Wounded in the the Grand-Hall Bombing and Lived in Conflict between Fear and Life

 Wounded in the bombing of the Grand Hall and lived in conflict between fear and life

Name: EM, 47 years old, married, university degree, works in a government job, from Sana'a governorate and lives in the 50th Street.

He was involved in a bombing of the Grand Hall in Sanaa, suffered from minor injuries, and left Republican Hospital within a day. His physical wounds healed in a short period. However, his psychological wounds could not be tolerated and he found no one to notice or give any importance. Suffering developed and became preoccupied throughout the day, suffering from the effects of that shock, from the ideas of the intrusive period, he became afraid of the possibility of the repetition of what happened which resulted in a major deterioration in all his functions (social relations, work), he become a man of bad-tempered who suffered from severe grief and loss of pleasure, concerned and pessimistic about the possibility of reaching his future life or at least living normal life. He had trouble sleeping and nightmares that do were always about being bombed again. The symptoms are not limited to the client, but rather to his children and his wife. From going out of the house and even from studying, fearing that something happened to them. Some symptoms have developed to the extent that he is afraid of being targeted at his home or being targeted while he is leaving for some of the necessary tasks.

 

He tried to understand what was happening to him from the wider psychological. Despite his simple understanding of what he suffers through the Internet, but he failed to control these symptoms, and during a friend was visiting him, after he stopped working and answering anyone by phone, his friend advised to contact the free hotline (136). As soon as his friend left the house, he called the hotline just out of curiosity. Nonetheless, he was motivated by the specialist. According to him, he actually found that the specialist who answered him was a great deal of understanding and knowledge of the nature of what is suffering at the moment which makes him feel happy and hopeful. After the specialist educated him about the nature of the problem and presented all the solutions to his problem and supported him.

The specialist convinced the patient to go to the institution to undergo an integrated treatment program to get him out of this difficult situation. A day later, the patient was received by the administrative officer, who facilitated all the procedures for obtaining the services he needs (psychotherapy- Psychometric) he was then transferred to the head of the clinic unit who conducted the process of "evaluation, diagnosis, psychotherapy and follow-up"

The patient was accurately evaluated by an integrated case study and some evaluation and diagnostic tests. The patient was diagnosed PTSD( post-traumatic stress disorder), and then the specialist developed a complete treatment plan consisting of (12) treatment sessions. He was also presented to the psychiatrist and given some anti-anxiety depression pills during the therapeutic program, as a catalyst to the program of psychological therapy (cognitive behavioral). After month and a half of the implementation of the treatment program, the patient remarkable improved.

 

 the therapist was able to break the cycle of illness that the patient could not overcome. He soon returned to work after receiving a psychological report of his illness.  His social relations significantly improved along with his family the status; his children went back to study and began to live their ordinary lives. They visit their grandfather every Friday, and go out to parks and restaurants with their father. He allowed his wife to go to weddings after he had prevented her from going out to any wedding halls or any other social gatherings. Almost all symptoms disappeared except for slightly forgetting and some minor concerns, such as the voices of aircraft. During the program, therapist raised the patient's awareness of the nature of the disorder (post-traumatic stress) and the nature of the symptoms (physical, behavioral, mental and spiritual) by illustrating the logical explanation of the disease and those manifestations (what caused the disease, Cause of increased symptoms and deterioration of functions).

During the program, the patient was able to confront the ideas that he avoided by the strategy of confrontation and the strategy of emotional therapy, which aimed to cleanse the emotions of the patient accompanying the traumatic experience in order to accept the experience. Trauma through a safe confrontation of ideas, memories, places, activities and people who had been avoided since the traumatic event. With the aim of filling in the missing spaces in the memory that stored the information imperfectly and activate the hot memory for the event in order to installed in time.

In order to reduce the sense of direct threat, during the therapeutic program, the patient was trained by techniques of muscular relaxation, respiration and distraction as behavioral and cognitive strategies to control the panic attacks that attacked during the flashback experience of traumatic experience. He has also had been trained to understand negative ideas and beliefs resulting from traumatic experience and methods of monitoring and adjusting.

During the program, the patient visited the hall that was bombed for 5 times, after the word "Hall" brought fear and panic attacks. He attended weddings in the halls (6) times, the first time with the therapist as part of the treatment program. He also visited a number of people who were with him in the same hall who are still in hospitals and homes these who have physical or psychological symptoms as part of the implementation of the strategy (gradual confrontation) and improve social relations through a strategy (behavioral activation)

The patient helped transferred two cases to the clinic for the treatment of psychological and medical and has volunteered during the treatment to distribute leaflets about hotline service and clinics as a kind way to repay the foundation. He found a great desire to help anyone who needs service after his psychological treatment success.

The patient now stopped all the psychological drugs that his psychiatrist had prescribed. He is now in good mental health and is still under follow-up for three months in order to ensure that he does not retreat as a part of the therapeutic program. The patient is being contacted weekly to check on his mental health.

Dated 25, January, 2017