Effects of Trauma on Emergency Personnel - Research Paper Example

Effects of Trauma on Emergency Personnel Abstract The9/11 strategy resulted to various impacts as a result of the trauma to the people who witnessed the tragedy especially the emergency personnel who were busy saving lives. The trauma had various impacts to the emergency personnel that they have lived to suffer up to now. The trauma made the emergency personnel to suffer from PTSD that has made them not fully recover to their normal lives. Guidance and counselling has not been enough to make these victims recover from such a disorder hence some of them have been forced to commit suicide. The trauma has aloes affected the emergency personnel by turning them into addicts especially drug addicts and this has hugely affected their lives. The findings in this research suggest that the impacts of trauma to the emergency personnel have been damaging to their lives. Keywords: Trauma, PTSD, Impacts, Emergency Personnel, Guidance and Counselling The Impact of Trauma to 9/11 Emergency Personnel Introduction The 9/11 basically refers to the suicide event that was witnessed in the United States of America in the September 11, the year 2001. The United States at that time had become a target for terrorists because of the endless efforts that the US government was making to fight terrorism in the whole world (Austin, 2007).In this research paper, the researcher will try to carefully and critically explain and analyse the 9/11 tragedy in details and outline the impact of trauma to the emergency personnel of the tragedy. The researcher will acquire all information about the topic at hand from scholarly sources that have talked about what happened and the effects suffered by the 9/11 emergency personnel. The 9/11 tragedy September 11, the year 2001 in the morning, the US people experienced the biggest terror attack in the history of terrorism. The government of the US had put strict security measures in the country to protect all its citizens from any terrorist attacks due to its major role in killing terrorism in the world. Its facilitator role to combat the vice had exposed the country to terrorist and made it their top target. The government of the US was promising rewards for the arrest or vital information about the whereabouts of Osama who was the leading terrorist at the time and headed the biggest terrorism association that was and is still referred to as Al-Qaeda (Barry, 2006). This angered terrorists at the time and made them to plot a terror attack in the US. Despite the strict security measures that the government of the US had put in place, it was very difficult for them to realize and prepare in advance for the 9/11 attack as it caught them and the world unaware. That particular morning, 19 hijackers boarded four different commercial planes and took control of those plans after they had taken off and were flying out of East Coat airports of the United States. Two planes were flown by the terrorist directly to the twin towers of the World trade Centre in the New York and the third of the four planes headed to Virginia and hit the Pentagon. However, passengers and crew in the fourth plan managed to fight the terrorists, overpowered and prevented them from directing the plane to its target as they took control of it but unfortunately it crashed at Pennsylvania (Austin, 2007). At the time, the twin towers that were crashed were symbols of the US influence and power while the Pentagon was the Defence Department of the United States. Around 3,000 innocent people and the evil/guilt 19 terrorist lost their lives in that particular day. The tragedy caused great panic all over the world and most countries that were in support of the fight against terrorism joined the American people in mourning. The residents and citizens of the US were very afraid and worried too much as they taught of what they had experienced. The families who had lost their beloved ones due to the attack and emergency personnel of the 9/11 tragedy experienced long periods of trauma that highly affected their normal functioning. Guidance and counselling could not be enough to assist them regain their normal state since they were suffering from tough effects of trauma although the counselling playing a part in comforting them and regain their hope in life (Jackson, 2007).The world-wide economy slowed down as most business in the US and some parts of the world came to a standstill. This was due to the fear of employees to report to work and the holidays that were globally declared by state official to assist the US people mourn the huge loss of their loved ones. The impacts of Trauma to the 9/11 emergency personnel Trauma simply refers to a unpleasant, challenging or difficult experience that results to a person experiencing emotional or mental problems for a long period of time due to the experience of a terrible disaster such an accident, natural disaster or rape. This experience has various difficult impacts on victims in the situations and hugely affects their lives for a long period of time. The lengthy reactions to this experience are unpredictable flashbacks, emotions, physical symptoms that include nausea and headaches among others as well as strained relationships (Jerry, 2007). This experience may affect other individuals badly that they even fail to get the energy and desire to move on with their own lives as they lose hope and taste in life completely and in the process others are tempted or indeed commit suicide. The impacts of the trauma on the emergency personnel are discussed below; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) A person is always afraid when in danger. The fear that the person develops triggers a lot of split seconds variations in the individual’s body to enable the person prepare to defend himself against the danger he is experiencing or avoid it. The ‘fight’ response is simply a healthy response that which is meant to protects the person from the harm that he is facing. In PTSD, the reaction is either damaged or changed. People with this kind of a disease in most cases feel afraid or stressed even if there is no danger ahead of them. The PTSD in most cases develops after any ordeal that which is terrifying and involved physical injury or threat to physical injury (Jane, Ervasti, Kuosma and Mattila, 2003). It occurs to those individuals that have been injured, to those with an injured victim or those that experienced the causes of the harmful event to strangers or loved ones. This simply means that one of the impact of the 9/11 tragedy on emergency personnel is the development of the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This disorder hugely affected and is currently affected some of the emergency personnel that witnessed the 9/11 tragedy (Regehr and Bober, 2005). The disorder made the personnel to develop fear from time to time even if there is no presence of danger or harm in front of them. For example once they hear a loud sound or harmless explosion, they get terrified and starts shaking as it makes them remember the tragedy and how many lives was lost. Once an individual has such a disorder, he loses his self-esteem. Self-esteem is basically the ability of an individual to trust in his abilities and to have the confidence and courage to take initiative. This simply outlines that the 9/11 emergency personnel lost their self-esteem and do not trust in their abilities as before. This means in case of a small emergency situation, instead of the emergency personnel taking the initiative to help the victims, the too get afraid as normal civilians and get off with speed due to fear that which is within them. Physical illness and suicide Psychologists argue that it is normal for people to experience physical illness as a result of a trauma. Therefore it is very logical to argue that the 9/11 emergency personnel experienced physical illness from what they went through at that particular time as they were trying to save lives. People who experience any situation that is very challenging and discouraging in the human eyes and hearts in most cases develop physical illness. One of the physical illnesses that the 9/11 emergency personnel faced or are still facing is body harms that in most cases resulted to disabilities (Jerry, 2007). It is in record that as the emergency team was going in to help the victims who had been affected by the 9/11 tragedy, some of them got injured by the glass, stones, metal bars and furniture that were still falling due to the damages that were caused by the tragedy. The heavy fallings on their bodies made them to be disabled due to the injuries that they experienced as some of their body parts were crushed and even some of them lost their lives. The disabilities that these personnel acquired put them through stress and still giving them stress. Stress if not well managed can cause severe harm to the victim. The stress that the emergency personnel were and are still going through due to the disabilities experienced and loss of beloved ones make them prone to diseases (Barry, 2006).The victims fail to eat properly are restless at all times and this causes them to easily get various diseases are a result of poor nutrition and too much negative thinking. The negative thinking that these victims experience in some cases tempts them to commit suicide. This has indeed been proved to be true as it is in record that most people who lost their beloved ones and those that witnessed the 9/11 strategy couldn’t sustain the stress that they were going through and this forced them to commit suicide. Some committed suicide as they believed that there could be no way they could live without their loved ones since they meant the world to them and that they were indeed what they lived for. Addictions Victims of trauma in some cases are forced to turn into alcohol addicts. Normally, most human beings think that the most effective and appropriate manner to do away with stress is to take alcohol beverages. This belief has forced many people affected by the 9/11 tragedy to turn to alcohol whenever they are stressed. Although psychologists and counsellors argue that the most appropriate manner to deal with stress is to share thoughts with family, friends, peers and psychology experts, most people belief that engaging in drugs is the only way to deal with stress (Jerry, 2007). They think this way as they always feel that the people that they can consult or share their problems with cannot help because they can and would never understand what they are going through. The trauma experienced by 9/11 emergency personnel has forced the victims to engage in drugs in order to try and resolve the stress that they are facing or to cool down whenever the flashbacks of what they witnessed comes about (Regehr and Bober, 2005). This has made the personnel to be drug addicts. Some of them prefer chain smoking, others prefer alcohol and the rest prefer hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. The drug addictions has caused severe damages to the health and physical body of the 9/11 emergency personnel. For example, the excessive consumption of alcohol has caused them to lose their lives due to liver cirrhosis