C-PTSD: Grief, National Re-traumatisation and Closure

Aug 02, 2026 Features / Columnists, News

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By Dr. Telford Layne Jr. PsyD, MSc. Postgrad, BSc.

(Kaieteur News) – The sinking of the MV Barima on July 18, 2026, was not only a maritime disaster; it was a profound psychological wound. The tragedy produced fear, anger, helplessness, guilt and a deep loss of trust. As I provide psychological care for some survivors, relatives and people of the wider Guyanese society, many are experiencing acute grief, acute stress reactions or post-traumatic stress disorder. Complex PTSD is commonly associated with prolonged, repeated or multiple traumatic experiences from which escape feels difficult or impossible. The Barima disaster contributed to complex trauma when it interacts with earlier abuse, violence, neglect, previous bereavement, institutional betrayal or prolonged uncertainty that remains unresolved, which has become a Guyanese way of life.

Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Complex PTSD is re-experiencing the trauma through intrusive memories, nightmares, flashbacks; avoiding reminders of the event; and living with a persistent sense of current danger. It also includes three major disturbances in self-organisation: severe difficulty regulating emotions, a persistently negative view of oneself, and continuing problems forming or sustaining relationships.

A person may appear to have physically survived while remaining psychologically trapped by the disaster. The body continues to behave as though the danger is still present. A boat engine, news bulletin, photograph, telephone call, rainstorm, river journey, or discussion of the tragedy may trigger panic, shaking, anger, numbness, or dissociation.

Some survivors will blame themselves for living when others died. Relatives may repeatedly imagine the final moments of their loved ones. Rescue workers, healthcare professionals, police officers, journalists, fishermen and volunteers may also experience secondary or vicarious trauma from witnessing suffering, recovering bodies or listening repeatedly to accounts of death.

Symptoms in Children

Children rarely express trauma through words. Their distress will appear in their bodies, behaviour, play, school performance and relationships. Younger children become unusually clingy, fearful of separation, afraid of water, darkness, or unable to sleep alone. They may experience nightmares, bed-wetting, stomach aches, headaches, crying spells or developmental regression. Some may repeatedly recreate sinking, drowning, rescue or death scenes through drawings and play unconsciously. Children may lose concentration, forget lessons, withdraw from friends, become irritable or aggressive. Some will become preoccupied with whether their parents will return home safely. Others may refuse to travel by boat, repeatedly check the news or feel guilty about laughing, playing or surviving after someone else died.

Adolescents affected will display anger, emotional numbness, risky behaviour, substance use, self-harm, hopelessness or distrust of adults and institutions. Children with previous trauma, unstable caregiving or earlier losses will be particularly vulnerable because the Barima tragedy reactivate older fears of abandonment and helplessness. Complex trauma in children is frequently associated with difficulty identifying feelings, regulating emotions, trusting caregivers and calming down after reminders of danger.

Symptoms in Adults

Adults may experience intrusive images, nightmares, panic attacks, insomnia, hypervigilance and exaggerated startle responses. They will avoid the waterfront, ferries, funerals, conversations or media coverage. Some will become emotionally detached, unable to experience joy or unable to speak about what happened. Others will become intensely angry, blaming themselves, government officials, crew members, relatives or God.

Complex trauma can also alter a person’s identity. A survivor may think, “I should have saved them,” “I do not deserve to live,” or “No one can be trusted.” Bereaved parents can lose their sense of purpose. Spouses, struggle with intimacy. Workers become unable to concentrate or return to their normal duties.

Some people will misuse alcohol or other substances to sleep, suppress memories or manage anxiety. Physical symptoms may include chest tightness, headaches, gastrointestinal problems and exhaustion and unexplained physical pain. Trauma-related disorders also present through anxiety, depression, substance misuse, and suicidal thoughts.

Significance of Grieving

Grief is not weakness or mental illness. It is the natural human response to attachment and loss.  It starts with shock, denial, anger, depression, bargaining and acceptance. For some, this is the process; for others, this process is complex.

Traumatic grief becomes more difficult when the horror of how someone died overwhelms the memory of how that person lived. Children and adults may become stuck on questions such as: Did they suffer? Could they have been saved? Who is responsible? Where is the body? Why was this allowed to happen? When these questions remain unresolved, the mind may repeatedly return to the circumstances of the disaster rather than moving among mourning, remembrance, and restoration.

The Commission of Inquiry should be transparent, allow survivors and families to testify safely, publish its terms of reference and produce an accessible final report with deadlines for implementing its recommendations. Closure will depend on whether its findings lead to actual change.

