{"id":1360,"date":"2023-11-02T17:46:36","date_gmt":"2023-11-02T15:46:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nadiacenter.com\/?p=1360"},"modified":"2025-05-19T21:45:25","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T19:45:25","slug":"how-to-help-yourself-during-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nadiacenter.com\/en\/how-to-help-yourself-during-war\/","title":{"rendered":"How to help yourself during war"},"content":{"rendered":"
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War is a time of stress, trauma, and loss. War is a time of vulnerability and maladjustment. Critical circumstances take us out of our normal lives. The familiar world collapses, and something new and unfamiliar takes place.<\/p>

Ukrainians are currently in acute chronic trauma, regardless of where they are, in Ukraine or in another country. Trauma leads both externally and internally to a state of arousal, which the psyche is unable to cope with using the usual methods. Our psychic mechanisms for processing arousal become insufficient. Then the psyche needs to react and act differently. We cannot process this arousal and dissipate this amount of energy.<\/p>

Trauma is an event that threatens physical life and existence, it is a horrific event or series of such events.<\/p>

Grief and sorrow are our reactions to the loss of something or someone we were attached to, with whom we had a relationship. We feel grief not only when we lose loved ones, but when, for example, something we love is taken away from us (from files on our computer and photos to an apartment; from a broken toaster to our idea of \u200b\u200bourselves).<\/p>

Adjustment disorder occurs when we begin to live without familiar and cherished things or people, including changing our place of residence. This causes discomfort and confusion.<\/p>

In trauma, there is excitement, there are ruptures of connections and the destruction of perceptions that existed before.<\/p>

Our body's job is to protect itself, avoid injury, survive, and not feel pain. The normal response is to run away from anything unpleasant and preserve ourselves.<\/p>

During trauma, self-preservation is very active.<\/p>

The feelings we are experiencing right now have a huge spectrum. At the same time, we have feelings of responsibility, compassion, love, guilt, despair, sadness, grief, helplessness, hatred, anger, resentment, suspicion, envy, desire for revenge and disbelief. The intensity of feelings increases during stress.<\/p>

A significant problem for many Ukrainians is the fear of death, loneliness, and isolation.<\/p>

Our experiences range from confusion, fear, horror, despair, anger to euphoria and joy. All anxieties are activated. We notice a regression in ourselves to primitive anxiety states, archaic, total. This means that we have a basic distrust of life that arises in infants when their mother does not pay attention to them for a long time. That is, the trauma of war is a level of early regression. The feeling of basic security and trust of a small inner child who is not yet a year old is violated, and he cannot express his fear and despair in words.<\/p>

Many of us experience the fear of falling apart, the fear of losing a loved one, a home, a job, the fear of losing a loved one, and the fear of losing our courage. Many of us have already experienced great losses, and with the changes in our lives, we postpone the experience of grief, complicated by many losses. In addition to our own losses, we become witnesses to the boundless grief of humanity.<\/p>

Existential guilt is inevitable in war. In peacetime, a person may face it in midlife, during a midlife crisis, or in old age. In wartime, anyone can face such guilt before death.<\/p>

Existential guilt is a departure from traditional guilt, when an individual regrets a real or imagined guilt towards another. Such guilt is caused by a person\u2019s crime against himself, against his existence; it is caused by the awareness of an unlived life and unexploited internal possibilities. Existential guilt can also be a powerful blocking factor in decision-making. Fundamental decisions force a person to think about changes, reflect on losses, about how what happened happened, what he sacrificed many aspects of his life.<\/p>

Moving to another country, losing a job, profession, losing qualifications, not knowing the language can cause existential guilt. Existential guilt arises when faced with death. Sooner or later, a person begins to wonder: how did I live my life?<\/p>

The best way to deal with guilt, including guilt towards others or towards oneself, is through correction. A person cannot turn back their will. A person can correct the past only by actions in the present that will change the future. We cannot change the past and events that are beyond our direct responsibility, but we can begin to live differently. To do this, we need resources for survival and existence.<\/p>

Existential resources<\/strong><\/p>

Accepting the past allows you to take responsibility for the present.
The existential resources necessary for life are vitality and vitality.
Self-care includes understanding that if I face limitations and the inability to change something, this does not say anything about my abilities. An adult view of myself is an understanding of my abilities, an understanding of what I can specifically do. The art of small steps is important here.<\/p>

I cannot stop the destruction of cities, the rape, the killing of civilians. I entrust this task to our military and territorial defense. But I can do small things. I can take care of my psychological and physical condition to support those who return from the front. An adequate condition includes both daily household relationships and work activities, and psychological, physical and emotional health. First we need to survive, but after that we must learn to love. Two necessary components of a quality life are resilience and zest for life.
The next two conditions for a happy and fulfilling life are moderation and life satisfaction.<\/p>

Living and worrying are synonyms. Worries cannot be eliminated, they can only be lived with. To cope with worry, one must be tolerant. Tolerance is one of the most important existential resources.<\/p>

Tolerance<\/strong><\/p>

Tolerance consists of three components:
1. Understanding uncertainty.
2. Conscious and unconscious experiences when we are in a state of uncertainty.
3. How we behave in a state of uncertainty, how we react, how we act.<\/p>

By making various life decisions, forming and implementing one's life strategy, a person self-determines himself.<\/p>

A conscious act of choice reduces the uncertainty of the future, since a person has guidelines and goals directed towards the future, he is an active actor and transformer of existence.
The easiest way to get rid of uncertainty is to consider events as certain, even predetermined.
We create certainty ourselves when we plan our day down to the smallest details: get up, make the bed, have breakfast, clean up, work if possible. We create determination when we believe in victory, and thus support our warriors.
By returning to our goals, we overcome the temptation to despair.
It is easier to survive a crisis when you have developed tolerance for uncertainty, difficulties, environmental changes, new conditions, and your own reactions and emotions.
REMINDER: Simple algorithms of actions on how to help yourself during war.
When we are in danger, our brain turns on the sympathetic nervous system, that is, the \u201cfight, flight, or freeze\u201d response. In this state, we cannot relax, relieve tension, think, or make informed decisions. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for this. We can consciously switch these systems with the help of breathing techniques, food (which is why many people unconsciously overeat during times of stress), or a cup of tea. Below are simple and effective ways to switch the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for rest and relaxation.
1. Deep breathing. Lie on your back or in a sitting position, place your hand on your stomach. As you inhale, your hand on your stomach rises, as you exhale, it falls. Focus on your breathing. Breathe like this for 5-10 minutes.
2. Modified or altered breathing for contact with yourself, with your emotions: Step 1 \u2013 Take a deep breath, count to 4 (four). Step 2 \u2013 Hold your breath, count to 7 (seven). Step 3 \u2013 Exhale, count to 8 (eight). Breathe like this \u2013 5-10-30 minutes.
3. Drink warm tea or milk in small sips. Play, taste a bagel, cookie or cracker, soak it like little children do. A warm bath with foam, a contrast shower, a massage will return you to your body and to yourself, the real you. You can massage yourself or hug yourself with a warm blanket.
Think about what support you want right now? What support do you need? Think about who you can get it from. Keep it realistic. And ask for it.
Taking care of ourselves is our responsibility. Breathing, eating, drinking, sleeping are basic physiological needs that also aid in self-repair, basic survival tasks, endurance, and self-preservation.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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