Tremor vs. trauma Last updated: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 Print
It was in a bomb shelter in Lebanon in 1979 that Dr David
Berceli first noticed it. Hidden from the bomb blasts and mayhem
outside, petrified children trembled as they clung to their
parents. He noticed something else: parents were consoling their
children, staying calm, not trembling at all. Years later,
working with refugees of war in Sudan, he noticed something
similar. When there were bomb blasts or other signs of danger,
adults’ first responsibility was to grab the children around
them and to rush them to a place of safety. Again, the children
responded by trembling. The adults showed no signs of fear. When
Berceli, who worked as a trauma specialist in these war-torn
countries at the time, questioned the adults about this
afterwards, they told him that they had to suppress their fear
and could not afford to show signs of distress because they
didn’t want to frighten the children. It was their role to
comfort them, to stay strong and to make