In a revelation from her recent memoir published last month, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai shared how cannabis triggered 
trauma from the 2012 Taliban attack that nearly killed her.
A University Experiment Gone Wrong
Whilst studying at Oxford University, the shooting survivor tried smoking cannabis from a bong with friends in a campus summerhouse. What seemed like a harmless student experience quickly turned into a nightmare.
“I knew this feeling, the terror of being trapped inside my body. This had happened before,” Malala writes in her memoir Finding My Way.
How Cannabis Triggered Trauma She Thought She’d Forgotten
After using the bong, Malala experienced severe physical and psychological reactions. She lost the ability to walk, her muscles locked up, and vivid flashbacks to the shooting began flooding her mind – memories she thought her brain had erased.
The drug use unlocked traumatic memories from her seven-day coma following the Taliban attack. Images replayed relentlessly: her school bus, a man with a gun, blood everywhere, strangers carrying her body through crowded streets.
“There was no escape, no place to hide from my own mind,” she recalled.
The Dangerous Reality of Drug-Induced Trauma
Malala’s friend carried her back to the dormitory, where she spent hours on the bathroom floor, vomiting, screaming, and shaking. She feared closing her eyes, worried the nightmares would trap her in an endless loop of terror.
“If you fall asleep, you will die!” she remembered telling herself, staying awake through the night and into the morning.
The experience revealed a crucial truth: substance use can trigger or worsen serious mental health episodes, particularly in individuals with trauma histories. Cannabis triggered trauma that Malala’s brain had protectively suppressed for years, violently unleashing what she thought she’d forgotten.
A Sobering Warning About Cannabis and Trauma
Malala’s experience demonstrates that cannabis is not the harmless substance many believe it to be. For individuals with underlying trauma, anxiety, or other mental health vulnerabilities, drug use can unleash devastating psychological consequences.
Her friend’s words haunted her afterwards: “It stays in your blood.”
This powerful account serves as a stark reminder that substance use – even experimental or recreational – can trigger unpredictable and severe reactions, particularly in those who have experienced trauma. Cannabis triggered trauma that had lain buried for years, proving that drug use can unlock dangerous psychological responses.
Read the full extract from Malala’s memoir here: WRD NEWS