‘The longer I left it, the more it was going to freak me out’: how Will returned to the water after a close call with a shark | Australian lifestyle

It was the beautiful Friday afternoon in April 2010 when Will Salter stood on the beach and evaluated the reef break in the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. It can also tell you the time: 5 pm.

While he was wandering for 10 minutes about three other surfers, he could smell the remains of the whale’s body that washed months ago. The seagulls are surrounded.

He wandered under a wave, strangely, he heard the foam whisper as he appeared. Then the foam was separated like the curtains. Salter saw a wonderful white head wandering below the front of his short board, and wandering in the body. According to his estimate, it was four meters long. The shark is likely to be attracted, the shark was not able to reach a buffet whatever you can eat.

“The great eggs are the only sharks that move our eyes like us, from side to side,” says Salter. “When I exceeded the shark, we closed the eyes.”

Salter shouted to my browser. In a state of panic, he was roaming at the sea, so he maneuvered his painting on the beach. Although the shark was now 25 meters away, he saw a back of the water.

“He came directly at me,” says Salter. “The sole is brushing from an ankle, and shook the painting. Sometimes they collide with things, to find out how they move.”

A near mujahif, Make, shouted that there is a wave. When Salter got his position, he saw the shark surface. He says, “He crushed his tail, then he was immersed.” People say, “Have you woke up and rode the wave and gave it the finger? “No, I was hanging in dear life.”

Once safely on the beach, emotions came out. Salter arrived in his car with his legs shaking and invited his partner. Then he bought a lottery ticket – this was a lucky day.

“I will always remember the man in newspaper stores,” says Salter. He was looking at me because my eyes should be swollen. I was like, “My friend, you will not believe what happened.” He bombed this story. “

The Salter experience is an exciting, but the stressful events come in many forms. What kind of help is to treat it, and how a person returns to the horse – or returns to the water, in the case of Salter?

Emma Fujan, a clinical psychologist in the institution psychology Melbourne, he studied to be a paramedic before switching to psychology, and is now working with the first respondents and people who were in accidents or suffering from other shocks. She says that the time of treatment is “as long as a piece of chain,” she says – weeks, months or years. The customer leads.

“The first date often understands the story of someone,” says Fujan. “I need to build this relationship and make them feel safe, to avoid shock reminder. Maybe we will discuss what has been changed to them and how they adapt.”

Fujan says there is a difference between “acute stress” and post -traumatic disorder. It is normal for people to suffer from anxiety, disagreement and panic for up to a month – this is sharp pressure – it may be useful to log in with a professional to normalize this. With post -traumatic disorder, symptoms continue after a month, with normal concerns turning into fixed beliefs.

“Post -shock disorder is more than a turbulent method of adaptation,” says Fujan. Things often changed in the way the person sees himself. They may feel that they will die, or they cannot trust anyone, or that bad things occur to bad people. The brain is unable to treat it is now safe. “

When an exhausting event occurs, the inability to predict the repercussions is its own case. Nobody knows this better than Bin Hamlet, who has become huge signs of questioning on his life.

Hamlet was a professional football player who now had his training strength in Tasmania. In his early career, he suffered a lot of surgery and rehabilitation after a knee and ankle injury, which was separated from him from a professional play in the United States and focused on the family sofa in Hobart. Initially, he turned to materials and struggled with depression, but then found a vigilance specialist.

He taught him mind and meditation “to understand how my emotional reactions affect my decisions, behaviorals and perceptions.” He also helped him sit with pain and ask what he could learn from this suffering. “You allow sensations to bend and save again, not attaching them to the result or your identity,” he says.

Hamlet returned to the game, but his subsequent brain injuries forced him to drill deeply. The first injury occurred in 2016. He went to a head and collided with another player.

He says: “I woke up the next day and I could not stand, I could not deal with light, and I could not deal with talk or noise.” This lasted for five months. It was a confrontation, because I had no experience I could not do the simplest things, such as standing or walking. I remember sitting in the consulting room with these brain specialists who said, “Look, you need to think about retirement.” I was 24.

In the end, he returned to football again, first without contact, then completely strangled. The psychologist taught him about a basic principle of mind, “balance” – developing a state of neutrality so that future experiences can be fulfilled without a specific result. “I had to rely really on this practice,” he says. “Instead of trying to control the result, it just appeared with filling consciousness.”

He moved to Europe to play in the third division in Portugal. Then in 2022 another concussion came. Although the collision was not severe, the effects lasted three years and had to retire.

At the present time, Hamlet had a baby’s daughter and business, and she was completing the degree of psychology – and had to stop the three attention. He says, “It was terrifying.” “I have noticed major changes to my mood, as I could deal with pressure, which I had never had.”

Reading the search for meaning, through the survivors of the detention camp and the nerve scientist Victor Frankl, made Hamlet realize that he had a choice of how he interacted with relapses.

“This helped me think, how do I like to look back in my life, and how do I like to move forward?”

For any of us, obtaining a “return to a horse” requires risk assessment. After his second conclusion, Hamlet re -drafted his goals, resigned from football and focused on building his training work.

In addition to the mind, the other common tools used to treat acute stress are cognitive behavioral therapy, eye movement and re -processing (EMDR).

Fujan recommends “gradual exposure” after a stressful setback. “Let’s say that Server has gone through the shark attack,” she says. “Sitting on the beach and getting to know any unhelpful ideas will be a first step.”

This tactic is exactly what the Salter tried. Being a men’s advisor, he had a good instinct for the tools needed to use it. No other browsers on that day returned to water for 18 months, but Salter entered after four days – and is still browsing.

“The longer you leave it, the more it is.

These days, he became the happiest shark. He also knows how important it is to browse his well -being. It is framed as a deep thing.

He says: “This was one of the most important moments in my life.” “I feel proud because I was close to a predator, but also, my father died two weeks later and that was emotionally huge for me. Because it was such a shark saying,” Not your time. You have the family to take care. “