Over the
years, I have been trying to help people affected by violence and trauma
through education and planting seeds of hope. I hope that the same will be done
for those of us soon to be affected by COVID-19.
The loss that we humans will face in the coming months will
be immense. This may bring to the fore severe psychological trauma that will
take a long time to recover from. We must do all we can to help those affected
by the trauma.
The disease will kill many but it will also leave its mark
on those left behind. Trauma in the first instance happens to individuals, to
human beings. Those who died are victims. Those who are left behind, those who
grieve for them, the bereaved, are the victims.
Although this trauma may differ to those who were affected
by violence, the effects will be similar in how people feel the loss. The
individuals affected will attempt to pick up the pieces. The pieces of their
lives that were once whole will now be shattered.
This is the first effect of trauma. It can shatter lives. It
can shatter hopes. It can shatter beliefs, understandings, and assumptions about
how the world works. What seemed normal before the trauma will be questionable
post-trauma Trauma can leave individuals with a very negative view of the
world.
This can become imprinted in the victim’s psyche and can
lead in many cases to poor mental health. For many people a traumatic incident
is considered a "turning point".
People that have suffered trauma –
and remember that a trauma incident is most usually unexpected and
unpreventable – can think of the moment of their trauma as the day the clocks
stopped.
The traumatised individual can be left vulnerable. This
vulnerability can be further impacted by how society deals with those left
traumatised. This disease has already seen sections of our community being
attacked and stigmatised.
Traumatised people can become voiceless, without agency,
stuck in their victimhood. Left to fend for themselves. Silenced. Invalidated. The sheer scale of loss will leave many
feeling that they cannot speak about their own loss.
We should not let this happen. We should encourage people to
talk about their loss. To not feel shame. To not feel guilt. To not feel blame.
It may sound wrong but we should help people to find some meaning in their loss
and suffering.
We should plant seeds within those left traumatised that
could eventually lead to “post-traumatic growth” (PTG). We should instil hope
that people, with the proper support, can recover and embark on a new journey
after the suffering.
Posttraumatic growth is not the same as an increase in
well-being or a decrease in distress. Growth comes from the individual’s
struggle with a highly distressing set of circumstances that significantly
challenges people’s understanding of the world and their place in it.
We must help each other to find new ways of seeing the world
after the trauma that will rip through our society. We must do our best to see that we come out
the other side of this pandemic as a better society. One that learns to grow
and thrive
There are 5 domains of PTG: Greater appreciation of life and
changed sense of priorities; Warmer, more intimate relationships with others; A
greater sense of personal strength; Recognition of new possibilities or paths
for one’s life; Spiritual development
This involves: Meaning Making: Finding meaning in your
trauma, making sense of your suffering; Identity Production: realising that the
identity you had before may be gone, and where one must create a new identity; as well as Narrative Building and Re-telling one’s story: retelling
enables the person to potentially bring into focus different aspects of the
self not clearly considered before, "producing an elaborated identity,
giving the trauma meaning and significance".
This should be our aim. We can all help. The role of others
as “expert listeners” (not just professionals and practitioners) in supporting
the individual in their journey towards post-traumatic growth is important.
“Supportive others can aid in posttraumatic growth by
providing a way to craft narratives about the changes that have occurred, and
by offering perspectives that can be integrated into schema change" (Tedeschi
and Calhoun 2004, 8).
“The cognitive processing of trauma into growth appears to
be aided in many people by self-disclosure in supportive social
environments" (Tedeschi and Calhoun 2004 :11). Creating a better social
environment (Post-Covid 19) is essential.
We must all play our part. We must become empathetic expert
listeners. We must give the victims a voice. We must enable agency. We must
grasp the opportunity by challenging our politicians to make significant
changes to how our society operates.
We must create a trauma informed society. We must enable
growth. We must not leave people feeling that they are on the edge of
society. This disease must open our eyes
once and for all that the way we live now is not working. Let’s change it.
Please do your own research on the effects of trauma and the
possibilities for growth. Not everyone will experience this but as someone who
did I feel it is my duty to share it with you all in the hope that I can plant
these seeds in you and in society. Thanks for listening.
