New Quebec website helps people deal with post-traumatic stress
Reported May 05, 2009
MONTREAL The thousands of people in Canada suffering from post-traumatic stress have been offered new help in the form of a website started by a Montreal mental health institute.
The bilingual info-trauma.org site was developed by the Douglas Mental Health University Institute and was officially launched on Tuesday.
The site offers scientific information, medical tips and questions to help people determine if they are suffering from post-traumatic stress.
“One problem with the Internet is that we find lots of information, but a lot of bad information,” said Dr. Alain Brunet, a psychologist and researcher specializing in post-traumatic stress at the Douglas Institute.
“We wanted to create a site that a psychologist would like to consult,” he added.
Medical authorities estimate that 2.4 per cent of people exposed to a traumatic event like rape, a car accident or physical assault exhibit symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
About 800,000 people in Canada are estimated to have been affected by post-traumatic stress.
“Every day there are new victims of trauma – hundreds,” says Brunet, who cited the case of the 1989 massacre at Montreal’s Ecole polytechnique, where 14 women were killed by gunman Marc Lepine.
He said survivors of the mass shooting were also victims and suffered from stress and survivor’s guilt because they lived when others didn’t.
Karine Vanasse, who produced a film on the Polytechnique killings, said it took hours of interviews with survivors to get them to talk about the experience because it touched them so deeply.
Brunet said a traumatic event refers to an abrupt and unexpected confrontation with death.
He explained everybody copes differently but some negative ways include suicide, withdrawing into themselves, having nightmares and flashbacks or health problems.
Brunet said most patients feel the only way to deal with trauma is to forget it completely but that’s unlikely. Doctors can help people find mechanisms to deal with their problems.
“We need to mourn the person we were before,” he said. “There will be a before and an after. And we will never return as before.
“This is the great paradox of trauma and healing from trauma – to heal, we must agree to grieve and say goodbye to the person that was.”
Source : The Canadian Press