The heliport crew made ready as the Life-Flight landed. The gurney was ready. The blades slowed. Suddenly, before the blades stopped, one of the attendants scrambled out of the bird running to the patient door on the near side. Quickly opening and securing the door she climbed in and started CPR. The ground crew crept closer, but had to wait for the blades to stop.
Then, everyone sprang into action. The lead paramedic took over the CPR. Three of them transferred the patient sled to the gurney. Another attendant transferred the oxygen and IVs. Another the heart monitor.
As soon as everything was ready, they hurried into the corridor. Halfway to the waiting elevator the lead paramedic jumped on the gurney to better administer CPR. When everyone was in, the elevator attendant pushed the buttons and the elevator dropped toward the E.R.
The doors opened. The crew pulled the gurney to E.R. The entire trauma team was waiting. They slid the patient onto the bed. The elevator attendant took the gurney back to the hallway while teams of specialist went to work. Monitors, IV’s, plasma, whole blood. The Chaplin was off to one side praying. Finally, the patient’s heart started beating again.
In the waiting room was a woman. She spoke softly to the receptionist. The receptionist made a phone call. After some time, a nurse with an evidence kit, a police officer and a volunteer from Domestic Violence and Crisis Center arrived for support. They took her to a small room to collect evidence.
Physical wounds are easy to treat. We have monitors, x-rays, MRIs and all sorts of devises to care for the physical. Psychological injuries are much more difficult. These are invisible. There is no trauma team to help.
The Psychological: Where the emotional encompasses our feelings, and the cognitive processes information, the psychological is a combination of these. This is your soul. This is who you are. The psyche, the Greek word meaning life essence of the individual, both responds to and affects our environment and relationships. This is the real person living inside that machine called your body. This is the real person responding to external stimuli. Where the cognitive might be the ability to think and the emotion the ability to feel, this is where the thinking and feeling takes place. This is where decisions are made. This is you.
What damage have you received throughout your life? If your home was not safe, how were you damaged? What happens if a child’s mom does not provide meals at a certain time each day? There is the age old question between nurture and nature. If the nurture was inept the child is less likely to be healthy. We will discuss this when we discuss risk factors. Although it is difficult to overcome incest, rape, abuse, and other traumas that occurred while young, it is possible. On the same token, some people grow up in a healthy environment and because they are born with a rebellious spirit, they rebel.
So the question is “Who are you?” What kind of trauma has shaped you? What has made you who you are? Are you happy with who you are becoming or do you want to change course? Trials are sent our way to make us stronger.
Taking our feelings, and what we know, learning about who we are and the world around us develops our character. As we learn to engage our trials, as we overcome them, our character becomes stronger.
In talking with the fellows in a group meeting I was reminded of a person who was self-absorbed, wanting attention and always wanting the center focus. I am reminded of other people who would lie and manipulate to get what they wanted. This kind of sickness is beyond the scope of this book or maybe falls under the heading of relationships and social interaction. I do not know enough about Psychological sicknesses to claim the ability of helping. I suppose it depends on the nature of the psychological trouble and its source. If the source is some kind of trauma, this book might help. It also depends on if the person is capable of honestly looking at one’s self.
I do not remember the full extent of how messed up I was in the years following the trauma that ended my former life. I sometimes catch glimpses of myself and wonder “How badly was I messed up?” Although I have no desire to relive and investigate the depths of depravity while in the hold of the trauma, sometimes a thought reminds me of who I had become. The point here is that with a lot of work and some help, recovery is possible. Just as a person suffering some physical trauma where a limb is lost or paralyzed, this might not be a full recovery. Restoration to who you once were may not be possible, rather, it may be a recovery to where your life will have meaning and benefit others in a different way. In becoming healthy, we grow beyond recovery.
After Sally married, her husband started drinking. He became abusive and eventually violent. After he was arrested, Sally said, “During my last trauma, in the aftermath, I was trying to grasp the reality of it all. I do not believe I slept for two weeks. I continue to do my daily routine. Hoping to gain “normal” back. I felt like my body was just running and I was trying to keep up and keep grounded. I spoke to [the crisis center], they told me I was in shock. That there was a chemical reaction occurring. My body was releasing an increase amount of serotonin, dopamine, and [epinephrine]. There was a fight or flight response occurring in my body. This helped me understand that the reaction I was having was normal along with what was occurring to my body. Especially because I was over analyzing things at that time.”
5) Cognitive