Home Invasion Trauma.
Coping With Trauma In The Aftermath Of An Invasion Into Your Home.
It’s nice to have a place to call home.
It’s even nicer if you are the owner of that home with no landlord to call the shots.
Sure, you have the payments to meet but the place is yours, you decide what gets done, how the place is remodeled, how well your home is looked after.
 Home Invasion Trauma. The psychological impact can be long lasting and far reaching. |
Your home is your castle in which your family is protected and safe, . . . usually.
You decide who can and who cannot enter your home . . . usually. Home invaders may have other ideas though.
Have you ever given any thought about the post traumatic emotional problems that you, or members of your family are likely to have following an incursion of your home?
If a loved one suffered a severe physical injury or mental breakdown due to the home invasion could you cope with that?
How Would You Feel?
Someone took a shortcut across your front lawn. Imagine that you live on the corner plot and, while you stood and watched, someone decided it would be easier to walk right across your lawn rather than make the corner.
They didn’t damage anything, they didn’t steal anything. They did not harm, threaten, abuse or insult either you or any member of your family.
How would you feel?
If you are like most of us you’d likely feel at least some anger and resentment. Depending on how the person looked you could also feel a certain amount of fear.
How dare they! They invaded your property, your space; they showed no respect for you. You may even feel a little guilt because you didn’t say anything, you didn’t put them in their place.
All this emotional upset because someone walked on your lawn.
No damage, no theft and no physical assault.
Imagine now, not some jerk taking a shortcut across your property, but having to suffer the trauma of a home invasion.
The emotional turmoil would be magnified times ten, times ten, times ten.
Then try to imagine that the incursion into your home not only involved robbery and damage to property, but also violence, or worse, to your loved ones.
What would that experience do to your mental state? What would it do to your relationships?
How would it affect the way you feel about your home, your neighborhood, your lifestyle?
Would it leave you feeling guilty? Would you blame yourself? Would you blame your loved ones? Would you feel let down by your community or by society in general?
Inevitably some victims of home invasion become addicted to drugs or alcohol in an effort to block out the memory of their ordeal. This not only increases the difficulty of coping with their emotional problems but also produces new challenges.
Friends will want to help, but how well will they understand your feelings? Sure they will be able to understand that you have been through a very traumatic event, but will they in any way be able to comprehend exactly why it is that you are not being yourself?
Even if they themselves have at some time suffered a raid on their home and the terrible consequences of that, their experience will not be the same as your experience and the impact upon them will not be the same as the impact upon you.
Some victims report having returned to a good degree of normality some time after the invasion. Their anxiety and fear having subsided to the point where they felt they could pick up their lives, resume work and begin socializing again.
Then some comparatively minor incident causes the unease and bad feelings to flood back, once again the victim does not feel safe within their own home, or is unable to sleep, concentrate, socialize or otherwise function normally.
The minor stress-triggering incident need not be crime related.
The plain truth is, there is no easy fix for the psychological consequences that you are likely to suffer in the aftermath of a home invasion. It is going to take time, along with understanding from those around you.
You will almost certainly need the help of professional counseling.
Home Invasion Trauma – Help.
A trained therapist will help you to identify and acknowledge your thoughts and feelings about the home invasion and its consequences. Your therapist will help you to control and change those thoughts, fears and feelings that are impacting your life.
Your treatment will likely be spread over many sessions and, as we all react differently to trauma, will be tailored to your needs.
It is not a weakness to seek help; it is imperative that anyone suffering traumatic stress in the aftermath of an intrusion of his or her home receives professional help.
If cost is an issue, you may find that your local mental health care services are able to offer reduced fees depending on your circumstances. You may find that your health insurance covers some of your counseling fees.
If you have a family, it will not only be you that is traumatized, all will likely need expert help including young children and possibly even family members that were not present when the incursion occurred.
Home Invasion Trauma – Prevention.
As helpful as post traumatic stress counseling is, it is far better not to be in need of it. Doing all that you can to prevent home invasion is better than suffering the act itself and suffering the aftermath.
By being aware of the dangers and taking measures to harden your home against attack, you and your family can greatly reduce the risk of violent incursion – Home Invasion Prevention.
Home Invasion.
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Home Invasion Trauma.