Sleep was disturbed: a psychologist described the problems of Bryansk schoolchildren who survived the tragedy

In a week, the Bryansk gymnasium, where the shooting took place, will resume work in its previous format. Children will return to school again.

For now, psychologists are working with students and their parents.

How this happens is in the material “MK”.

Psychologists from Moscow and local specialists are working with students of the Bryansk gymnasium where the tragedy occurred. Consultations take place in the building of the Center for Gifted Children.

Deputy Director of the Center for Emergency Psychological Assistance of the Ministry of Emergency Situations of Russia Lidiya Timofeeva told how communication takes place.

– This tragedy has its own specifics and characteristics. There are a lot of requests for individual counseling. Children come to us with their parents. Adults ask a lot of questions: how to interact with children correctly, how to relate to the child’s reactions? After such situations, any person’s anxiety increases. And nothing stabilizes a child better than a stable adult. Therefore, an adult must first bring his condition back to normal.

– Is psychological assistance mainly required for students who witnessed events?

“The situation affected the whole city. In the modern world, children surf the Internet, correspond, and exchange information. Therefore, it cannot be said that history affected only those who became direct participants in the events. Sometimes it is those who were not at the epicenter of events who invent much more terrible pictures for themselves. So anyone can need help.

– I heard that some children who were at the epicenter do not remember what happened. Is it possible?

– Against the backdrop of stress, some elements of events may be erased from memory or not clearly remembered. The sequence of memories may be disrupted, the sense of time may change or be distorted – this is a normal property of memory when a person experiences fear associated with a threat to life. Therefore, it is likely that some elements of what is happening may be forgotten.

– What else happens to children after the experience?

– Someone’s sleep is disturbed, mood swings are noticeable, problems with nutrition begin – the child does not want to eat or, on the contrary, eats a lot. If this persists for more than a month, you should be wary; in this case, we recommend consulting with specialists.

– Did Alina’s family, who carried out the school shooting, contact you?

– Our specialists are ready to work with everyone. If the family wants, we will help them.

The decision to seek help must come from the people themselves; it is impossible to impose psychological assistance.

– Does the family of the shot Marina (name changed) come here?

– Psychological support for this family has been organized.

– They plan to remodel the office where the shooting took place, maybe they will repaint the walls?

“We recommended that the school management consider transforming this space. It would be nice to make sure that this place ceases to be a classroom.

– Many parents are going to transfer their child to another school?

– I don’t know about this. But I would recommend that parents not rush into such a decision. It is not very correct to transfer a child in a stressful situation to an unfamiliar team, where he will have to build new relationships. This is additional stress for the student.

– Classmates came to the funeral of the deceased Marina. Is it right to take children to mourning events after experiencing stress?

– A funeral is one of the ways to come to terms with and cope with loss. We always say: take your children to the funeral. Otherwise, it turns out that we exclude the child from the general grief process. It is important that children do not feel excluded from this process. Plus, these rituals help us learn to adopt the culture of the society in which we live, this is important.

– They wrote that Alina took school tests, according to the results of which the psychologist did not reveal any deviations. Can these tests show anything at all?

– The school specialist is now also working with us as a team. As for tests: unfortunately, in our science there are no clear recipes that could predict such situations.