There are three accepted treatments for PTSD that have been proven efficacious and one of those is exposure therapy. The essential element is you write the trauma down and continue to write it down, adding more and more detail until you can tell the story without feeling the PTSD symptoms. I have talked about 9/11 every year to help myself decrease the negative feelings and yet also to remember.
I was a senior in college. I was getting ready for school, watching Good Morning America. They had a camera on WTC within minutes and also somehow the ameteur footage quickly. I called my advisor at home, a History professor, and told him we were under attack. I had his number because his daughter was my babysitter. He told me, no we are not and to go to class. The second plan hit, my mom called. This is when I told her I was fine because I was in Williamsport, not exactly the hub of Western civilization. So I sat there until the sitter came. I drove to class, which was a film class. The screen was down and the news was on. There was a lot of talking and laughing going on. I was upset and complained to another political science student that no one was taking this serious. Then the Pentagon was hit and the class was silent. The mood was instant. I left to find my favorite political science professor but couldn't find him. I didn't know a plane had hit Shanksville, a teeny tiny village in PA and the home of my roommate. Classes continued for the day and I stayed. I kept trying to call my best friend who was doing study abroad in England but couldn't get through to her. Her parents also couldn't get through, turns out all the American students were sequestered in one room on campus for safety. The only person I knew that died was Father Mychel Judge, a franciscan monk who was at St Bonaventure for a time and also the NYFD chaplain. My school lost several former students and many parents of students. I remember at least three students did not return to school. Our ROTC students started training and a few were called to serve. Before I graduated, I recorded my memories for the archives. I sometimes wonder how future generations will react when they hear the stories.