How do I get people to understand what it is like to experience a Terroist attack

you cant make people understand ,but you should have found help with the aftermath if you're still that frightened now after all these years.You do know you're more likely to be run over by a car or die in your bed than be in another attack? There were millions who lived through the blitz and if they could get over that with help you can get over what happened to you,you need to see your GP for a referral

Go on a visit to where, cookie?

There was a double bomb attack in the main Jerusalem market on Wednesday, 30 July 1997 at 1:15 pm, "two Palestinian suicide bombers who carried bags laden with explosives and nails detonated their explosive devices 45 meters (150 feet) apart almost simultaneously in a central alley in the popular outdoor market, killing 16 civilians, among them an Arab resident of Eilabun, and injuring 178 people, many of them teenagers and tourists."
I had left the market a few minutes before, TG, and was waiting at a bus stop nearby.

You can't make people understand if they haven't been through something like that. People who haven't had such experiences can't understand how it stays with you not just in the short term but forever.

Where is it they want you to go? Is it London? Explain that you just can't go and arrange to meet them somewhere else. The experience you had was too extreme for you to be able to simply forget and get on with life. You're suffering from PTSD. If it's causing you problems you need counselling.

People didn't get over the blitz, paddyann. They still live with the memories but they're hidden away. My mam thought she was OK until she went to a museum called Eden Camp. They have a reconstruction of the blitz with the noises, smells etc. She panicked. She cried. She was terrified. The terror that she felt returned with full force. This was only last year...71 years after the end of the second world war.

You're absolutely right vq. We took my DF to Eden Camp a couple of years ago and he enjoyed all of it, until we got to the last hut where the sirens were screaming and it was pitch black and smokey and you couldn't see your way out. It was heartbreaking to see my dad looking so shaken and upset. The memories were obviously just beneath the surface and I've regretted taking him there ever since.

I walked out of a shoe shop in Brum in the 60s and it blew up behind me. Not forgotten, but I do not dwell on it; and it did not stop me going anywhere.

I am assuming from your post that your sad experience has been standing in your way when it comes to getting out and about. You can get help for this if you go and see your GP.

I assume you haven't allowed that horrific attack damage your every day living and these latest terrorists attscks have brought it all back to you, I would say don't go, give yourself time for the fear to dim again, subjecting yourself to such fear isn't worth it, be kind to yourself and do not take any guilt or shame on board please X

I too have been within a bombed area close to what could have been fatal it was a terrible experience but it didn't stay with me I moved on I think we are all different and take each experience differently but if you are still having these fears 40 years on then you really should seek help
My mother in law was also in Earls Court on that day in ' 76

DH was in London on 7/7 in 2005, he was trying to get to a meeting by tube. All mobile servers went down and it was ten hours or so before we knew he was okay.
DH gets on with it and doesn't dwell it, not sure I could.

I don't think it's a case of - dwelling on it, there are flashbacks . If these emotions could be put down to dwelling on it then the same could be said of PTS

We were in Northern Ireland in 1973 and once a week we attended a Wives Club meeting at the barracks which was on the very edge of Derry. We had a bus which took us to and from where we actually lived which was some way away. While waiting for our bus one evening, five bombs went off one after the other down in the town but quite close to the barracks. The noise was deafening and shook us to the core, but as if that wasn't bad enough, on the way back home we were stopped at a Police roadblock and told that there was a suspected car bomb in the road and we couldn't go on until it had been dealt with. We were told to lie down on the floor of the bus, as close under the seats as possible. So the fourteen of us did as we were told and lay on the floor of the bus for over two hours while the Army dealt with the car which was quite a long way down the road. There was a bang but not a very big one. This all took place in an area close to a village that was known to be a source of trouble, so in addition, our bus had an armed "ring of steel" around it. I think we were more nervous about that than the bomb, (which actually turned out not to be a bomb at all but we found out later just a car that had run out of petrol and its owner had gone off to find some!) but none of it was the ideal way to round off a pleasant evening. As there were no mobile phones back then, there were a lot of anxious husbands waiting to find out if we were okay. Although we were all a bit tense for a few weeks it didn't stop any of us getting on the bus the next time.

Having lived in Northern Ireland throughout the troubles I can relate to what you've said. I experienced terrible things and have blanked a lot out. I have found with recent events I'm thinking about the past more. I think writing it down may help you. Once every detail is down on paper you might be able to get past it.

My daughter was caught up in the 7/7 bombings. Couldn't get on the tube and couldn't get a bus because the queues were too long. She had just walked through Tavistock Square, having decided to walk to work, when the bus bomb went off.....she remembers running, but like 1974cookie, she remembers the smell of the explosives. The sense of smell is primal, and usually when we think of explosions without having experienced one, we don't think of the smell.
Cookie, don't visit if you don't want to, but perhaps you should seek Cognitive Therapy for post-traumatic stress.

