We know the importance of first aid for physical injury. In childhood, first aid training is given to us either at school or at home, directly or indirectly. Because the injury is visible, it gets the attention. Also, we learn primary treatments for minor illness like cold, cough, fever, directly or indirectly. Because you can see fever, cold or cough right away, someone pays attention to it, treats it with home remedies at first and if they think it is not enough, they go to a doctor. It doesn’t take much thought. Because we know that even though this body is ours, doctors know how it works better than us.
But the same does not happen with our minds. Someone speaks or behaves in way that hurts you, but no one observes it and even if you go to tell someone about it, often the response comes as: “ignore! Or you deserve it because you made a mistake or why do you complain so much” and so on. What is the result? Wounds of the mind do not heal. They stay inside your mind, often hurting, bothering, and becoming sore. This is what happens with mental illness. It’s mostly ignored or sometimes if the behavior changes due to the illness, children get punished. For example: when a child is distracted in school due to anxiety, his / her anxiety is labeled as laziness and is punished for not studying. Many times the child is punished or taunted and sometime even beaten up at home. These and similar experiences make a profound effect on their mental makeup.
And therefore, psychological pain, wounds should be treated with early attention. If they are cared for when they are small, they can be cured with first aid. For which we need to understand what emotional first aid is and how it works.
The first step is to understand and accept emotional pain – our own or someone else’s. I mean, a crying child (or even an older person) – let’s ask why they fell like crying instead of calling them a cry baby or so. Let’s acknowledge the pain, sadness, discomfort, anxiety, depression whatever happens to him / her, let’s take note of it.
Let’s avoid saying how wrong that feeling is or how they should not feel, but instead let’s put ourselves in that place and experience it. Maybe you don’t think the same way, because you are different from that person, so let’s give up the idea that what you think is valid and what others think is invalid.
Now let’s take a look at what comes to the mind of that person (that person may be you, too). If the condition is very serious, for example, if the person has suicidal thoughts or can’t think at all, seek help of a psychiatrist / psychotherapist immediately. If the situation is not very serious, first give the person a chance to express themselves and then help them calm down. Stay with them, don’t leave them alone. Your sheer presence can be supportive
What not to do at this time – do not leave them alone, do not bombard with questions, do not give advice or tell them how they are wrong (even if it is so).
Most importantly, don’t be shy or hesitant to seek the help of a Psychotherapist / Psychiatrist. Just as doctors understand the functioning of your body and therefore can treat it, Psychiatrists and Psychologist are trained to understand the function of your mind and therefore can treat it appropriately. Just as you do not expect a broken leg to heal on its own, so you cannot expect a broken heart to heal on its own. Talking to you may be first step towards help, but it may not be enough. So watch out and reach out freely. The way a healthy and strong body can catch illness sometime, the mind can also get unwell sometimes. Instead of thinking that it is “weak” and then trying to “prove” it’s strong by not seeking help; make it really strong and resilient with the right help/ treatment. Stay mentally healthy, stay happy!!!
