Dissociative Disorder Packs

May 17, 2022

By NZB3

The government has started handing out activity packs to traumatised children to deliberately make up for their lack of love and support in a crisis. It’s an idea directly imported from England by local government and paid for by central government. The activity packs resemble some kind of prize given out for being a good boy at school or perhaps a birthday present. To that extent it risks confusing a child very much by having them associate material gifts with tragedy. It may even act as a form of aversion therapy to make that child hate gifts and giving for the rest of their lives because it will be entwined with the trauma of their mother dying in a car crash or their house burning down.

Dissociation certainly is a legitimate defense mechanism toward trauma. Ideally, however, a child in trauma should have the attention and affection of an attachment figure when they need it as soon as possible. Apparently that’s not happening, the children are going neglected “waiting there for hours…they could often be the “forgotten element”. So we’re talking here of children who have the double-whammy of first being traumatised by an emergency event and secondly being abandoned by the adults who are now on the scene.

Instead of being helped to cope in a variety of ways, or picking their own path, The State is nudging the child toward dissociation. They apparently think that cognitive response is best and are subsidising it. But is that what’s best? Dissociation is one of the original Freudian Defense Mechanisms which involves zoning out into a fantasy land when contact with reality and being empowered in your own environment is impossible or unsafe. It renders the user docile and distracted so they do not require further human resources. You will have seen many children resorting to dissociation in government schools on a daily basis.

Waitaki road safety co-ordinator Jason Evered has introduced the distraction-packs to New Zealand from London where they have been used for some time. The dubious idea was bankrolled by State agency Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ.) No doubt Hazel Agnew,  Jo Anderson, Jenna Wylie, Sarrath Milmine, Kevin Murdoch, Howard Jackson,  and Kayla Hodge all mean well by “celebrating” the special prizes they are showing off in their group photo. I wonder if they know much psychology or consulted anyone who does?

“Waitaki Road Safe…has launched the Waitaki Road Safe Activity Pack or WRAP, aiming to keep children happy and calm after a traumatic event, such as a car accident or fire. The packs, which include an activity book, pencils, a pack of cards, bubbles, and a pamphlet about Waitaki Road Safe with colouring-in pictures, will now be carried by St John, Fire and Emergency New Zealand and police to be given out to children at incidents.”

” Evered suggested the idea to the group 18 months ago, having handed out a similar pack when he was a police officer in London. After the group secured funding through Fenz, thanks to the organisation’s Waitaki group manager Mike Harrison and volunteer support officer Kevin Murdoch…”

“Mr Murdoch said Fenz always carried teddy bears on fire engines to distract children…”

“Emergency services were always busy at the scene and those involved could end up waiting there for hours. It could also be a frightening situation for children…emergency services personnel always made time to talk to children, they could often be the “forgotten element”. Parents also had a “enough on their plates” when there had been an incident and knowing their children were entertained could help keep everyone calm.” – Child packs to aid in trauma, ODT (May 2022)

“Americans crave practical, mechanical, impositions so much they even circumcise their babies for no better reason than principle for principles sake. Why?” – American Problem Solving, NZB3

This is a very American response in terms of using capital things to solve people problems. Yet, the idea, and probably Evered himself, apparently comes from London. Certainly not from New Zealand.

Rather than the pathway to dissociation a child might need physical contact, hugs. They might need someone to emotionally and mentally mentor them through the traumatic situation. To validate their feelings. A support person is better rather than government anxiety prophylactic bubble mixture from London.

So we have problem with children being forgotten/neglected at accident scenes for hours? That’s a problem worth talking about and dealing with! We will never look for a solution to that if we think we have found it in the form of government distraction-packs. All dissociation does is help someone cope in the now by putting off inner pain for another day. Sometimes that’s the best path but who’s to say for any one person in any given situation that it is what’s best by providing government subsidy to nudge children toward it? Dealing out Happy Meal packs, minus the food, invites children to be powerless dissociated zombies that put their needs last while the ‘important’ people get all their needs met.

Lastly, are we not concerned about ruining Christmas and birthdays and prizes for children? The psychological blow-back has not been considered. It is assumed that the power of the traumatic situation will be mitigated or overcome by the Government Activity Pack. Why shouldn’t the ‘healing’ power of the Activity Pack not be overcome by the trauma of, say, seeing your parents half-way through the windscreen of your family car? All the events of the moment get sublimated together in a traumatic experience. The child is likely to be imprinted with the idea that giving and receiving gifts are deeply associated with harm and death and emergency. So well done, you’ve just ruined birthdays and Christmas for a child. Next time they see bubble mixture it’ll trigger them back into the most traumatic day of their life.

MacDonald’s has Happy Meal activity packs because they WANT kids to have a positive association with their food and their environment. They’ve been doing it for decades and seem to know what they’re doing. It’s a very successful franchise. Waitaki Road Safe is using the same mechanism and expecting a different result. Logically, their Activity Packs could also train children to have a positive association with crash scenes, death, blood, horror, and emergency services. Instead of wanting to go back to a MacDonald’s restaurant the desire being installed here is to repeat involvement in a trauma scene. The kid will grow up to unconsciously wish to entangle their life with horror and emergency. Perhaps even cause such situations? This is how sociopaths are made.

Are we thinking this through, Jason Evered?

Government in this situation, as always, consistently achieves the opposite of its stated goals.

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