Balinese need time for trauma healing
I Wayan Juniartha The Jakarta Post Kuta, Bali
Dewa Darnesta ha never been able to sleep well since that terrible night of Oct. 12, when a powerful explosion destroyed the crowded Sari Club on Jl. Legian, Kuta.
In fact, he had four sleepless days after the explosion.
"An extreme feeling of fear overpowered me for days after the blast. Sometimes, I still can hear the deafening explosion and the fearful scenes of wounded victims screaming for help or frantically trying to escape the fire, come back to my mind. It really tortures me," he said.
The experience was so haunting that a week after the blast Dewa still could not muster the courage to sleep alone in his house, which was located just some 50 meters from ground zero. He, and nine members of his family, have been slept together in one room since the explosion.
Dewa was among some 120 locals who display the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms, according to a recent survey conducted by Udayana University's School of Medicine, Denpasar.
To gather information, some 150 undergraduate medical students distributed questionnaires and interviewed over 300 locals, who live near the blast site.
The results were analyzed by post-graduate psychiatry students.
"The initial result shows that 40 percent of the respondents have had PTSD symptoms. We believe the actual numbers is bigger than that since we have not been able to interview all the affected locals because some live in the area earmarked as "restricted"; some have not returned since they fled on the terrible night and some refused to be interviewed," said the survey's coordinator, Dr Luh Ketut Suryani.
PTSD was generally characterized by sleep disorder, anxiety, extreme fear, mental fatigue, and recurrent "flash-back" of the traumatic incident. The acute case of PTSD may impair one's ability to comprehend reality and to establish relationship with others.
Suryani, Bali's most distinguished psychiatrist, has urged the local administration to give serious attention to the physical and mental health of the affected locals.
"The explosion was so powerful it may cause hearing problem for the locals living in immediate neighborhood. Moreover, the devastation it caused, including more than 100 mutilated bodies, will inflict a deep trauma on the locals," she stressed.
Led by the school's deputy dean Wirakusuma, some 30 Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT) specialists and 30 psychiatrists had established two free medical service posts in Kuta.
Suryani has spearheaded the efforts to heal locals' trauma. Suryani has treated at least 19 locals and gave mass-therapy to some 30 members of Kuta's civilian guards.
Combining the western's psychiatric method of regressive hypnosis, and her own psycho-social spirit meditation, Suryani guided these people during their journey back into the fateful night of Oct. 12.
"Basically, I hypnotize them, asked them to mentally go back to that night, motivate them to overcome their fear, anger, or grief, and then have them release their emotional burden by screaming or crying. After that I lead them into various steps of relaxation meditation to revitalize their energy," Suryani told.
"The common problem is that all their life the Balinese have been taught to harness their emotion. So sometimes it's very difficult to teach them to release their emotion. Moreover, it also prevents some people, who are suffering from PTSD, to openly express their trauma," she said.
During the therapy some of the participants did cry, some even screamed and moved uncontrollably, an apparent sign of the amount of terror and trauma. In the end, most of them admitted that they felt relieved and "lighter" after the therapy.
"I fell sound asleep during the meditation, and woke up much fresher and stronger than before. It's good. I am not afraid anymore," the head of Kuta district, Subawa, who had sleep disorder, said.