Carry on as normal yes, but it will probably stay with you. It will only get you down if you let it. Every time there is a terrorist attack I am taken back to the July bombings in London. All communications went down and we knew nothing. My boss was at a Home Office meeting that day and coincidentally, my husband was attending a conference at the Ministry of Defence. Even though I worked for the police there was no way I could get any information. I will never forget the gut-wrenching fear all that day until about 9.00pm when he rang me from the train as communications had been restored. He just got on the first train out of London vaguely heading west and ended up in Winchester. My son lives in Romsey so he went to pick him up and took him to Salisbury. In the meantime I drove to Salisbury to meet up with them in the car park. Then we had to go to Chippenham to pick up his car.
We have only been back to London once to an exhibition at the British Museum and doubt we will ever go there again or any other big city. My utmost respect and support for those who live and work in London and for the families of those who have been murdered.
My son sometimes accuses me of wanting to live in the 1950s and he is right, I would. Even though bad things happened now and then I think we were much, much safer.

I have lived through numerous terrorist attacks as I lived in Israel (I was lucky to get out alive each time). Although it was an incredibly traumatic time seeing people killed in front of me and bullets whizzing past my head but I'm of the opinion that I'm not ever going to stop living my life. If it's my time to go then so be it. No one will understand your experience other than you so no amount of explaining it to your family will make a difference. I chose not to explain the horrors I endured to my own family as I would only be projecting my fear upon them. We only learn by our own experiences. If you are still feel traumatised by your experience maybe counselling will help? It is difficult as we so want to protect our family, but I've learned that if I don't let go of my anxiety for them it actually hinders both of us.

I'm sorry to hear that you still feel like you do 1974cookie perhaps; like others have suggested; it would do you good to go and talk to someone about this/ get CBT or whatever is appropriate. I found EMDR therapy helped me overcome a traumatic incident that had happened many years ago to me and it no longer affects my life. www.counselling-directory.org.uk/emdr.html The other thing I saw this week that I thought can help put things like this into perspective was this chart so thought I'd share it here.

You cannot explain unless the person has been in a similar situation.
We were in Cyprus in 1974, when the war started. When we arrived home my father died suddenly, I was never asked how I was or what it had been like there.
I just bottled it up over the years, I still have nightmares about parachchutes landing and bodies in the street.
I have never been back although a very dear friend now lives there and is always asking me to visit.

So sorry 1974 cookie, talk to a professional, I am sure it might help, and dont feel forced to go wherever you are supposed to be going, it has to feel right. The recent attacks do make everyone feel uneasy, and you must feel more so. We all try to get on wih our lives normally, but it isnt easy with armed police in place, but it is reassuring.
Enjoy your day, and keep safe.

Having survived the 11 September 2001 attacks on Manhattan I found it impossible to share my experience in any meaningful way.

...one day we will take their Declarations of War seriously.

Hopefully by then we will not be calling them soldiers and paying their pensions.

Sorry if this sounds hard, but if this experience is so affecting your life even now, they have won! Get help. Well cannot let these b******s win!

It isn't about letting 'them win', GannyRowe, the OP is describing some form of post traumatic response.
There are some good therapies, EMDR does have results. I'm not convinced cbt is the cure all it's sometimes sold as but I do know people who had help with anxiety disorders.
The important thing is to recognise you can be helped then to fund an accredited therapist whose reputation you researched. Your GP could refer on tho cuts mean longer waiting lists. I've also hear stories of people being offered CBT on line, something I wouldn't recommend.
Best of luck

It must be hard for you to come to terms with and honestly if I was in that position I probably may have felt the same. We cannot let these people win, what do we do we do as we normally do carry on the British are great at carry on.
I have a daughter who works in London, she likes to go for a drink with friends and eat in restaurants, she has always loved London.
My heart is thumping away every day because I am so scared but my daughter insists that she will not let them win. She texts me every morning to say she has arrived.
Do what you think is right for you,never mind what other people say.

In the end, it's your life and you can live it how you want to. It's all very well to have the attitude to 'carry on' but if you have already explained your reasons then you really must do as YOU want, not what everybody else wants.

I have never been in your particular situation, but what I do know is that people deal with life situations in different ways to others, we're not all the same.

I think you probably have some PTSD from your awful shock. I cancelled a work trip to the US in September 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, because it would have been Heathrow to Newark, the two most heavily patrolled airports at the time. My children begged me not to go.