Stress disorder: human emotional responses to distress

  Stress disorder refers to the psychological and physiological inability of a person to respond effectively to various sudden events that have a significant psychological or physiological impact, such as war, fire, flood, earthquake, epidemic of infectious diseases, major traffic accidents and other disasters that occur.  Acute stress reactions are the earliest to appear after the occurrence of a stressful catastrophic event, and their typical manifestations include changes in consciousness, behavioral changes, and emotional changes. Changes in consciousness appear earliest and are mainly manifested as confusion, disorientation, not knowing where they are, and not being able to perceive time and things around them clearly. For example, some people pass out on the spot after hearing the news of the death of a loved one and wake up not knowing what happened, not recognizing the loved ones around them, and not knowing where they are. This delirium sometimes lasts for several hours, and some can last for several days.  Behavioral changes are mainly manifested by a significant decrease or increase in behavior with blindness. The decrease in behavior is evidenced by the lack of initiative to talk to family members and ignoring family members who talk to them. The person does not know how to take care of daily life, does not know how to wash face and comb hair, does not know how to eat and sleep, and needs to be reminded or repeatedly urged by family members. The whole person’s life is in a state of chaos. Increased behavior may be characterized by disorganized and aimless movements, or even impulsive destruction of objects. The person talks a lot, or talks to himself or herself, and the content of his or her speech is disorganized and illogical.  Emotional changes mainly manifest as panic, numbness, shock, bewilderment, anger, fear, sadness, despair, guilt, feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope with the sudden disaster. These emotions often manifest themselves very strongly, such as intense anger and fear after being beaten, and extreme sadness, despair and guilt after the loss of a loved one.  Under the influence of strong negative emotions, individuals sometimes engage in excessive behaviors, for example, under the influence of extreme sadness, despair, and guilt, some people may resort to suicide to relieve unacceptable pain. This may be accompanied by physical discomfort, such as panic, shortness of breath, chest tightness, digestive discomfort, dizziness, headache, difficulty sleeping, and nightmares.  For the affected people, it is almost difficult to adjust their psychological state to normal quickly through their own power after the disaster. People are not grass, in the face of the dead bodies everywhere, in the face of the sudden collapse of the once warm home, in the face of the disaster brought to us life and death, what should be our most normal state? Not mourning, not indifferent, but should be the state described in the above acute stress reaction.  The appearance of this state only shows that our emotional reaction is normal, but not that we are weak and not strong, as long as a normal flesh and blood people, it is impossible to be indifferent in front of such a disaster.