How will Harry cope with his experiences?

[SneekyMarauder]

Will Harry continue to dream about Cedrics death even after he has killed Voldemort?

Will Harry start dreaming about killing Voldemort?

Will Harry have nightmares about death eaters killing his friends (Remus, Tonks, Fred, ect.)?

[TaafeMJ]

I think the types of dreams you're talking about are over for him. I think part of why he had those dreams was Voldemort getting stronger/being in power, along with Voldemort's connection to Harry. With the Harrycrux destroyed, I doubt Harry has anything that wouldn't be considered a normal bad dream.

[Lunatic]

I think Harry will still have a struggle with nightmares. After all he fought a war and before that was abused, badly. People just don't 'get over' such experiences, at least not right away. Yes, I believe he is fine in the epilogue. But I wouldn't doubt he didn't struggle at some point in the '19 years later'. I speak from experience.

[bellatrix93]

I think the effects of the Horcrux on Harry's life will wear off gradually. I don't think he'll start dreaming of killing Voldemort and such, but I agree with Lunatic that he had gone through difficult things that will take some time to completely stop affecting his life. Maybe he'll have dreams about his living friends getting killed at first?

Dreams that were a direct result of the connection between himself and Voldemort, will most probably have gone once Voldemort was dead, though.

[N_Mado]

Originally Posted by bellatrix93

. Maybe he'll have dreams about his living friends getting killed at first?

Dreams that were a direct result of the connection between himself and Voldemort, will most probably have gone once Voldemort was dead, though.

I agree.
I think he'll struggle with dreams for a while, he could have bad dreams about people who were involved in the war along with him. I imagine Harry remembering some quick shots from the war whenever he sees one of those people, at least for a while. Then he'll get over it.

[Vernazz]

I agree with what others have said.
Voldemort was the source of Harry's worries and "nightmares" for such a long time- that they will have all gone. After all, for a whole year that he missed at Hogwarts he had to be constantly thinking, with all attention focused on destroying the Horcruxes.
However for the better part of 7 years of his life he has had countless bad experiences- and people can't recover from these unless using professional help (and even this takes a long time). I think his future nightmares will either be re-iterating some bad past experiences, or be nightmares that we all encounter; such as deaths of the people we love or our fears. Having said that however, what are Harry's fears that have not already been confronted. The worst thing in the world for him would probably be the death of someone he loves, and if anything I would imagine that would be his nightmares.

[wolfbrother]

I think Harry would have had to deal with bad dreams for a while but eventually it would stop. He would probably have occasional bad dreams but thats about it. Time has a way of healing things.

[merrymarge]

The best way for him to deal with the dreams is to talk to someone. We know Ginny would be the first one, then Hermione and Ron. I think that will help him.

[hermy_weasley2]

I don't doubt he'll have dreams, but I don't think that's any indication of how he's dealing with his past. He can't control his dreams, but now that Voldemort is dead he can wake up and know they're just dreams. He can work through the past by not letting them have the same power they had over him before.

[FutureAuthor13]

Originally Posted by hermy_weasley2

I don't doubt he'll have dreams, but I don't think that's any indication of how he's dealing with his past. He can't control his dreams, but now that Voldemort is dead he can wake up and know they're just dreams. He can work through the past by not letting them have the same power they had over him before.

As Dumbledore said, his soul is "completely his own"; his life will be much easier compared to when he was living in constant fear of things like Voldemort taking him over, like in OOTP. That one massive burden has been lifted from his shoulders (or rather, his mind) and that probably was such a huge, wonderful relief for him. Of course, I expect he will have nightmares, problems and worries about his past experiences, but Voldemort isn't there to increase his anxiety.

[SneekyMarauder]

It is interesting to think of the long term phsychological effects that this could have on a person. I know that Voldemort and Harry are no longer linked but, it has to take a mental toll to go through what he's been through. I mean no parents, bascilly hunted all of his life by one "man" lol, living in fear, seeing people die in front of your eyes. And not just strangers die, people that he acctually knew personally. I am surprised that one human being can deal with all of those horrible situations without going insane. I think that I would just be down right depressed if it was me. I am not saying that Harry is, I am saying he is a very strong willed person to not take things as hardly as he could of.

[jookyle]

I can see him still being effected deeply by all the deaths that surrounded him. Just because Voldy's dead he still probably blames himself for several of the deaths in the series.

