 12-year-old sister often stops eating for days at a time.
Now, as a refugee in Turkey, Mahmoud still has nightmares.
‘Human Devastation Syndrome’ is a term coined by medical neuropsychologist Mohammad Khalid Hamza of the Syrian American Medical Society in 2016.
It is devastation… mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, cognitively, neuropsychologically.
It is like PTSD on steroids.
Dr. Hamza
The magnitude [of the trauma] and the frequency and the length of time is tremendously much higher, much deeper, much steeper than the PTSD patient.
Humiliation is one of the major factors in Human Devastation Syndrome.
When someone takes pictures with their ... army boots on your head and drinking a cup of tea, that is the ultimate humiliation.
When someone rapes you in front of your children watching that is beyond humiliation.
It’s systematic. It’s vicious.
Ghufran Tuba and her family fled Syria in 2017.
Look at this. She was our sweetheart.
Naseem, 6
My husband and the kids went outside to get water to clean the house
when a bomb hit our yard in Syria.
He and Naseem were killed.
We don't know who was responsible.
Neighbors carried the surviving children to a hospital.
Shrapnel ripped into the children...
...except for Toqa.
The bombing was perhaps the most devastating for her mentally.
She didn’t think she deserved to be spared while her siblings suffered.
Dr. Hamza says humiliating victims in Syria is systematic, designed to crush the human spirit.
He says warring parties on all sides are responsible.
“[They] are demolishing the human inside. [They] want him to become a walking shell.”
—Dr. M. K. Hamza
MORE THAN TRAUMA
For most children, it is the stuff of nightmares. For many Syrian refugee children, it was real and it lives in their memories.
The trauma of the Syrian war is so great that a group of doctors describe it as “Human Devastation Syndrome.”
Because terms like “Depression” and “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder” aren’t big enough.
They kept us in the basement of an old schoolhouse with the army upstairs.
I was 12 when I was arrested with my mom, brothers and sisters by the [Assad] regime.
Mahmoud, 17
They made us boys go outside and watch when they executed prisoners.
Then they made us stomp on their bodies to teach us never to defy the [Assad] regime.
When the family was released from the makeshift prison in Syria after a year and a half, authorities told them their arrest had been a mistake.
But the children paid dearly for that ‘mistake.’
Now, as a refugee in Turkey, Mahmoud still has nightmares.
His 12-year-old sister often stops eating for days at a time.
His 10-year-old brother can’t remember the name of his best friend.
‘Human Devastation Syndrome’ is a term coined by medical neuropsychologist Mohammad Khalid Hamza of the Syrian American Medical Society in 2016.
It is like PTSD on steroids.
It is devastation… mentally, physically, emotionally, psychologically, cognitively, neuropsychologically.
Dr. Hamza
The magnitude [of the trauma] and the frequency and the length of time is tremendously much higher, much deeper, much steeper than the PTSD patient.
When someone rapes you in front of your children watching that is beyond humiliation.
Humiliation is one of the major factors in Human Devastation Syndrome.
When someone takes pictures with their ... army boots on your head and drinking a cup of tea, that is the ultimate humiliation.
It’s systematic. It’s vicious.
Ghufran Tuba and her family fled Syria in 2017.
Look
at this.
Naseem, 6
She was our sweetheart.
My husband and the kids went outside to get water to clean the house
when a bomb hit our yard in Syria.
He and Naseem were killed.
We don't know who was responsible.
Neighbors carried the surviving children to a hospital.
Shrapnel ripped into the children...
...except for Toqa.
The bombing was perhaps the most devastating for her mentally.
She didn’t think she deserved to be spared while her siblings suffered.
Dr. Hamza says humiliating victims in Syria is systematic, designed to crush the human spirit.
He says warring parties on all sides are responsible.
“[They] are demolishing the human inside. [They] want him to become a walking shell.”
—Dr. M. K. Hamza
After the Border
This three-part comics journalism series follows the lives of refugees as they fight to survive the trauma of their harrowing pasts in a world that is often most hostile to the most desperate. The series features three graphic-novel style stories.
Refugee correspondent Heather Murdock covers the Middle East and North Africa for Voice of America. Brian Williamson designs, illustrates, animates and writes code to tell stories.
More from the series
War, Poverty and Pandemic
Families flee their homes to save their lives but they can't outrun the coronavirus. A Syrian father describes trying to bring his family into Greece at the start of the pandemic.
No Place Safe
Turkey has long been considered a safe haven for Uyghurs, a Turkic and Muslim minority group that has faced religious persecution in China for more than a century. But as Turkish-Chinese relations grow stronger, many Uyghurs in Istanbul are afraid the protection they enjoy in Turkey could wane.