What National Closure Should Look Like

First, closure requires truth. Families and the nation need a reliable account of who was aboard and what happened. Conflicting figures, political defensiveness, rumours and delayed information intensify traumatic stress because uncertainty prevents the mind from organising what happened.

Second, closure requires recognition. Every person who died or remains missing must be treated as a human being, not merely a number. Their names, photographs, stories, communities and contributions should become part of Guyana’s national memory.

Survivors also require recognition. Many may carry guilt for living when others died, recurring images of the disaster, fear of water or travel, nightmares, emotional numbness, anger and difficulty returning to ordinary life.

Third, closure requires accountability and institutional repair. People must see that negligence, corruption, unsafe systems or professional misconduct—where proven—have consequences. Accountability should not become political theatre or premature scapegoating. It should identify both individual decisions and systemic failures, protect witnesses, publish evidence and produce enforceable reforms.

Closure involves the recovery of the boat, and identification of remains, dignified funerals, memorials, honest explanations. Where people remain missing, closure remains incomplete. Families can experience ambiguous loss, suspended painfully between hope and mourning.

How Government Is Re-traumatising the Nation

A government can help regulate a traumatised society or intensify its distress. Traumatisation occurs when official actions reproduce the original experiences of danger, helplessness, humiliation or abandonment.

Contradictory information, unexplained delays, and long periods of official silence deepen anxiety. Families should not have to learn major developments through rumors or social media. Communication must be regular, factual, compassionate, and honest about what remains unknown.

Minimising the loss, defending institutions, or treating public anger as political disloyalty makes citizens feel unseen. Trauma-informed leadership acknowledges pain without becoming defensive. Trustworthiness and transparency are recognised principles of trauma-informed institutional care.

Politicising funerals, compensation, counselling or investigations divide mourners into party camps. Bereaved families must never be used for political advantage or pressured on the government.

Blaming victims or repeatedly questioning survivors can create shame and survivor guilt. Investigations should be confidential, respectful and sensitive to trauma. Children should not be repeatedly interviewed by untrained officials or exposed unnecessarily to graphic photographs and details.

Rushing the country towards “closure” before remains are recovered, facts are established, and responsibility is addressed can become another form of emotional abandonment. Memorial services are important, but ceremonies cannot substitute for accountability, safety reform, and long-term psychological care.

Ending counselling, financial assistance, and community outreach after public attention fades may repeat the experience of being left alone. Trauma symptoms often emerge or intensify weeks or months later. Support must therefore extend beyond the emergency period.

What Citizens Can Do When Government Fails

Citizens can create community-based healing. Faith communities, psychological and medical associations, schools, village councils, diaspora organisations, and civil society groups can organise memorials, grief circles, survivor support groups, children’s programs, practical assistance, and referral networks. These gatherings should allow sadness, anger, silence and difficult questions without pressuring people to forgive prematurely, suppress criticism or appear strong.

Communities can preserve the truth by recording survivor testimonies with informed consent, collecting names and photographs, building a public memorial archive and documenting official statements. This prevents the victims from disappearing into statistics and protects the national memory from political revision.

Journalists and citizens should resist spreading unverified names, graphic images, conspiracy theories or recordings of people at their most vulnerable. Trauma-informed communication protects human dignity.

Citizens can also organise lawful, non-partisan advocacy through petitions, public forums, independent technical reviews, parliamentary submissions and sustained demands for publication and implementation of the inquiry’s recommendations. The objective should be truth and reform.

At the individual level, people should limit repeated exposure to disturbing footage, maintain consistent sleep and eating routines, speak with trusted people, participate in meaningful religious or cultural rituals, and seek professional help when distress persists or disrupts daily functioning. Adults should give children honest, age-appropriate explanations, protect their routines and repeatedly reassure them about who will care for them.

Guyana will not achieve closure by forgetting the MV Barima. Closure will emerge when the dead are honoured, the missing are not abandoned, the boat is salvaged, survivors are supported, families receive truthful answers, responsible individuals and systems are held accountable, and concrete reforms make future travellers safer.

A nation heals when grief is permitted to speak and when that grief is transformed into memory, justice and protection for the living.  Truth is pursued, responsibility is accepted, children feel safe again, survivors are not abandoned, and public institutions demonstrate that the lives lost have permanently changed how Guyana protects its people.

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• Barima disaster, C-PTSD, Grief, MV Barima, National Re-traumatisation

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