From Persecution to Prison - Bellevue/NYU Program for Survivors of ...

“Being here is like going through another stage of torture and persecution.Because, like, the nervousness, the fear, the heart pounding, it happens likethat often.”Many detainees reported difficulty sleeping and recurrent nightmares.Subjects described these nightmares as evoking the traumatic events thatcaused them to flee their home countries, and said they sometimes confusethe nightmare images with reality. For example, one detainee said:In my nightmares – around 4 times a week – it’s like I’m back in home,I dream I’m in prison. Sometimes I think I am back in my country injail.“I dream I’m in my country again being tortured,” reported anotherdetainee. “I wake up and I’m covered in sweat,”Detention brought on recurrent nightmares of being pursued foranother asylum seeker.I feel hopeless. I have no hope for the future.... I have nightmares aboutthree times a week. This has increased since I’ve been in detention. Idream about people chasing me and trying to kill me. I see fire, and peoplerunning and screaming.This detainee also describes how boredom had taken a toll on him.I think being inactive and not having anything to occupy myself-so Ithink a lot about those things that happened to me and I think thatmakes me more likely to have nightmares. I feel this environment alsocontributes to the nightmares. I am not free. I am always being watchedand told what to do.Although his trauma symptoms began in his country of origin, an asylumseeker said his fear and isolation had intensified in detention leadingto extreme anxiety and depression. An example of his heightened anxietywere recurrent nightmares:In the dream the people die, they’re killing people the way my parentsdied…When I have the dream about these things, I shout in the night.Or I talk. My roommates tell me I talk too much.An asylum seeker whose previous torture took place in prison reportedrecurrence of past symptoms while incarcerated here in the United States.I have nightmares every night. I think about things that happened tome–I’m in prison again, or I imagine that I can’t find my children. I thinka lot about what happened there in my country. I try not to think aboutwhat happened but I do. In my country I had a lot of nightmares and difficultysleeping. [Now] I fear even sleeping because I get nightmares.One detainee described a recurring dream of being sent home.70 FROM PERSECUTION TO PRISON