Stress. It's that pressing sense of urgency that is telling me to write this op?ed, move onto my paper for Health Care in America and then try to grab some dinner before that 9 p.m. meeting. It's the reason that the muscles in my back are tense, the reason that I only slept for five hours last night and the reason that I've been living in the library for the past two days. As college students, we all suffer from it and we all complain (often excessively) about it. But, in reality, we have it easy.
In areas of conflict, the local population suffers from a constant threat of violence when they leave their home. When they're in their homes, they may fear being on the wrong end of a grenade. Speak to people in a war?torn area and you will find widows who have lost children in front of their eyes, and orphans whose parents were killed on the street. Often, populations living in an area of conflict become accustomed to frequent and seemingly random acts of violence - they become numb. But this does not mean they are unaffected.
When people think of post?traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), they often think of war veterans, of soldiers coming back from war and being tormented by nightmares and flashbacks. While this disorder does affect soldiers and veterans in a significant way, it must be recognized that soldiers are not the only people who suffer from mental trauma during a war. Often, civilian populations suffer from the same symptoms of PTSD that the soldiers who are actively involved in the conflict do. And these civilian populations are often exposed to this violence on a daily basis for months or even years on end, with no peaceful respite. At least our soldiers get some relief from the carnage when they are granted leave (and rightfully so).
The mental health of populations in conflicted areas is often something that is ignored by peace efforts and NGOs in the vicinity. Obviously the maintenance of good physical health needs to be a priority, but the mental wounds in conflict or post?conflict areas must also be acknowledged and treated. Symptoms of PTSD, such as depression, flashbacks, insomnia and nightmares, often afflict a traumatized population, and in an impoverished area these symptoms are often ignored (or even worse, are considered signs of being insane). In Kashmir, journalist and therapist Justine Hardy has started an initiative to help the local population with the treatment of mental health problems and PTSD through treatments such as conversation groups and breathing exercises. Though it is one of the few programs of its kind, it has allowed Hardy to witness the long?term effects of untreated mental disorders. Often, mental illness will express itself in physical manifestations, which can debilitate an individual permanently if left untreated. Mental health problems can also affect entire families - if a mother of five is too depressed to leave her home and provide for her family, her children must bear this burden alone.
Treatment of mental health problems has another benefit - it can lead to improved conflict resolution and a reduction in violence. Processing and understanding what one has been through, as opposed to simply pushing it aside and suffering from the physical manifestations of stress, can prevent one's need for retributive violence and can therefore prevent the cycle of revenge that so often fuels conflict. Speaking about past experiences and processing what one has been through can promote acceptance of past events and even forgiveness of the parties responsible, thereby reducing the likelihood of continued violence.
According to World Health Organization's Atlas on Mental Health, "four out of five people with serious mental disorders living in low/middle income countries do not receive mental health services that they need." This problem needs to be acknowledged; not all war wounds are visible.
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Emily M. Bartlett is a sophomore who is majoring in international relations.
