Jan JM Van Dijk (1997) has shown in international research that urbanization and crime go hand in hand where crime will strike one out of five people very close to one, at least once in the year following the present one, no matter where one lives in the world.
The English word trauma is derived from a Greek term meaning 'wound'. Traumatic events are extraordinary events because they overwhelm the ordinary human adaptations to life and generally involve threats to one's life and physical integrity or a close encounter with death. Furthermore the traumatic event collapses one's world view and assumptions about life in one blow as well as confront us with extreme feelings of helplessness arid terror, loss of control and freedom and the threat of annihilation.
One does not walk away from the experience of human tragedy, shock and suffering without experiencing pain. How one gives expression to that pain differs from person to person, for example, emotional outbursts, burying the pain, minimising the effects of the pain, delayed responses to pain. As human beings we have feelings; we are spirit, mind and body and it is human to feel pain. Our healing process after a painful experience involves time to process and give expression to that pain.
Some initial reactions to traumatic experiences may involve emotional responses of anger, depression, shock, weeping, denial that anything has happened, bargaining with God, and wrestling to find meaning for the experience. After a period of about six months, if a person still experiences recollections of the trauma during sleep, flashbacks that are triggered by smells, sights or associations so that it appears that the trauma is re-occuring, feelings of guilt, self-destructive behaviours and startle reactions, a numbness to life and avoidance of people, then consideration needs to be given to that persons inhibition to process the pain of the trauma and to move on, using the pain to further the growth and development of his/her life.
Recovery from trauma involves a regaining of a sense of control and mastery over one's life, making sense of the traumatic expenence, and re-establishing former patterns of adaptation to life.
FAMSA offers an extensive supportive and facilitative service both at the onset of recovery from trauma and in response to delayed emotional responses to trauma.
(Reference: Schulz,H, van Wijk,T & Jones,P; 2000: Trauma in South Africa: Understanding emotional trauma and aiding recovery)
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