When people’s lives are overwhelmed with a crisis, their psychological and physical well-being is affected. Frustration and aggression can affect them if the misfortunes are not resolved successfully. Therefore, it is important for the people who are hit by a crisis to strive to bounce back to their positive sides of life, regardless of the severity of the incidence. The Indian Ocean’s Tsunami, which occurred in 2004, led to huge loss of lives while the survivors were left with serious traumatic experiences (Sattler, Assanangkornchai, Moller, Kesavatana-Dohrs, & Graham, 2014). A dual-process model is an almost-perfect approach, which describes how individuals cope with the loss of lives of the people who are close to them. Nevertheless, the use of this model in other types of losses and traumatic events is yet to be systematically explored.
The dual-process model indicates that grief operates in two ways, between which people switch as they mourn the loss of a loved one: loss-oriented and restoration-based phases. The loss-oriented phase comprises of thoughts, emotions, occurrences, and actions that make a person concentrate on his or her grief and pain while the restoration-oriented mode includes things that help a person go on with his or her normal life and protect him or her from anguish for a moment (Evans & Stanovich, 2013). The back-forth switching between these two modes helps the victims overcome grief gradually. After losing my grandmother as a result of gang rape, I was in an intense grieving mood. I almost developed depression, but my psychological health improved after I enrolled in a piano class, a recommendation that was offered by my aunt. After six months, I started coming to terms with the demise, and now I celebrate my grandmother’s life with a broad smile.
References
Evans, J. S. B., & Stanovich, K. E. (2013). Dual-process theories of higher cognition: Advancing the debate. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8(3), 223-241.
Sattler, D. N., Assanangkornchai, S., Moller, A. M., Kesavatana-Dohrs, W., & Graham, J. M. (2014). Indian Ocean tsunami: Relationships among posttraumatic stress, posttraumatic growth, resource loss, and coping at 3 and 15 months. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, 15(2), 219-239.