disease. Lung cancer has greatly taken livers of those victims that are opting to chain smoking in order to try and control the stress they are going through. Hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin has made the 9/11 emergency personnel to commit suicide as they have lost hope in life due to the consequences of consuming such drugs. Racial and religious intolerance Most people all over the world believe that those people from the Arab community or countries are the ones who conduct terrorism activities. It has gone to an extent of most people believing that Muslims are prone to terrorism as it is reported that their religion in one way or another is in support of terror attacks. This one of the causes of conflicts between Christians and Muslims hence the result to the endless fighting and unrest that which is going on in some parts of the world. However, some of the 911 emergency personnel have developed racial and religious intolerance of Muslims with time (Barry, 2006). This is after the government of the US linked the Al-Qaeda terror group with the 911 tragedy. Some of the victims have found it very difficult to forgive Muslims and Arabs since it is not that all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists. The fact that they experienced the 9/11 tragedy as a result of people who were Arabs and Muslims has made them develop negative attitudes towards the Arabs and the Muslim people. It has taken years and might even take many years for them to do away with the grudge that they are holding on Muslims and Arabs because of the pain that they go through as a result of the terrorist attack. Awakening of old traumas It is true indeed that birds of a feather flock together. In this case, this proverb means that the trauma that 9/11 emergency personnel experienced awakened other traumas that the personnel could have experienced. It is a fact that the emergency personnel had experienced other disasters although different and small than the 9/11 tragedy (Bernice and James, 2005). This is due to the fact that it is indeed their work to try and save life in terms of disasters and therefore most of the emergency personnel that were present to rescue live as a result of the damages caused by the 9/11 tragedy had indeed participated in other events to save other lives. This means that they had experience other discouraging incidents whose memories were weakened by what they witnessed from the 9/11 tragedy. This indeed has caused the 9/11 emergency personnel to be much stressed and therefore bear the painful experiences of stress. Conclusion September 11, the year 2001 in the morning, the US people experienced the biggest terror attack in the history of terrorism. The government of the US had put strict security measures in the country to protect all its citizens from any terrorist attacks due to its major role in killing terrorism in the world. That particular morning, 19 hijackers boarded four different commercial planes and took control of those plans after they had taken off and were flying out of East Coat airports of the United States. Two planes were flown by the terrorist directly to the twin towers of the World trade Centre in the New York and the third of the four planes headed to Virginia and hit the Pentagon. However, passengers and crew in the fourth plan managed to fight the terrorists, overpowered and prevented them from directing the plane to its target as they took control of it but unfortunately it crashed at Pennsylvania. The trauma experienced by 9/11 emergency personnel has forced the victims to engage in drugs in order to try and resolve the stress that they are facing or to cool down whenever the flashbacks of what they witnessed comes about. This has made the personnel to be drug addicts. Some of them prefer chain smoking, others prefer alcohol and the rest prefer hard drugs such as cocaine and heroin. It is true indeed that birds of a feather flock together. In this case, this proverb means that the trauma that 9/11 emergency personnel experienced awakened other traumas that the personnel could have experienced. The victims fail to eat properly are restless at all times and this causes them to easily get various diseases are a result of poor nutrition and too much negative thinking. The negative thinking that these victims experience in some cases tempts them to commit suicide. This has indeed been proved to be true as it is in record that most people who lost their beloved ones and those that witnessed the 9/11 strategy couldn’t sustain the stress that they were going through and this forced them to commit suicide. References Austin, A. (2007). Analysis of the 9/11 tragedy and other terrorist attacks globally: A critical approach. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Barry, A. W. (2006). The impacts of trauma and stress on victims. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Bernice, C., & James, T. (2005).The effects of trauma: Trauma in the emergency services. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Jackson, A. (2007). New approaches to drug therapy. Journalof Psychology Today and Tomorrow, 27(1), 54-59. Jane, A., Ervasti, J., Kuosma, E., & Mattila, P. (2003) Evaluation of an organizational stress management program in a municipal public works organization. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 13(1), 10-23. Jerry, A. (2007). New approaches to drug therapy. Journal of stress management, 27(1), 54-59. Regehr, C., & Bober, T. (2005).In the line of fire: Trauma in the emergency services. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Read More