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

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.

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.

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.

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

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 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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Go on a visit to where, cookie?

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