Essay On Missing Persons

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D isappearance is a worldwide problem. Over the last few decades the World has been shocked by accounts of tens of thousands of people who are known to have disappeared due to one or another reason. Forced disappearances have an effect on the individual, his/her family and the community as a whole. The problems that family members of disappeared persons face are complex and can be overwhelming. Besides the uncertainty about the fate of their relatives, they usually have to cope with economic, social, legal and mental problems as well. Many relatives have searched in vain for their loved ones, year after year. We know mothers of disappeared children who, after almost thirty years, are still hoping for their missing child to appear. It is normal …show more content…

In many cases, family members of disappeared persons suffer from symptoms of complicated grief, such as intrusive images or severe emotional attacks, or from denial of the effects of loss, depression, anxiety, guilt, pessimism, Post traumatic stress disorder, dissatisfaction with life, lack of emotional control, unhealthy coping strategies, …show more content…

Many display chronic physical symptoms, presumably somatic, and attribute it to the long-term effect of the disappearance. A number of wives of missing persons face extreme stigmatization in their homes that has led to their being rejected by their in-laws, leaving voluntarily or continuing to live there in terrible conditions (Robins, 2006). Having a missing relative makes a family poorer. A minority of households faces challenges in feeding their families, and a small number of households with no economically active member have no alternative but to beg for food (Zia, 2009). Families articulate their economic needs in terms of what they cannot afford, and for most this prioritizes food, education and health care (Dabla, 2012). These hardships leave a deep negative impact on the mental health of these family members. The present study will be an attempt in this regard to study the nature of mental health of the family members of disappeared persons with special focus on different predictors and socio-demographic