When Agony is ventilated
Sarita (pseudo name) was studying in grade 8, youngest daughter of a middle class family. Her father runs a small business and mother look after household work. She is not only beautiful but also smart in her study.
One evening she did not go for meal then mother went to her room to see her where she was crying. Mother was surprised and asked what the matter was. She did not say anything but she kept on crying and even started screaming. Her problem got worse; she even had nightmares with withdrawal behavior. But after sometime, she again had developed the symptoms she had before, withdrawal, stay silent, not speaking to her relatives & friends. She started hiding herself, face covered with scarf, when a male approaches her to talk or see. She used to spend quite a time in bathroom and changing clothes, zipping and unzipping, keeping button on & off shirt etc. She stopped going to school. Then her family brought to doctor for treatment. She was advised to take medicines for mental illness. After taking medicines for about two months she got better and started going to school. In classroom she used to scream in the middle of class and keep quiet. When teachers and friends asked about the reason she did not reply.
She even attempted suicide by jumping from the roof. Her mother and sisters asked why she was doing all these things but she did not say anything. The problem became severe rather getting better then again she was brought to doctor in hospital for treatment. Doctor advised for counselling and referred to CMC-Nepal. She did not say anything and kept crying in two consecutive counselling sessions. The counsellor listened to and observed her crying and tears with empathy and respect also by assuring confidentiality. Then she was comfortable to talk about her story. She said that her father was responsible for her situation who harassed her, an unimaginable incident or nobody can imagine. She had not shared that incident to anybody but with fear she rather tried to hide it. She was able to not telling it to anybody but she could not stop her crying and screaming or sitting alone in a corner of room, body covered with cloth. She had thoughts of suicide more than ten times in a day, and suffering who should she tell her situation but she could not find a person who she could trust.
From Counselling sessions in CMC-Nepal she had learnt skill in stress management, controlling and managing fear. In counselling session she also learned about problem solving. These learning and skills have opened new horizon of living and she is improving from her problem. But still she has problem of screaming, nightmares and crying. She has started schooling again. She is still in the counselling process, in progress.