Many of us, unfortunately, experienced a traumatic situation. It could be an accident, the death of loved ones, a fire in the house, a terrorist attack ... After the incident, the state of the human psyche is so unstable that it can be compared with the top point of the pendulum. A further breeze can affect the further trajectory.
The first psychological conversation with a specialist after extreme events has a special meaning and purpose. Indeed, in such moments, people, as never before, need help and support.
Debriefing is a consultation of a person or group of people who have survived an emergency, most often takes the form of training in the first two days after the incident.
How did this term come about?
The word “debriefing” is the antonym of the term “briefing”. It is widely used in American military affairs and means "briefing." Therefore, “debriefing” means “debriefing” or “conversation after”.
Debriefing Types
In psychology, this procedure has two types: analytical and crisis debriefing.
The first is a conversation between the experimenter and the subject. The purpose of analytical debriefing is to make sure that the participant in the experiment was not injured and not injured psychologically.
The crisis method is used as first aid after stressful situations. This type of debriefing is aimed at minimizing the risk of developing PTSD.
The essence of the analytic conversation
Some psychological studies can be potentially dangerous to humans. The experimenter sometimes uses techniques that border on morality. The test subject is often not informed of the many nuances of research, so that their indicators are as true, natural and objective as possible.
Since psychology is an intangible science, it seems that experiments with the psyche are pampering. In fact, the consequences can be incredibly fatal and global. If medical experiments in the event of failure have obvious consequences, then psychological ones are as latent as possible, hidden.
There were cases in experimental psychology when a boy was raised as a girl. The reason was allegedly organ damage during circumcision, in fact it was an experiment by John Money, who wanted to prove that gender was the result of education, not nature.
As a result, the life of a young girl was broken, his twin brother was constantly depressed, his parents, who agreed to this step, had suicide attempts. Tried to commit suicide and the protagonist of the experiment, which completed the begun in 38 years.
In order to avoid broken fates, after the experiment, a brief conversation is held between the participant and the researcher, which helps to make sure that the subject was not injured.
Debriefing is carried out only after potentially dangerous experiments in which there is a catch, silence or deception.
Features of the conversation with the victims of emergency
A conversation with the victims is carried out in the first 2 days after the incident, since during this period a large percentage of the probability of preventing psychological problems.
Debriefing has the most noticeable effect on the first day, when a person did not have time to sleep and take tranquilizers. If this conversation has to be postponed, then experts notice that the events that have occurred have already passed into permanent memory. Therefore, the task of psychologists is to prevent the consolidation of traces of memory, to minimize any negative mental manifestations after stress.
Debriefing script
Each conversation should have a script; it will be an additional support for a psychologist who also has to work in extreme conditions.
Debriefing is often carried out in the form of training, when participants sit in a circle, but in this case they prefer not to leave empty space in the center, because this is not quite a familiar environment, participants can perceive as a threat. To make the conditions as comfortable as possible, use a round table.
Debriefing consists of three main parts:
1. Reproduction of what happened.
2. Analysis of symptoms and reactions.
3. Mobilization of the psychological state of health.
In addition, the whole process is divided into phases:
- Acquaintance. As in a regular training, participants should give a name and tell some information about themselves.
- Statement of facts. At this stage, the victims tell what they had to survive. As they understood that trouble was approaching, their further actions.
- The phase of impressions. Participants share their experiences, thoughts, emotions. If the conversation comes to a standstill, the trainer must warm him up with questions: “What did you think about what happened?”, “How did you assess the situation around you?”
- The phase of feelings. The longest and most important stage. Many victims experience emotions not familiar to them, which makes them seem wild, strange, shameful. Everyone believes that such a revolution of consciousness occurs only with him, but during the conversation he understands that everyone experiences similar feelings. Mutual support and emotional connection are born. This key point of the debriefing depends primarily on the trainer, who is obliged to push the participants to sincerity.
- Symptom phase It can not be distinguished as a separate, often it is included in the previous one.
- The host and his assistants (also psychologists) should process information about the feelings of the participants, give instruction for the future, and talk about possible psychological manifestations.
- Learning to smooth out future negative psychological manifestations. At this stage, it is possible to arrange another meeting.
What is layered debriefing?
The structure and scale of this psychological intervention may vary depending on the global nature of the incident. If these are man-made disasters, natural disasters, mass attacks, then multilevel debriefing is used.
The first level is the work of psychologists, doctors, EMERCOM employees with the victims.
