You’re Not Alone if Televised Trauma is Breaking Your Soul
How to handle the barrage of neverending violence in our nightly news
For thirty days I slept on our green second-hand couch despite my fiancée’s pleas that I join her in our bed. Every night I fluffed the couch cushions, tucked myself in under a weighted blanket, looked out to the streetlights, and asked for a peaceful sleep. Yet every night I awoke to nightmares of the door being smashed in, flashlights falling across my face, and angry screams filling my apartment.
At the time, three names dominated the news cycle: Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Abury. I saw their faces every time I looked in the mirror and I wondered, “Could I be next?”
I am an advertising agency copywriter by trade. In 2020, my days were simple enough: Roll out of bed, make the 30 steps to my makeshift kitchen corner “office,” and log in. I pounded out idea after idea for new commercials, eye-catching billboards, and impactful radio spots. But I couldn’t do any of that once I’d moved to the couch. Instead, I’d sit at my computer and stare out of the window for hours. How could I care about commercials when any moment an unannounced police officer could barge through my front door and end my life?
