Fear of blasts lives on in minds of witnesses

Darshil Shah (named changed), a 34-year-old businessman, is still afraid of driving his car with the windows rolled up. According to the psychologist treating him, he has been unable to sleep, and has been afraid of being targeted when in a crowd at any time and would die.

Since the serial bomb blasts in Ahmedabad on July 26 last year, Darshil has refused to close the windows of his car while driving. Married with two children, his life is one of fear, though he is trying to overcome this gradually.

As in the case of Darshil, many people in Ahmedabad have been suffering psycho-traumatic problems since the serial blasts and are become afraid even on hearing any high-intensity noise.

“I have treated many patients suffering from this problem over the past year. Many overcame this problem within four to five months, but some are still struggling to cope with it,” said Dr Prashant Bhimani, a city-based consulting psychologist.

Of all the cases Dr Bhimani has treated over the past year, between 30 and 40 per cent have suffered from trauma as fallout of the serial blasts in the city.

According to medical experts, people from all strata of society have been equally affected by the incident. Many of them are receiving counselling, even via the telephone if out of the city.

Explaining the psychological fear in the minds of the people, Dr Bhimani said that these patients mostly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), having either seen the blasts at close range or on the television.

There are many people in Ahmedabad who are unaware that they are suffering from such problems. Many have also been suffering from claustrophobia since the blasts, Meena Vaishnav, who is in her 40s, is one such case. After the earthquake in 2001, he developed a fear of staying at a height and approached a psychologist. After the blasts, she developed claustrophobia and is still under treatment, taking a long time to improve.

Dr Hemang Desai, a consulting psychiatrist, said “Patients who have experienced such shocks in the past have higher chances of panicking following another traumatic incident. After the Modasa blasts, many patients who came to us had hardly overcome the 26/7 blasts.”

He said that their fear arose in the case of a year passing, known as the ‘anniversary phenomenon’. This depends on a person’s individual strength and the capacity to handle such situations. These people see behavioural changes which they themselves would not be aware of, Dr Desai said.