Sarah Eissa discovers a link between the revolution and professional help Our peaceful revolution -- from our end -- has become the scene of violence, brutality and murder by security apparatus for the past year and a half. For a nation that was relatively tranquil for over 30 years, the change has been hard to grasp. According to Aida Seif El-Dawla, founder of the Nadeem Centre for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Torture, murder scenes and the loss of loved ones cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which differs from the kind of shock one may suffer from news of a common-like death. PTSD has different effects. It lives with some people who see photos of what happened, dream of it while sleeping, and connect everything that is similar to the event like loud voices or pictures of the person who has died to the event. "They do not just imagine it but they see and hear it as if it's real," Seif El-Dawla said. Among PTSD symptoms, young people regret being alive while their friends were killed. They become numb because the nervous system cannot endure violent feelings and its pain. They also tend to be attracted to danger instead of running away from it. "During demonstrations and sit-ins, many people carry their friends, dead and injured, to field hospitals then return to the same place as a way of challenge," Seif El-Dawla adds. The means to overcome negative effects differs from one person to another. For example, some would need individual intervention or chatting and comparing notes with people with the same problem. "When they get these feelings they feel lonely so when they discover its mutual, they give power to each other," Seif El-Dawla said. She added that whether people can or cannot endure the situation is linked to the revolution itself. It does not help when people lose those close to them in the revolution, then feel they have become secondary and that the revolution is being stolen. It thus becomes harder than the trauma, causing anger, disappointment and depression. Ahmed Abdallah, a professor in the department of psychiatry at the Faculty of Medicine in Zagazig University, and a founding member of Psychiatrists for the Revolution Group, said post-traumatic means the trauma has ended, but that people still suffer from the ongoing distress like anxiety and stress without going to Tahrir Square or experience life threatening situations due to their exposure to the media. "This does not exist in the classical PTSD," Abdallah explains. Being exposed to the media, you live in distress that you invented and chose. The media constantly exaggerates news, rumours and talks about crisis avoiding positive initiatives, he believes. "I advise people who watch TV to participate in protesting as much of the stress they feel will be released. At least they will put things in their true perspective." Abdallah seeks a change in people's attitude and explains that dealing with attitudes means dealing with ideas, beliefs and emotions. People are anxious due to wrong ideas. For example, if there's a problem and someone is responsible for solving it, he tries to use the media via an official to solve it even though in the current situation of chaos in the country, there is no official and no one will respond. Sometimes this official would punish that person. "We are living in a regime that is punishing youth who started a revolution," he says. As Abdallah explains, no one knows how to relax, meditate while praying, listen to music or perform different activities outside the routine -- all required for relaxation.
