"For those students who survived, the most serious impact of the earthquake was that their sense of security was destroyed-and this is precisely the most important psychological foundation for human survival." Fang Xin said that the earthquake is a typical traumatic event, which is life-threatening and unpredictable, and there is nothing we can do about its occurrence and development. Therefore, this kind of emergency will cause different degrees of psychological trauma to the parties.
Generally speaking, she said, 70% people with traumatic experiences can recover naturally after half a year or several years without any psychological consultation. Another 30% people will be psychologically affected to varying degrees-this influence may even last from the moment of trauma to decades later, and some of them will show symptoms such as depression, fatigue, panic, anxiety, alcoholism, insomnia and eating disorders.
Some American veterans who participated in the Vietnam War showed symptoms such as suicide, alcoholism, drug abuse, depression and homicide after returning home for several months or years. A couple who lost their children in the Tangshan earthquake will be utterly confused around July 28 every year, as painful as an arrow piercing the heart. "Every year on July 28th, we will be seriously ill!"
"Some people are traumatized when they are young, and their symptoms may not show up until adulthood," Fang Xin said. "Because of the long time interval, people may not realize that these symptoms are all responses to trauma."
It's also psychological trauma. The reason why some people will recover without treatment, and some people will be trapped for life is that apart from the different severity of events that everyone feels, individual differences are also important factors-the higher the degree of personality perfection, the stronger the individual's ability to heal wounds.
Get strong psychological strength from social support
For trauma victims, powerful social forces will bring them the most effective psychological 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.
Fang Xin said that when an earthquake disaster happens suddenly, if the teacher can protect the students immediately, or appease the students in time after the disaster, it will make the children feel safe and be conducive to the recovery of trauma in the future. On the contrary, if some leaders and teachers, like the 1994 Karamay fire, ignore students' life and death, it will make children feel abandoned and further increase the difficulty of psychological rehabilitation in the future.
With the deepening of rescue, a large number of medical workers, people's liberation army, armed police soldiers and government officials have gone to more than ten counties and cities in Sichuan Province, but due to traffic and weather, the epicenter area has not been in contact with the outside world. This is what Fang Xin is most worried about: "Without contact and external support, the victims trapped there will feel abandoned. But on the other hand, if they know afterwards that rescuers walked overnight or even pried open stones with their bare hands to save them, they can also feel this huge social support. "
"It should be emphasized that psychological counseling should be immediately included in the scope of assistance while taking various emergency rescue measures in the disaster area." Fang Xin said that many people still think that psychological problems can be solved slowly in the future, which is inappropriate.
"Psychological intervention workers should appear at the first scene of the disaster." Two years ago, Ma Hong, director of the Department of Public Health of Peking University Institute of Mental Health and executive deputy director of the Mental Health Center of China CDC, made such a clear-cut statement. This expert who has participated in psychological rescue work at the scene of many disasters in China is deeply touched by this.
"Whether it is the local affected people, medical workers, the People's Liberation Army, armed police soldiers, government officials, etc. People who participated in the rescue, all those who fought in the front line, are also experiencing the intense stimulation brought by the disaster, and they will also experience negative emotions such as fragility and helplessness of life. Everyone should get timely psychological knowledge and psychological counseling. "
One of the most important principles for children injured by disasters is to be calm. Adults should hold their children in their arms like old hens and comfort them as much as possible-and the sooner the better. We should tell them repeatedly that it's all right, it's safe now, the Prime Minister has arrived, and the People's Liberation Army has arrived, so as to calm the children's nervous mood and help them calm down as soon as possible. As for those very young children, teachers, parents or other adults should hold them in their arms to comfort them.
Then tell the children that there may be some reactions in him these days, such as nightmares and crying in dreams, and tell them that this is actually a normal reaction of people to abnormal events, so there is no need to panic.
In addition, an important content of post-disaster psychological reconstruction is to encourage children to express what they have accumulated in their hearts and relieve their emotions. You can cry, talk, and even talk when you have time. "People sometimes can't bear to touch their children's psychological trauma and feel that they are stimulating them. On the contrary, this "re-experience" process is actually a desensitization process to traumatic events. Otherwise, they are likely to be trapped in the psychological shadow in their future lives-when they hear the word' earthquake' or encounter similar shaking, they will recur. " Fang Xin explained, "In the process of repeated conversations, children's sensitivity to events will gradually decrease and calm will be restored. For those very young children, if they can't express it in words, they can also use painting. "