The second level is the work of psychologists with those specialists who provided assistance at the scene. After all, work at the epicenter is a strong emotional burden.
PTSD
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe mental condition caused by a traumatic situation.
Mental trauma can lead to a borderline state. It is necessary to separate mental and psychological trauma.
The mental is more global, can be permanent and inherited. Psychological is temporary, a person after such an injury is relatively quickly restored, adequacy and ability to adapt in the external environment are preserved.
Stress disorder is characterized by a constant mental return to a traumatic event. In one of these attacks, thoughts of suicide may arise, since mental anguish may be incompatible with life.
The victim tries not to return to those places that provoke memories, not to communicate with people associated with tragic events, to avoid any conversations on this topic.
At first, a person has anxiety associated with the repetition of events, he is constantly in an exciting tone, which can provoke somatic disorders and diseases.
For the treatment of PTSD, a combination of drug and psychotherapeutic methods is used.
Does debriefing make sense?
So, debriefing is the prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder or a decrease in the likelihood of PTSD.
The word "probability" immediately sets you up for skepticism about this method. Firstly, all preventive measures in almost any business, especially psychological, are not visible. In no way can one measure the benefits of preventive measures and prove whether they helped or not.
The only way to verify the effectiveness of this method is to compare the results obtained in the control and experimental groups. But there is no way to prove what would otherwise be concrete with these subjects, since there is no parallel reality.
Definitely, there are people whom debriefing has helped, there are those who haven’t been affected in any way, but there are victims.
What is the main point of debriefing? Verbalize all your experiences, speak out, let off steam. But who said that this method is equally useful for everyone?
There are extroverts, the verbalization process helps them, but there are introverts that make it easier to think things over silently, and any dubbing only exacerbates the problem in their brain. It is very strange that leading psychologists did not take into account the individual characteristics of the person.
Debriefing Research Results
A huge number of studies have been conducted on this procedure. And these observations showed that debriefing does not reduce the likelihood of complications for people who have experienced psychological trauma. In some cases, it can even be dangerous.
For example, the researchers found that fire victims involved in debriefing were more likely to be exposed to PTSD after 13 months than the control group. And the victims of road accidents involved in this procedure, after 3 years, had psychopathology caused by the accident.
Scientists concluded that debriefing is a therapy that does not have positive results, and in some cases even cripples.
The paradox of debriefing
Despite the fact that scientists proved the futility of this method, many victims after this procedure claimed that they were better. They were sincerely convinced that the ambulance was effective.
In fact, there is a type of psychologically stable people who themselves are able to survive the trauma without developing PTSD. Therefore, their presence at the debriefing procedure or the absence of a large role does not play, they themselves soon recover completely.
Does it make sense to communicate to the victims, who are united only by a common tragedy?
At critical moments, people need support that can be not only verbal, but nonverbal. It is important that it comes from loved ones. If for the first time we see a person in a critical situation, on a subconscious level, we may have an attachment, a conditioned reflex, and his appearance can cause former negative emotions.
Sknilovskaya tragedy
In 2002, a major aviation accident occurred near Lviv.
When performing aerobatics - a slanting loop with a turn - the plane under the control of Vladimir Toponar and Yuri Egorov fell on the audience of the air show. The second pilot activated the catapult, saving his life for himself and Vladimir Toponar. The disaster killed 77 people, more than 500 were recognized as victims. The plane flew above the ground and pulled a barbed wire. As a result, the bodies were very disfigured. People in the morgue were collected in pieces, relatives had to identify it.
The court handed down the most severe sentence to the first pilot Vladimir Toponar - 14 years in prison. In court, he said the following sentence: "Airplanes crashed, are falling and will continue to fall." He did not admit his guilt, because of which all the relatives of the victims began to equate him with the devil and hate fiercely.
Relatives of the dead and injured at the air show united in the public organization "Sknilovskaya tragedy". People were able to recover from what happened, but now, gathering every Saturday, they do not allow each other to forget about suffering. It’s not customary to live differently in their circle. For them, happiness is the betrayal of the dead. Most of them still live with hatred for the pilot, whom they did not forgive.
For 15 years, people kill themselves every day, remembering and experiencing the consequences of this terrible catastrophe. This is one of the few examples that shows what a systematic debriefing and pain relief can lead to. They may not be aware of this, but a prolonged experience of hatred and a sense of loss kills them.
These people themselves organized a “psychological debriefing,” which exacerbates their condition and prevents them from recovering from a tragic incident.