I think the only thing he has to have nightmares about is that he has to run the auror department and doesn't have Hermonie,ancient magical protection, or a bit of someone else's soul there to help him on everything.

[deadly_artemis]

Originally Posted by SneekyMarauder

It is interesting to think of the long term phsychological effects that this could have on a person. I know that Voldemort and Harry are no longer linked but, it has to take a mental toll to go through what he's been through. I mean no parents, bascilly hunted all of his life by one "man" lol, living in fear, seeing people die in front of your eyes. And not just strangers die, people that he acctually knew personally. I am surprised that one human being can deal with all of those horrible situations without going insane. I think that I would just be down right depressed if it was me. I am not saying that Harry is, I am saying he is a very strong willed person to not take things as hardly as he could of.

Different people have different psychological reactions to the same type of events. There are people who have fought in wars for years and are perfectly well adjusted, and there are people who suffer from chronic post traumatic stress disorder after something like a mugging.

I think in order to figure out how Harry will react, we should look at how he has reacted to traumatic events in the seven books. Harry seems very resilient and good at making himself get over traumatic events really quickly. He was almost killed his first and second year, he thought he had an escaped criminal after him for all of third year, he witnessed the death of Cedric, he fought at the ministry and was literally possessed by voldemort for a short while, and I can't even begin to list all he's seen and done in his seventh year. All through this, the only psychological effects the readers know of are bad dreams of Cedric dying (when Dudley teased him about it in the 5th book), and him being very angry in general throughout the 5th book. There were no panic attacks, crying fits, anything of that sort to indicate psychological damage even after all he's been through.

Because of this, I think that Harry would be able to get over the war pretty quickly. The reason he deals so well with trauma may be because of his almost-abusive childhood. He may have learned to shut out all the really serious negative emotions. Yes he might be angry, sad, or worried. But Harry has never been clinically depressed in the books, just like he won't be after the events of the 7th book.

[jallen]

It`s been thirteen years since that battle happened; he is now thirty. I doubt that at this point he is still having those dreams, but I'm sure that for several years after the Battle, he struggled with nightmares. Things like this don't just go away once they're over and done with. Take, for example, a tragic death. If you're deeply connected to a friend who dies, you don't quickly get over this. Multiply that stress by fifty and there you go: you have Harry.

[Prince659]

I'm sure that for a while after the Final Battle he'd have nightmares. I mean, how could he not? But after a while they'd happen more infrequently and eventually they'd stop.
But I'm sure that he would miss the people that died, even around the time of the Epilouge. Take Fred for an example. Harry would go to the Burrow, see something that reminds him of Fred, and he'd be sad. Not "I'm going to cry" sad, but more of a nostalgic sad. Or Teddy could do something reminiscent of Lupin and Harry would remember.
People stay with you, even after they're gone. It's not always easy to forget, and keep in mind that Harry witnessed the deaths of many of his friends.

[lil_snuffles]

Harry will probably struggle with nightmares or post dramatic stress after the battle has finally ended. I mean, if I ever went through something like that, I know I would be struggling through it. But he has a lot of support behind him and he's probably had help from Ginny, Hermione and Ron. I'm sure that all of his nightmares will disappear eventually. It just might take a little time.

[FutureAuthor13]

Originally Posted by lil_snuffles

Harry will probably struggle with nightmares or post dramatic stress after the battle has finally ended. I mean, if I ever went through something like that, I know I would be struggling through it. But he has a lot of support behind him and he's probably had help from Ginny, Hermione and Ron. I'm sure that all of his nightmares will disappear eventually. It just might take a little time.

Harry seems ralatively untroubled during the Epilogue, apart from a slight worry about his youngest son's well being, so I think all of his experiences and nightmares have well and truly been dealt with by this point in his life. The main difference in his life after the War is that he now has a huge amount of support behind him and as the old saying goes "there's strength in numbers."

[dobby_rocks]

I think this would be natural and understandable right after the battle. I can see him having some survivor’s guilt. I think by the time the epilogue takes places he will have gotten past it for the most part. That’s not to say once in a while he wouldn't have a dream about everything that had happened to him.

Maybe they had some sort of support group started to help those who survived.

[Wab]

As he did during the series he'll claim he doesn't need any help. He'll bottle it up until one day he cracks and takes out his family before going on a rampage at work.

[lil_snuffles]

Originally Posted by Wab

As he did during the series he'll claim he doesn't need any help. He'll bottle it up until one day he cracks and takes out his family before going on a rampage at work.

Sounds like something he would do