Moral injury might not be a term you are used to. In fact, you might have never heard of it. But yes, the entirety of it defines what you are going through or its not you, its a friend, a sibling, a co-worker or a random person you just know; nobody wants to go through what they do not understand or cannot even define. Knowing exactly what it is will go a long way.  Read further. 

Moral injury is a fault, wound, damage that has affected a person's conscience, ethical codes, moral and societal believe of good and bad. This happens when that person is involved, sees, fails to prevent that bad occurrence from happening or even fails to report it to the appropriate authorities.  Take for example a work environment. The junior accountant knows that the senior accountant is syphoning money but he fails to report it because he does't want to offend his boss. That junior accountant will live in guilt or a soldier whose bullet kills a pregnant woman at a war ground by mistake or a Doctor who loses a patient due to his negligence. Distress, grief, shame, depression, anger, hopelessness, self criticism and isolation, even suicidal thoughts comes. You, the person, just want to escape away from all of it, you want your soul back without a nagging voice that reminds you of it.

 

 Recovery just has to happen. How does that come? 

 

There is no exact process or doctor's prescription on how to go about it but one thing is certain, giving it a name which we have can go a long way to overcoming it and the emotional stress it brings and also, healing.

 

Meditation can help too. 

 

By meditating, you get to accept the wrong, you get to make sense of the situation, you get to reflect on it, you get to look at it from different sides. You get to see how to make amends. You could decide to do it on your own or better, get a guide. 

 

Another way is talking about it. 

 

There is that feeling of relieve that comes when you know that you are not the only one who is going through that situation or will go through even. Talking to therapists or a religious leader will help. First off, it will be off your chest and you know they won't tell another because it will be against their work codes so you do not have to worry about others knowing if you are not ready for them to know. Secondly, they know people who have gone through that same situation and have seen people get out of it. They just might link you to 1 or 2 who will be more than willing to help out too. 

 

Moral injury does not just happen to a particular sect of people, it happens to all. At one point or the other, pressure, fear, emotional unrest and the likes must have led to something you are not proud of. You have to heal, you have to recover, you have to see yourself and the world from a good place, a positive stand point.