Just read an article saying those who were in Intensive Care with CV are at risk from PTSD. I'd say any ICU experience puts you at risk from PTSD but also with CV individuals were separated from family, surrounded by staff in masks, dehumanising the experience, and witnessing an overwhelming level of death.
I can relate in some way as I was in hospital alone, having to have a tube inserted in my chest under local anesthestic, after a shock illness. I remember wanting to be anywhere else, and being observed by a student nurse and a work experience student, while a doctor performed the procedure for their first time and I was in considerable pain, all I wanted was a hand hold. On the ward I had another procedure and my pain was not manged until I screamed and the nurses came running back from the break (believe me it took me a lot to scream I am a calm person) with medication, and being on specialist wards you are surrounded by some of the poorliest people which if you have never experienced is an absolute rollercoaster of life affirmating feelings, horror, you can't unsee/unknow that, and you are changed forever.
Maybe I am dramatising the changed forever but I think that's the PTSD part- the brain is left with this huge experience to make sense of. I most definitely had depression afterwards (as well as flashbacks). I have lots of tips to help deal with it (safe places to go e.g in nature, marking the anniversaries, healing the body with diet, exercise, having a goal or small goals to work towards, joining a support group, telling/supporting others with the same experience, facing fears in a structured way, raising awareness/fundraising) but saying all this it's only in the last six months I feel like I have allowed myself to move on (3 years later) and I still have work to do to move 'beyond' it, it put my life on pause.
So yes I really feel for anyone affected and hope people get help with it/form support groups. No one should suffer alone.
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Covid
Coronavirus and PTSD
18 replies
swimkiwipanda · 30/06/2020 00:47
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