Problems in War Zones: The Ignored Midst Crisis in Crisis
Problems in War Zones: The Ignored Midst Crisis in Crisis
Blog Article
Introduction
Mental health will pay the greatest price at the cost of war zones. Exposure, displacement, and loss on endless repetition are mental weights far too easily parked in a desperate bid to stay alive. Governments, NGOs, and international human rights groups all have their best efforts to provide nutrients, shelter, and medicine while piling mental health as an afterthought topic with long-term repercussions.
This blog talks about the psychological problems of survivors of war, their social implications, and the need for psychological counseling in the war-torn areas.
The Psychological Cost of Conflict:
Exposure to the war zone puts the subject in daily doses of uncertainty, trauma, and stress. Daily threat of violence, loss of loved ones, displacement from home country, displacement from home due to migration make emotional suffering normal. The most prevalent types of psychological disorders that happen in war zones are:
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – PTSD is an extremely common disorder in the case of war survivors and conflict-war survivors. Flashbacks, nightmares, over-preoccupation, and emotional numbing are some of the symptoms of PTSD. Reintegration of PTSD patients into society becomes an issue even after the war no longer exists.
- Depression – Families lost, livelihood sources, and lives are too much to comprehend and therefore get trapped in perpetual grief and mourning. Depression here is not that intense and thus leads to chronic psychic disturbance.
- Anxiety Disorders – There is high anxiety because of continued fear and anxiety about the future. They dread surviving, eating, and drinking, and for their relatives.
- Suicidal Ideation and Self-Injurious – The persistently depressed and despairing environment will make them suicidal. Unfortunately, because there are no psychiatric hospitals to mention, most of them do not get the counseling that they need.
- Alcohol or Narcotics Addiction – In their final bid to put an end to their wretchedness, the majority of them turn to alcohol or narcotics addiction. It makes them more mentally demented and addicted, and their wretched condition more deplorable.
Vulnerable Populations: Worst Affected?
As the psycho-emotional trauma is being suffered by all the individuals involved in a war scenario, there are worst-affected groups:
Children and Young People:
Children above all are victims of violence and war. Forced to see their fathers and mothers get murdered, forced out of the home, and daily in fear of being murdered themselves can leave their mental well-being for life with deep scars. They become slow children, slow learners, and emotionally troubled. They are bitter and cold as well because they do not have the capacity to deal with trauma.
Women and Girls:
Girls and women are victims of other gender violence-causing mental illnesses such as forced marriage, sexual violence, and trafficking. Stigma in the latter is not complete because survivors are silent sufferers.
Refugees and Displaced Populations:
Displacement also causes additional pressure. The IDPs and refugees worry about the future, need to master a new language, have to acclimatize to the new world, and are very ill-equipped to find jobs and obtain health facilities. Inability to acclimatize to new things and respond to historical trauma puts them at extremely high risk of becoming mentally ill.
Combatants and Ex-Soldiers:
War zone soldiers and troops, including children, get psychologically traumatized for life. They all get traumatized with PTSD, depression, and moral injury (psychological damage of being a perpetrator or a witness to atrocities). Without proper mental health care, the patients cannot be integrated into society.
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The Lack of Mental Health Care in War Zones:
Even in other sectors where there is a need for psychological counseling in such destroyed regions, mental care is lacking. In fact there are so many reasons why citizens are not going to the clinics, and some of those reasons are:
* Limited Resources – Humanitarian aid is concentrated on addressing hunger, thirst, and shelter. Mental care is secondary with limited services.
Stigma and Cultural Factors – Mental illness has been stereotyped by almost all societies. People don't want to look "weak" or "crazy" and are deterred from accessing help.
Shortage of Professionals – Combat zones are experiencing a brain drain due to professional counselors, psychiatrists, and psychologists shunning combat zones. It results in an enormous shortage of mental health experts.
Security Challenges – Violence of war makes the life of a mental health practitioner in war zones and hence limits opportunities for psychological intervention.
The Future Solution: Embracing the Challenge of War Zone Mental Health:
It is a complete solution that will easily span the challenge of war zone mental health:
- Integration of Mental Health into Humanitarian Response – Physical and mental health requirements are treated with equal priority. Psychological first aid (PFA) and trauma counseling need to be incorporated into response programs.
- Capacity Building of Local Healthcare Providers and Local Leaders – Deficit can be turned around by capacity building of local healthcare providers and local leaders with some elementary training on psychological care.
- Safe Spaces – Providing community centers to access counseling, group therapy, and recreation can help to reduce trauma.
- Utilizing Technology – Telemedicine and online therapy will help provide remote mental health interventions where there are not enough professionals.
- Increased Awareness – De-stigmatization campaigns for mental illness can attract more attention-seeking patients.
- Government and International Support – Governments, international bodies, and NGOs must give support to mental health interventions and integrate them into the general reconstruction process.
Conclusion:
Psychiatric illness in the time of war is a hidden crisis unfolding. War may devastate the body and be torn from the face of the earth, but psychiatric damage lasts for decades. If left alone to labor, individuals and communities never return to their lives, and brutality, poverty, and anarchy are the order of the day.
Mental health spending is not humanitarianism but an essential instrument for survival in peace and healing. Mental health status as a human right and incorporation into humanitarian aid must be understood today. To heal only these psychotraumatogenic injuries will cause individuals to heal and rebuild society.
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