Is Covid-19 a Trauma?

Üsküdar University’s Founding President, Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan became the Instagram live broadcast guest of the program "Sancaktepe Talks" organized by Sancaktepe Municipality. Making important statements about how the pandemic process affects human psychology, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said; “Some events that people go through in life, such as Covid-19, cause trauma. In the face of these traumas, the person must add the right meanings to the trauma in order not to be destroyed. If he adds the correct meanings, he becomes a threat to his life, not a threat to him. For this, the person must first accept the trauma.”

In the broadcast moderated by the ÜLKE TV program presenter Harun Şen, Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said; “Pandemic process was effective in short, long and medium-term. This is so for every trauma. We have a post-traumatic growth scale that we apply. When we apply this, two types of people emerge. There are people who grow up after trauma and people who collapse after trauma. When we applied this scale to people, we found positive results in terms of growth after the pandemic. It was observed that the importance and priorities of the people with positive results changed, they started to establish healthy relationships with people, their spiritual aspects increased. We do dozens of sessions of treatments to teach people these things. Some of the life-time events of a person like Covid-19 cause trauma. In the face of these traumas, the person must add the true meanings to the trauma in order not to collapse. If it adds the right meanings, it ceases to be a threat to him and turns into a gain in his life. For this one must first accept the trauma.”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan pointed out that the pandemic process can have positive results for young people. Tarhan told, “The most important thing that Covid-19 taught us, is how much stress the loneliness is. It taught how important social life, your relevant, and your friend is. Also, all of these are signs of psychological maturation. There is currently the “Z” generation. These young people grow up under different conditions than the previous X and Y generations. Generation X and Y learned to mature in difficulties. But now there is generation “Z” globally and this generation needs to mature in possession. They are extremely egocentric and digital; however cute they are because they get everything easy. This generation has a good chance of coming out of the Covid era with earnings. Because they met something they never imagined. If they use this situation for the better and evaluate it, they will move towards psychological maturation.”

Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan used the following expressions by mentioning, that the pandemic can cause mental, social and political change; “Due to the effect of the coronavirus pandemic, we cannot embrace what we love as before, we can't go to big meetings, we can't get together with our family elders. This is not an easy infection. This situation inevitably told us to consider not only yourself but also your surroundings. Those who take this lesson will come out with gain in every sense, and those who cannot take it will continue to decline. If this process causes mental change, there will be social change, if there is social change, there will be political change. People and societies they can do this will be able to survive. Otherwise, those who cannot change will remain in the garbage bin of history.”