PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF THE CONDITION AND CONSEQUENCES FOR PERSONS WHO HAVE SURVIVED THE LOSS OF PEOPLE LOVED BY THEM DURING A WAR

Abstract

The purpose of the work is to analyze the psychological features of the condition and consequences for people who have experienced the loss of loved ones during a war. Methodology. Stressful situation leads to a violation of emotional regulation, which provokes acute reactions: crying, aggressive and steroid reactions, fear, motor excitement, nervous tremors, apathy. They are normal for such a situation, but do not always meet the understanding of others. The emotional reactions of a person experiencing stress and loss can develop sinusoidally – periods of excitement and activation will be replaced by periods of passivity and apathy. Their combination and dynamics of development are individual and in similar circumstances can be radically different in different victims. Interaction with the victims and relatives of the victims is always based on emotional, cognitive and behavioral characteristics of the period of acute grief. However, it is important to pay attention to the existence of this individual psychological characteristics of man, which significantly affect the development of its typical reactions, and therefore require an individual approach by a specialist. Individual psychological features are determined by the life story of a particular person, his type of response, length of stay in a stressful situation, the level of social support from family and friends, emotional closeness of the person with the deceased and many other factors. The scientific novelty is that the author analyzes the psychological consequences of experiencing the loss of loved ones in connection with the psychological characteristics of their condition during grief. Conclusions. Since the loss of a loved one, especially in war, is an acute stressful situation, the basis of such a choice takes into account the characteristics caused by such stress. Manifestation of these features can be observed in several areas: cognitive, emotional, behavioral, social. The mourner always has “comrades in misfortune” who are able to understand and share his condition, and this sometimes creates a significant emotional detachment. Violation of the meaning-making constructs of the individual, inner integrity, together with a heightened sense of the uniqueness of their own experience lead to the collapse of mental activity and disruption of social adaptation. In some cases, a person in the grieving stage has a phenomenology of post-traumatic stress disorder, which contains symptoms of invasion, avoidance, increased physiological excitability.