Trauma in any form can have a huge impact on one's life.Trauma can be different for different people.For some it may be loss of a dear one,irreversible loss of a body part,or physical,emotional,or mental abuse.To understand what happens with a person after trauma let us take insight into today's story.
Mr.Joseph and Mrs.Sophie were going on a long drive alongwith their son Alice,who was 15 years old.It was a Sunday morning.They were enjoying the ride and suddenly an unfortunate event took place.Their car crashed by hitting hard an another car.The nearby people rushed them to a hospital.In the hospital,the doctor said that both Mr.Joseph and Mrs.Sophie had died and their son is still struggling with life.Soon after some time,Alice's aunt and uncle came.Due to an injury in the left leg doctor had to amputate(cut) that leg.Soon when his condition was seen stable then the doctors allowed his aunt and uncle to meet him.On seeing them,Alice immediately asked "where is my mom and dad and are they safe"?The doctors had advised his aunt and uncle to not to tell him about his parents as he might not be able to tolerate it.So they just said"yes".After few minutes when he wanted to get up he noticed that he did not have his left leg.He shouted "where is my leg,how will I ever walk" and started crying after that.The doctors and his aunt and uncle consoled him.
In few days he got discharge and went to his home.On reaching home he asked about his aunt and uncle about his parents as they were nowhere to be found in the house.This time his aunt and uncle told him the truth.He cried for many days in the memory of his parents.He lost his interest in studies and didn't want to go to school.He also lost interest in his surrounding,his friends and didn't want to do anything and wanted to remain alone.But his aunt and uncle,his friends as well as his neighbors made sure to be with him in his tough times.His friends would play indoor games with him and made sure that he wins every game so that to make alive a little hope that he has given up.His aunt and neighbors helped him in getting ready and preparing food for him.Despite of all these efforts,Alice could not move on.He often hit flashbacks of his parents and how they treat him and start to cry.He also had nightmares and would wake up in midnight and again start to cry.He also became irritable and would get angry on little things.His manifestations were worsening day by day so his aunt and uncle decided to take him to a clinical psychologist.They went to Mr.Hamel,a famous clinical psychologist in their city and told him about the Alice's weird behavior. Psychologist asked them if anything abnormal incident happened with him or it's just that.So his aunt told him about the whole incident that took place almost a month back(death of Alice's parents and amputation of his left leg).The psychologist told them that it was because of Post traumatic stress disorder(PTSD) which often occurs when person suffers from a tragic event.He told them not to worry and also told them to stay with Alice in this time otherwise he would be lost completely.He told them that he would do all the possible things at his own end and also encouraged them to do so.He told them to never leave him alone.Atleast one person should sleep with him at night and should tell him or made him read good things before going to bed.He also told that they should encourage his friends to do homework together and help him in that and also to play with him.He told them that Alice should be encouraged to see about the other half of his life that is beautiful and exciting.They should motivate him and should try to change his view towards life.He also told them to follow up every week so that he could provide psychotherapy to Alice.Psychotherapy helps identify and change negative thought patterns, also it helps to face past memories safely and adopt coping mechanisms.He also prescribed some medications for the same.
After approximately one year with the combined efforts of Alice's aunt and uncle,his friends, neighbors and Mr Hamel, Alice was finally able to get out of PTSD syndrome and continue to live his life normally and happily.His manifestations gradually started to decrease to a greater extent.
So through this story we came to know about PTSD(post traumatic stress disorder) ,it's manifestations, in which conditions it can occur and most important of all, the ways in which we can overcome it.It's very important to stay with the person going through this and help him achieve normal life again.This would motivate him towards life and this in long term can help a person to achieve desired goals.