The PsyCreative Column

This Too Shall Pass TW - CORONAVIRUS   We, as humans, have felt a constant need to recognize, evaluate, and label our emotions. This primarily stems from the notion that pinpointing the cause of what’s bothering you can help cope with it better. However, with the way that things have been progressing globally, articulating what you’re feeling is strenuous and demanding. Many a time, our mind is so full of pondering thoughts, emotions, vague ideas, and concepts, it feels like a whirlwind of confusion, rattling and roaring wanting to be let out. Since the onset of the pandemic, things inevitably haven’t been the same and an impending sense of uncertainty has left us all disoriented. Emotions are inherently complex and with everything that’s been going on, we often get so overwhelmed, we are unaware of what we’re feeling and that’s completely alright. Give yourself time to process everything because you deserve it, you really do. Even though we are all mourning the pandemic collectively,

A Study On Post Traumatic Growth Trauma- an ex t remely broad and unpleasant term. Anyone can instantly associate trauma with their most negative experience that has left a profound impact- may be even a scar- on their lives. Trauma can be defined as a response to a deeply distressing or disturbing event that usually has an overwhelming effect on the individual and tends to diminish their sense of self, ability to cope, and their ability to feel their full range of emotions. The intensity and manner in which this occurs, however, can differ from person to person. Apart from that, Trauma does not discriminate the way it attacks people and creates a whole new approach to life for an individual.  Briefly speaking, trauma can be synonymous with a vast range of experiences, that may usually occur during childhood and/or adolescence. These can include bullying, community violence, natural disasters, medical trauma, physical and/or mental abuse, intimate partner violence, traumatic grief, lif

  Self-care during a Pandemic Remember waking up at 6 am, your mom screaming at the top of her lungs that you’ll be late yet again if you don’t wake up within the next 10 minutes? Do you recall staying up late completing assignments, depending on coffee to help get through the night, while praying that your turn to present doesn’t come the next day? Can you recollect making impromptu lunch plans after school, even when the first period hasn’t started? All these memories come floating back as we think of 2019 and life we now term as ‘pre- Covid ’ times.  Our lives have been forever changed by the coronavirus pandemic. The pandemic presents an unprecedented challenge to public health, food systems and overall lifestyle in general. The economic and social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating: millions of people are at risk of falling into extreme poverty, while the number of undernourished people have drastically increased. Several enterprises face an existential threat, with

Persistent Pain To Power “There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more hurtful than anything that bleeds” - Laurell K. Hamilton. Trauma is exhausting. The reasons for trauma can be layered and complex. Trauma is an emotional toll on an individual due to experiences like an accident, sexual abuse, natural disaster, bullying, loss of loved ones, terrorism or sex trafficking. The event can cause emotional instability, horrifying flashbacks, shock and even denial of the event.  An individual experiencing trauma can feel a roller coaster of emotions. They may feel inferior, petrified, overwhelming, impotent or even have trouble in processing the event. Not every individual who encounters a taxing event develops trauma. Some people develop short- term symptoms that disappear after a few weeks, while others have long lasting effects. If the trauma remains unaddressed and the symptoms persist, it indicates that the trauma has developed into a psychological disorder cal

Post-Partum PTSD: It’s real, very real! We have always heard that childbirth is a magical experience, and the coming of a new life to the world is indeed a joyous occasion. But, in the happiness of it all, we often forget the kind of changes the mind and body of a mother would face. Of course, it isn’t necessary that every mother would have the same experiences, for some, it would take some months, for some a year, or even a little more to recover. But a few new mothers might come out of pregnancy with something to carry with them for a long, long time. Post-Partum PTSD. What is PTSD? PTSD – Post-traumatic stress disorder -, as the name suggests, is a disorder characterized by the failure to recover after experiencing or witnessing a traumatic event. It may last for months or years, with triggers – a psychological stimulus that would bring up involuntary recall of the traumatic experience - bringing back the memories of the trauma along with severe emotional as well as physical reactio

  To hurt and heal together  We inherit more than just our last name from family. From peculiar features to certain personality traits, we are a product of several generations combined. But it’s more than just the biological aspects that can be hereditary. We also pass on values and morals to our children, which dictates the quality of their adult life in monumental ways. If parents get it right, they’re creating successful adults. But our parents are also humans, they can make mistakes. How can their mistakes affect the next generation, what about the generation after that? Let me elaborate with the help of my personal experience. The Indian society functions on certain mandates which are evolving with time, though at a much slower pace than the rest of the world? This is about my mother, just another girl in the 1990’s, when most middle class families believed that a woman’s worth lies in marriage. When she turned 23, her parents had started searching for a suitable match for her. Sh