How do i get the horrible pictures out of my head, yahoo answers

I was with the consulate’s aid convoy in Merida in the disaster area of Tabasco / Mexico for three days. Terrible scenes seen, families live on their roofs because aid teams have not yet arrived. Bloated corpses of dead herds of cattle.

People who, when we were distributing food and blankets and other things, asked us if we couldn’t give them work in our state and a home.

I am completely finished and the pictures of the catastrophe have burned in so much, I can not think of anything else.

Please do not necessarily seek standard sentences such as professional help. I live here in Mexico and there are no medical specialists on every corner.

I definitely don’t need pity, I just asked a question how to deal with the fact that not every minute if e.g. calmly pursue my everyday pursuits, have these pictures in front of me. It is different if you see pictures on TV or see the disaster on site and still have to experience the mosquito situation.

Why only give your thumbs down. Everyone deserves to express their opinion freely, or I see it wrong.

13 Answers

The fact that the images appear again and again in your mind’s eye is a sign that your psyche is trying to process them.

I know it contradicts the natural escape impulse that you feel when you perceive something unpleasant, but the solution would be to deal with it even more intensively until you feel like you have encircled the entire phenomenon.

It is like the old home remedy to burn yourself again on the hot stove when you accidentally burn yourself so that the pain subsides.

I’m not saying that you get rid of the pictures quickly in this way, because it may well happen that you have to spend months and years on the matter until you get the feeling that it is getting slow.

But you really only have the choice between crowding out (then it goes into the subconscious and searches for you in the sleep and home in diseases), or integration.

See it as a kind of scar that distinguishes you as the hero of life – it will always be there, but what you saw and accomplished there (they are special people who join auxiliary convoys) honors you too. That is the balance.

That you’re asking this question here at YC. provide, encourages some members to assist you in this situation.

If you really want help, don’t just dismiss these efforts!

We try to empathize, but very few have ever been in such a situation.

But to get to the point first:

When you decided to accompany this convoy, you never thought of what to expect there ??

We in Central Europe never saw such a situation!

How do you think we could be of any help to you??

From my own experience I can only tell you one thing:

You won’t get rid of these pictures anytime soon.

With "professional help" it’s not that far outside the crisis regions either.

I myself was at the tsunami in Indonesia

Aceh Province (Banda Aceh)

I’m sorry to have to tell you.

You won’t get rid of these pictures anytime soon.

No one who has ever experienced this will understand your experience.

And certainly not "professional help"

Talk to those who have already experienced something like this.

I shake my hand.

It takes a while.

It wouldn’t be ok if you could put it away right away, but it will get better over time.

You don’t have to run to the psychologist right away, every normal person is shocked by such experiences and need time.

You probably have to trust yourself. The mind only processes as much as it can carry. If you really want to help further, you need a thicker coat, otherwise you won’t use this helpless person at all, but are just a burden for yourself. There are currently and always have been, catastrophes without end. People who help are rare and really necessary. You get used to a lot.

It’s absolutely understandable that you can’t get these pictures out of your head

It is certainly very stressful.

When pictures follow me, I paint them. I kind of give them faces and then paint a kind of story. A lot of that derives from me and pictures fade faster.

If that’s not enough, I’ll write.

I think the load from these pictures is then 20% less oppressive.

Maybe that will help in your case too?

Well, the driving force behind painting is known to be different for every painter, let’s say, everyone processes their pictures differently in their heads, I know People, for example in contemplative landscapes, paint the pictures out of your head and others paint what you saw with clear and realistic cruelty. And still others only take the pictures from head to toe when they have sorted their thoughts. Exciting how different this can be.

And sometimes you are unfortunately so blocked (which I can well imagine with THE pictures of your question) that you only rotate in your head.

I would probably do a lot of talking to people and work, work, work. No projects of the heart, but commissioned things without a lot of passion, weeding the garden, cleaning the house, distracting yourself. Anything. And always tell yourself, if it has to be 1000 times a day, that you can’t save everyone, unfortunately God! The rest would be a wait and stay in touch with the other helpers. VIel talks.

PS: I think the commitment you are writing is really great.

13 Answers

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