Safety, security, and the sense of home. Home is usually an association with such things as safety, security, and rest. How can one be at peace, at rest, in one's home unless that place is safe and secure?

Many of us put in a long day at work, and we look forward to that hour when we can leave 'the jungle' behind and return to our nest, our home. When we get there, we throw off the day and relax. It's our home. It's our place of refuge against the demands of the world and other people. No one intrudes who is not welcome, and even welcome people rarely just show up unannounced.

A house is not a home until one makes it so. You paint it the colour that pleases and just feels right inside. You put particular kinds of furniture in it. Some will go and some will not. Some will fit the space and others will not. You put up paintings and works of art. You frame pictures of family and place them in hallowed sections of the house.

Slowly, while you live in such a space, the house becomes a home. You live there, and you do intimate things there. The otherwise impersonal space becomes a reflection of yourself, and it morphs into a home as you interact with its presence and observe it. A house is a home when someone who lives there sees it as such. It is a home in the resident's eyes.

It's nature as private space depends on the people who see it as such, and that private space can be shared with others at the homemakers' own pace and discretion-or not at all. In a 1965 landmark case in the United States (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965, p. 485), for instance, the home was determined legally to be a 'zone of privacy created by several fundamental constitutional guarantees'. However, psychologically a house is not a home until it is made such by the presence, perception, and behaviour of the people who live there.

That is so until someone invades the home. Then, one's sense of home is shattered.

Home invasion can be distinguished from burglary. In both cases someone enters a house uninvited and for malicious purposes. However, home invasion can be understood to have taken place when that person or persons enter a home while the homemaker(s) are still in it. In a 2005 article appearing in 'Psychology, Public Policy, and Law', Maggie Reed, Linda Collinsworth, and Louise Fitzgerald documented a particularly nasty form of home invasion in which poor women in public housing were sexually harassed and the safety and security of 'home' for them was put at risk by male landlords who often used their master keys to enter these places uninvited and late at night; they invaded the home with a sense of possessiveness that stole peace of mind through constant threat.

When someone breaks down the door against the outside world, the sense of security that attaches to 'home' vanishes. Often, also, there is a confrontation of some kind that takes place between homemaker(s) and home invader(s) that can be quite destructive both physically and emotionally. According to published reports by the American Psychological Association, such home invasion frequently results in Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) and/or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). With the first there is a numbing or depersonalisation, and there is the reliving of the stressful event in recurring thoughts, dreams, or flashbacks. All this goes on at least two days, lasts about four weeks, and takes place within four weeks of the event. By contrast, PTSD can be characterised as having the following conditions:

• Exposure to a traumatic event

• Persistent re-experience in the form of flashbacks, nightmares, etc

• Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma; that is, avoidance of anything that might trigger flashbacks and re-experiencing symptoms or the fear of losing control

• Persistent symptoms of increased arousal such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hyper vigilance

• Symptoms persist for more than one month

• Significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning

For either ASD or PTSD a person would be advised to seek professional help. In Bermuda both burglary and home invasion are not uncommon. The shattered sanctity of one's home can leave people feeling over-stressed, and that can lead to psychological disorder. The mental health community of psychologists, psychotherapists, and psychiatrists are equipped to treat people suffering from ASD and PTSD. Sometimes just medication will do, but often psychotherapy or counselling is in order to help a person assimilate and process the experiences he or she has endured.

One of the adaptations to having been violated through burglary and/or home invasion is to form a plan for the future. "What can I do to prevent this from happening again? What will I do if this does happen again?"

To prevent burglaries and home invasions, the Bermuda Police Service can be called and someone will come to assess the integrity of a given house so that all possible security measures can be adopted to make the structure less vulnerable to break-in. Neighbourhood watch plans can be organised. Sometimes having a loud and capable guard dog helps.

In terms of self-defence, some people get guns and become proficient in their use, but where guns are not legal (as in Bermuda), other instruments can be adapted for protection. Confronting an intruder personally, though, can be quite dangerous, and most people recommend giving such an intruder what he or she wants. Other people, especially in areas characterised by high repeat rates for burglary and home invasion, feel that the risk of having someone in the home with them again is too great to remain passive about. Even the sense that they are willing and making themselves as able as possible to defend themselves can be psychologically supportive. For such people safety, security, and the sense of home are worth fighting for.