Source: Molfar - How to maintain mental hygiene: OSINT-investigator, volunteer, heroic Ukrainians?
How to maintain mental hygiene: OSINT-investigator, volunteer, heroic Ukrainians? – Molfar
❗️ The advice from this article is not a replacement for full medical care that can be provided by psychotherapists in person.
In this material, we want to raise the topic of mental health. Since the beginning of the "great war" on February 24, the life of Ukrainians has changed dramatically. The fact that the human psyche can withstand such loads is a real miracle that cannot last forever. To a greater or lesser extent, every citizen of Ukraine is now exposed to aggressive content: photos and videos of destruction, extremist materials, cruel shots, images of wounded and dead people – all this puts a lot of pressure on the psyche. We want to give advice that will keep your psyche within the normal range.
This advice is provided on behalf of Molfar OSINT community investigators whose work is directly related to "sensitive materials". There is no best and worst in this matter: everyone has a different threshold of sensitivity and mental capacity. However, we can say exactly that the more time you consume violent content, the more likely you are to have problems. Investigators, volunteers and ordinary Ukrainians – these tips will be useful for everyone.
For the first time, people who provided psychological support to victims of unprovoked violence, including sexual violence, started talking about this phenomenon. At some point, professionals who provided assistance began to experience the same symptoms as victims of violence. Thus, the world learned about "Vicarious Trauma" and many other interesting things about the defense mechanisms of the human psyche.
We consume content on the Internet, there is a full-scale war in the country, thousands of people have lost their property, health and even lives. The information flow is overload with "sensitive information". And since people are empathic creatures, we begin to feel other people's pain.
As a result of empathic experience of information, the human psyche is capable of causing physical harm to the body.
The effect of "Vicarious Trauma" can be sudden, but more often it is cumulative. You feel normal for a long time, and then in one moment it's too late. Therefore, now we will advise on how to avoid psychologically traumatic consequences.
Reduce information channels. A healthy number of news channels is up to five. Everything else is either work-related or you want to overload yourself once again. Even twice duplicated information becomes an extra burden for your psyche.
Filter the information. Everything that gets into your head will stay in it forever. Before you dive into another "sensitive story", ask yourself: "Do I need this?". You will be surprised, but in most cases you do not need it. And this is not about indifference to the war, but about adequate care for your own mental health. We officially allow you not to feel guilty if you won't watch all the photos and videos from the shelled frontline cities.
Use image blur while working. You can use, for example, the Google Chrome extension Blur. It blurs all images on the pages by default. This way, you will protect yourself from accidental viewing of dangerous media files.