survivor syndrome

noun

, Psychiatry.

1. a characteristic group of symptoms, including recurrent images of death, depression, persistent anxiety, and emotional numbness, occurring in survivors of disaster.

Word History and Origins

Origin of survivor syndrome¹

First recorded in 1965–70

Example Sentences

Her only recommendation for it is to invite a psychologist to “advise the Ukrainian refugees about how to fight the survivor syndrome and how to fight depression.”

From Seattle Times

Catholic media routinely depict children conceived through IVF as unnatural and genetically suspect; in a survey of Polish articles about IVF children, Radkowska-Walkowicz found that they were often characterized as suffering from physical deformities, such as a protruding forehead or dangling tongue, or from mental illnesses, including “survivor syndrome” in relation to unused embryos.

From The New Yorker

Companies around the country shed off millions of workers during the depth of the downturn, but workers with “survivor syndrome” picked up the slack.

From Scientific American

Many Jews who escaped the Nazi horrors of World War II were scarred for life by "survivor syndrome"�chronic anxiety, flattened emotions, depression, guilt and recurring nightmares.

From Time Magazine Archive

West characterized Patty's reaction as the "survivor syndrome," saying that she felt her only hope of living "lay in winning acceptance by or becoming part of the S.L.A."

From Time Magazine Archive