From her book-lined New York apartment, Galina Itskovich is using Zoom to provide emergency mental health advice to Olena Yahupova. A war crimes victim in Ukraine, Yahupova is grappling with daily panic attacks that make it hard to work.
She’s had these attacks ever since her four-month’s detention in a Russian facility where she endured forced labor, torture, and rape.
Olena’s nightmare began when the Russians occupied the Zaporizhia Oblast region, and she was taken to a Russian detention center. Two Russian men there thought she might be part of a resistance effort, and after tying her to a chair, demanded, "Who are you working with?"
Olena responded honestly that she wasn’t working with anyone.
This answer didn’t satisfy her interrogators.
One of them took a two-liter plastic bottle filled with water and slammed it against the back of her head.
The pain was excruciating. Her world went white.
He asked her again, but again she pleaded for them to understand that she was just a civilian and not part of any resistance effort.
In response, the Russian man taped her nostrils shut and put a plastic bag over her head. Suddenly she was faced with the terrifying reality that her interrogators might kill her by suffocating her.
Even so, when they asked again who she was working with, she still held out.
Over and over again, she felt the two-liter bottle smashing against the back of her head. Her torturers would then alternate back to suffocating her.
This went on for the next five hours.
Olena didn’t give into implicate orders, but she did give in to another demand.
When she was sufficiently destroyed emotionally and physically, her interrogators demanded that she apologize on camera for her extremist activities.
However, just to be sure she said the right words, they threatened to shoot her immediately if she refused to comply.
Having no choice, she confessed.
The forced confession was later used to convict her. However, she didn’t end up in jail. Instead, Olena was sold to "Batman," a human trafficker. He rented her and other Ukrainian prisoners to the Russian occupiers.
The prisoners were forced to dig the trenches the Russian invaders were using for defense.
She knew that if she was too weak or ill to work, she’d be shot.
She also discovered that if one of the soldiers wanted sex with her, saying no meant she’d be shot. She was raped repeatedly.
Speaking of this time with the Russian soldiers, she says, "Each day, I focused on surviving until tomorrow. I didn’t dream of the future or dwell on the past. I just aimed to live through each day."
She spent two months as a labor slave, but then she managed to make it back to free Ukraine. She’s resumed work, but, as she explains to Itskovich, even a year later, she has debilitating panic attacks at least once a day.
These manifest as a racing heart rate and the overwhelming terror that she might die during the panic attack.
Galina has some practical advice for her in dealing with her panic attacks: "First, remember when you’re having an attack, that people don’t die from a panic attack.
"No matter how intense the feelings are, they’ll pass."
She also recommends, "When you have an attack, make sure you ground yourself physically. Sit in a chair, or if you’re out on a street, lean against a wall. You want to be physically stable."
"Next, remember that the attack won’t go on forever," Itskovich said.
"Look at your watch. Your panic attacks don’t last longer than 20 minutes. Keep telling yourself, 'It won’t last for more than another 10 minutes,' and then minutes later tell yourself, 'I’ve only got to endure this for another five minutes.'"
Itskovich points out to Galina, "Your fear response, was once crucial for your survival, but it’s harming you know. It’s overactive, sensing danger even when now you’re in safety. We need to retrain it."
Olena’s journey to recovery is long and fraught with challenges, but with Itskovich’s guidance, she is taking the first steps.
She knows that other people care, and people like Itskovich from Healing Hidden Wounds, an initiative designed to address the mental health of veterans and those suffering from invisible scars of war, want to help.
She’s not alone.
War correspondent Mitzi Perdue has visited Ukraine three times in the last year. She is a landmine clearance advocate, businesswoman, author, and anti-human trafficking advocate. She holds a B.A. degree with honors from Harvard University and a Master's from George Washington University.
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