Trauma survivors can turn to religious devotion before retreating into silence

Evidence

Her family never really addressed the trauma they had undergone. No one spoke openly about it, and Munir in particular seemed deeply injured. Neither he nor their father told the women very much about MDC’s male wing, where later the government’s own internal auditor would expose violent abuses that some of the post–September 11 detainees endured. Right after their release, Munir was joyous and full of life. He began praying regularly, five times a day, and was talkative and communicative. That lasted for about a month, and then he began retreating into silence. He became a distant island, hard to reach. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 143

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the ongoing theme in this book about the psychological aftermath of detention; also echoes trauma-response patterns studied in the neuroscience of PTSD.
• FICTION: The image of a man who was joyous and praying five times a day for a month, then becoming ‘a distant island,’ is a vivid character arc that could seed a story about visible vs. hidden grief.