In traumatic events, trauma victims are divided into three levels: the first level is the victims themselves, such as people who witnessed the scene of the disaster. The second level is the disaster witnesses, such as the People's Liberation Army, armed police and medical staff who participated in the rescue. Third-degree trauma victims are people affected by the disaster, such as relatives of the victims.
The above trauma victims will have different psychological and physiological reactions in different periods after the disaster, and there are two main types of reactions.
Positive reaction (dominated by sympathetic nervous system): trauma victims will be in a very excited and excited state within a certain period of time, such as crying, telling, trembling, having nightmares, insomnia and anger. Those tragic images at the disaster site will keep flashing in their minds, and they will relive the feeling of fear during the earthquake. ...
Negative reaction (dominated by parasympathetic nervous system): Another reaction is to avoid mentioning things related to disasters, refuse to accept the reality of disasters, and generally adopt a denial and avoidance attitude. Some symptoms are numbness, depression, guilt and physical fatigue.
Dr. Fang Xin emphasized that some trauma victims will think that they are stimulated and abnormal after one or more of the above reactions, but this is not the case. These reactions are just normal stress reactions of the body after large-scale disasters, natural processing processes of the body, and normal reactions to abnormal events.
Second, attention should be paid to post-traumatic stress disorder.
In recent years, with the increase of sudden catastrophic events, acute stress disorder (ATSD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have also become the focus of attention.
Among the victims of traumatic events, 70% will recover spontaneously after half a year or several years; The other 30% trauma victims will show some psychological symptoms more or less after a few days to decades. For example, some veterans who participated in the Vietnam War in the United States have symptoms such as suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, depression and homicide. After returning to China for several months or years. Clinically, there are cases that occur more than 20 years after trauma, and the professional field is called "post-traumatic stress disorder". Therefore, after a major disaster, it is very necessary to give psychological intervention to the trauma victims in time.
Third, social support is the most important.
If one side is in trouble, all sides will support it. For trauma victims, strong social forces will bring them the most effective support. Almost all research reports on trauma recovery have reached the same conclusion: social support plays a very important role in the recovery process of trauma victims. In addition to the help and support of relatives and friends, the government's support in human and material resources, such as rescue teams, medical teams, tents, etc., emergency measures taken by post-disaster units, trade unions, women's federations and communities, and the work of psychological counselors are all concrete manifestations of social support.
It should be emphasized that while taking various emergency rescue measures in the disaster area, psychological counseling should also be included in the emergency rescue, because all the people fighting in the front line, whether they are local affected people, medical workers, people's liberation army, armed police soldiers, government officials, etc., are also experiencing the strong stimulation brought by the disaster. They will also experience negative information such as fragility and helplessness of life, and they should receive psychological knowledge and psychological counseling in time. We hope that everyone will realize the problem of psychological reconstruction after the disaster as soon as possible.
The Clinical and Advisory Committee of the Chinese Psychological Association is also actively organizing experts to carry out this work. We are eager to participate in the rescue work.
At the same time, mutual comfort between relatives and friends is also a kind of social support. It also plays an important role in trauma psychotherapy. We hope everyone can take the initiative to approach the affected people and listen to their complaints. This is a good natural way to relieve.
We advocate what netizens do for trauma victims:
First, listen. Listen to the voices of trauma victims and let them talk about what they have accumulated in their hearts to ease their emotions.
Second, care. Try to reach out to trauma victims and let them know that someone is paying attention to and caring about them. Give them care and comfort through any means of communication.
Third, support: if you have money, you can make a strong contribution. . . .
Netizens do these things not only for the victims, but also for ourselves. Because if people who have experienced trauma feel that the world is indifferent and cruel to themselves, then they will be indifferent and cruel to the world and the people in this world in the future. Many criminals treat others cruelly because they themselves are victims of cruel treatment. On the contrary, if the victims get enthusiastic help from people in the disaster, they will be particularly willing to help others once they recover.
May we all reach out and contribute a little love to the world.