Woman Who Survived Chernobyl Says The X-Men Changed Her Life

Her family lived in Vinnitsia, a town just 180 miles away in Ukraine when the disaster struck. As she recalls, they didn't know much about it at the time.

Writing in Women's Health, Janina says "I recall heightened feelings of confusion around the time of the explosion, which transformed into a flurry of worries once we finally found out what had actually happened nearly two weeks later."

During that time, Janina and her family continued drinking the water, eating fruits from the trees, and generally going about their lives completely unaware that everything had been tainted by radiation. Six months later, like so many others, little Janina started getting sick.

Even changes in the weather could cause things like nose bleeds, migraines, and seizures, and even once caused the blood vessels in her eyes to pop, leaving them completely red. Janina also had to watch people around her get sick, some of whom didn't make it. "I recall being in the hospital, wondering if I was going to survive to adulthood," she says.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise that being the new kid in school and not speaking English proved tough for Janina, not to mention the stigma of being a Chernobyl survivor and having kids taunt her, asking her if she glowed in the dark or if she was radioactive. "Along with the health complications I was still dealing with, I'd never felt so alone, so isolated, such pain. That year, I considered suicide."

As she picked up more English and she adjusted to American culture, her social life improved. But things really started to click for Janina when she was 16 and a new movie came out: X-Men.

"I remember crying happy tears during that movie, because I felt so connected to the characters. I felt like I was watching myself on the screen. I wanted to join them. I wanted to be a part of the X-Men.

"That was the first time I realized that instead of being a victim, I was a survivor."

Not only did it help her deal with her own situation, but it led her down a career path that would help many others as well. After seeing X-Men, Janina took her first psychology class. Now, she's a psychologist who has written books on how to use superheroes and fictional stories to deal with trauma.

"For the longest time, even the word Chernobyl was very triggering for me. It's a lot easier to talk about now, and the more I talk about it, the easier it gets."

But she writes that she still can't quite watch HBO's new miniseries about the disaster. "Seeing some of the characters being dismissive of the seriousness of the situation while seeing others dying from radiation sickness reminded me of the horrors that many of our people went through," she wrote. "I found myself feeling the entire spectrum of possible emotions, including grief, horror, and sadness."

"I've noticed that mindfulness, breathing exercises, and meditation have really helped make my pain more manageable. I've come a long way from believing I truly wouldn't be able to make it into adulthood."

h/t Women's Health