Emotional Swings of War (hardcover). Volodymyr Stanchyshyn

There is no life now that would not have completely changed with the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine. But not only our everyday life has changed, but also our emotional reactions. Everything — from fear, anxiety and anger to feelings of guilt and sadness — is manifested so intensely that sometimes it is difficult to imagine how one can cope with these emotions at all. Because if before we had certain patterns of how to behave in each situation, how to react, now all these patterns are broken, and in our heads — complete chaos; every day we see things that should not exist in a civilized world.

Any emotional reaction is a normal response to the abnormal circumstances of war, claims psychotherapist Volodymyr Stanchyshyn. We have the right to feel rage, we have the right to want revenge, we can turn on black-and-white thinking and not feel guilty about it. We can grieve, we can cry as much as we need. This is a book about the emotions of civilians in the rear: about those who remained in Ukraine and those who were forced to leave their homes, everyone who volunteers, donates and waits for their relatives from the front, everyone who starts their day with the news and wakes up to air raid alerts. We did not choose to live in a time of historical change, but war is something that cannot be ignored, so our task now is to learn to cope on our personal level, to live in order to win this war.