New Mexico; Reflecting on personal experiences

I am seventeen years old and have spent several years at a group home in New Mexico where I saw some pretty horrible things, really horrible things. When I think back to traumatic events in my life, I feel I can only describe them in a monotone or emotionless way, though generally speaking I would say this is how I feel when I try to talk about pretty much any of my personal experiences, usually when I have had English courses where it was required that I write about my life I just made something up or lied, but I can't really do that now. Can I get some advice please?

I would really try to write about your feelings on it. It would be a really moving, deep essay. Post it and see what other people think, about whether it's detached or not.

If so, then just talk about how your experiences left you emotionless and detached, because that's your defense mechanism. I hope this helps!

Yes... I too think you have a good background story to start with. As tayleeb suggests you can justify how your experiences left you in such emotionless and detached status. Why don't you do the first draft and post it here? We can tell you what we feel about your writing and help you with improving your essay :)