Jessica Buchanan spent 93 days wondering whether she would make it home alive. In 2011, she and her colleague were captured and held hostage by Somali pirates.
Buchanan’s experience was extreme, but she recently told Business Insider that the lessons she took from it can help people through hard times in their own lives.
“I do think that people know what it feels like to be confined in some way, whether it’s a circumstance or just within themselves,” Buchanan said. “And I hope people understand that freedom is possible.”
Buchanan now writes and speaks about survival, recovery, and finding purpose after trauma. “Sometimes you just have to hold on a little bit longer than you want to or you think is possible,” she said.
The 1 thing she could protect when everything else was out of her control
During captivity, Buchanan was kept on a mat outside in the desert. She says she endured extreme heat and cold, killed scorpions with her shoes, and sometimes spent weeks separated from her colleague without speaking to another person.
Food was limited. She recalled that her captors often gave her a small can of tuna in the morning and canned pineapple in the afternoon, and sometimes spaghetti.
Buchanan started organizing her thoughts to make it through the long stretches of isolation. She reflected on her life, the death of her mother the previous year, and what she wanted if she survived.
Eventually, she said, she found a peaceful internal space she could return to even when her surroundings were chaotic. “That has probably been one of the most important experiences and lessons I’ve ever learned in my life,” she said.
It’s a lesson Buchanan still relies on, and one she now shares with others trying to navigate difficult circumstances.
“Do whatever you need to do to protect your mind,” she said. “That’s the only place that no one can touch. It is all yours. And that’s the place that you have all the control. That is the place where you alone are in charge both during and after.”
Research has linked that sense of control to resilience. A 2026 study found that participants who maintained a greater sense of control in the face of an uncontrollable stressor reported less helplessness and showed more flexible responses to subsequent stress.
Getting out was only the beginning
Near the end of her captivity, Buchanan said she was vomiting, running a fever, and in so much pain that she couldn’t walk from what she believed to be a kidney infection.
During a January 16 proof-of-life call, she told a negotiator that she thought she had about two weeks to live without medical care.
Nine days later, SEAL Team Six rescued her and her colleague. She recalled that freedom initially brought her a sense of euphoria, but it was short-lived.
In the years that followed, Buchanan said she suffered from PTSD, nightmares, and anxiety as she rebuilt her sense of identity.
“When I got out, I didn’t know who I was anymore,” she said.
Buchanan’s trauma is an extreme case, but traumatic experiences are relatively common: About half of US adults experience at least one traumatic event in their lives, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
Over time, Buchanan returned to teaching and began sharing what she had learned. She said finding purpose became an important part of moving forward.
“I think that is the key in my experience is identifying purpose in order to help us get out of bed in the morning, especially when we’ve been through really hard things,” she said, adding that “It’s taken me all of 10 years to climb that mountain, and it’s been tough, but it’s been well worth it.”
She said she would never describe what happened to her as worth it. Still, surviving showed her she was tougher than she had believed.
“I’m grateful to be here, and I’m grateful that I have been able to learn more about myself and learn those lessons and internalize them because I like who I am now,” she said.
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