Episode 6: 'Time passed, so move on'? One psychiatrist says Korea still has a long way to go. To Readers Note: The story centers on the Itaewon disaster, which occurred on Oct. 29, 2022. Sewol ferry disaster Knowing that I have support Jeju Air crash An insensitive society toward trauma What if social support were institutionalized? This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.

PTSD can take years to rear its head, and when it does, society plays a considerable role in healing. Sometimes, however, support is lacking, and sometimes, that's deliberate. *The series is based on the real-life experience of Kim Nam-young, a JoongAng Ilbo reporter currently living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The following articles are written from Kim's first-person perspective. Itaewon is a well-known nightlife district in Yongsan District, central Seoul, and a popular spot for Halloween celebrations because of its diverse international culture. The disaster occurred during the first Halloween weekend after social distancing restrictions imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic had been lifted. Large crowds gathered in the area to celebrate. As more and more people poured into the neighborhood, the crowd insidiously swelled into a dangerously packed mass. The situation eventually led to a crowd crush in a narrow alley, amid a lack of effective control measures to control the on-foot traffic, leaving some 350 people dead or injured, including 159 fatalities. I have PTSD. As a reporter on the social affairs desk, I covered the Itaewon disaster on Oct. 29, 2022. Since November of the following year, I have been receiving treatment regularly. I attend psychiatric counseling sessions and take medication every day. I am only revealing the illness now, more than two years later, not because I have overcome it. This is not a story about recovery, but a record of living through the illness. To be honest, I still do not know when, or if, I will overcome it. Instead, I want to talk about the time I have spent living alongside PTSD. Even now, I continue to work as a policy and social affairs reporter while exercising, traveling and getting on with daily life. If someone is hesitating to see a doctor, I hope this piece can help. I also hope we can become a society where people do not feel forced to hide emotional pain and trauma. It's no different from a traffic accident. They went there for fun and died. I had always assumed that the natural response of Korean society to a major tragedy was mourning. I thought that was simply how people should react. But after witnessing the secondary harm that surfaced after every major disaster — from when the Sewol ferry sank in 2014 to the Itaewon crowd crush in 2022 and the Jeju Air crash in 2024 — I began to wonder if that assumption was wrong. The Sewol ferry sank on April 16, 2014. The overloaded ship capsized in waters off the southwestern coast, leaving 304 people dead, mostly teenagers on a high school trip. At times, I even found myself questioning whether hate spreads in the same way mold slowly takes over a home. My heart would race and I would feel nauseous whenever I saw people turning others' suffering into entertainment or exploiting it for political gain. No matter how much love and support I received from those around me, a single hateful comment could send my PTSD back to square one. Moments like those always remind me of one thing: People are capable of helping one to stand up again, but they are also capable of destroying them. The same is true of society. Many experts say that what helps people endure PTSD — and eventually recover from it — is society itself. Shortly after the Itaewon disaster in 2022, my company informed me that psychological counseling and treatment would be available. A Jeju Air passenger plane from Bangkok crashed into a concrete mound at Muan International Airport in Muan County, South Jeolla, while attempting an emergency belly landing on Dec. 29, 2024. The accident killed all but two crew members on board. Around the same time, the Journalists Association of Korea announced that it would also provide financial support for counseling and treatment. Later, journalists dispatched to Muan County in South Jeolla following the 2024 Jeju Air crash were offered similar mental health support. Those experiences strengthened my trust in my organiza...