The city’s psychiatrists have sprung into action, taking distress calls and making emergency visits. According to Dr Yusuf Matchiswalla, head of psychiatric department, Masina Hospital, and visiting psychiatrist at JJ, GT, Saifee and police hospitals, “We have activated our 24-hour helpline numbers for distress callers. Now, that the initial and acute shock has passed, the post-terror trauma will start sinking in. In the coming days we expect a large number of callers struggling to cope up.” Matchiswalla said the psychiatrists are already handling calls from foreigners, youngsters and parents of disturbed school children.

Dr Ambreen Pradhan, pracitising psychologist at Masina, said: “Most of our callers are in the age group of 25-30. They are utterly traumatised, nervous, often in a state of denial.” She gave an example of a young caller: “This man had asked his friends to meet at Leopold’s at 10 pm on Wednesday night. The friends, who initially wanted to go elsewhere for dinner, agreed to go to Leopold’s on his insistence. While they waited for him, he arrived late, after 10.30. By then the entire restaurant was in a shambles and his friends had died. Today, this man is going through a guilt complex. He blames himself for his friends’ death.”

Pradhan said, the symptoms of post-terror trauma are numbness, guilt, refusal to make an eye contact, refusal to speak to even loved ones and so on. “It will need a few months of anti-depressants and counseling to cure such cases,” she explained.

Over the next few months, Matchiswala and his team from Masina Hospital have organised multiple pick-up ambulances for trauma patients, spot-on sessions at the Taj and Oberoi, special impromptu sessions with people who were on duty when the terror struck and group therapy — all for free.

... contd.