What Does It Take to Survive Emotionally After a Disaster?

Happiness
and sorrow are the two basic and polarising emotions that we experience in
life. Everything that comes in between are induced types of emotions which are
decoded from our basic human dance movement; such as anger, fear, anxiety,
disgust, etc. The most common emotion to stem out as a result of such events is
psychological trauma, which can leave you experiencing extremely upsetting
emotions, anxiety and memories; which JUST wont go away.

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Of course
there are many other dreadful natural and even man-made disasters such as
hurricanes, fires, floods, terrorist attacks, etc. According to the cognitive
model of stress and coping, it is the manner with which you view a stressor
that determines how it will impact you. The same model goes on to state that
you may even be stressed or challenged vicariously.

There may
even be times when you feel disconnected from the whole world, perhaps even
numb from within and extremely skeptical about the people you trust. ALL of
which has been caused because you have been a victim (either a passenger or
driver of the car crash. Car accidents are just one of the many types of
disasters that you could have faced.

It could
just be as simple as watching the news coverage of a disaster on a news channel
that can cause you to be extremely stressed; by virtue of the fact that you
empathise with its victims. Hurricane Irma & Hurricane Maria has ravaged
Puerto Rico. In fact this year itself has witnessed some of the deadliest
natural disasters: a cyclone in Zimbabwe, floods in China, floods in Peru,
avalanches in Afghanistan, a major 7.1 magnitude earthquake in Mexico; to name
JUST a few!

The affects
post such accidents can last for years on end and can continue even for the
rest of one’s life. It is very important to reach out and seek the appropriate
treatment that is needed.

Lynda R. Matthews the
Head of the Rehabilitation Counselling Unit at the University of Sydney, says
that while many people will recover totally, even from severe road crashes, up
to 30 per cent of people will have to deal with a negative psychological
response.

“It’s not so much the severity of the crash or the severity of any
resulting injury that counts – it’s how someone perceives it,” Dr Matthews
says.“If you perceive the crash as life-threatening, or if someone is killed in
the accident, then that can influence your response.”

So, the question really is HOW DO PEOPLE REALLY TACKLE SUCH SITUATIONS EMOTIONALLY??

To break this up
&make it easier for you to understand, there are emotional & psychological symptoms that we experience and there are separate physical
symptoms that we experience:

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Emotional
& Psychological symptoms

Anxiety &
fear
Anger,
irritability, mood swings
Guilt, shame,
self-blame
Withdrawal
from others
Feelings of
sadness and/or hopelessness
Confusion,
difficulty concentrating
Feeling
disconnected or numb
Shock,
disbelief or denial

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Physical
Symptoms

Muscle tension
Fatigue
Insomnia or nightmares
Difficulty concentrating
Aches & pains
Racing Heartbeat
Agitation & Edginess
Being Startled Easily

Anxiety, which is a
natural reaction to an accident is a condition that most people can overcome.
Anxiety, if experienced can make a person feel unsociable and experience
“unwanted thoughts” or even experience problems on an inter-personal level with
personal relationships.

Of course, there will also be people who do
not show any sign of anxiety but they will exhibit a whole gamut of other
symptoms. Some of the common symptoms associated with anxiety include
irritability, constant worry, a feeling of helplessness, hostility, outbursts
of anger, confusion, disorientation, feeling “out-of-control”, sleep problems
and even feelings of being tired.

Depression, the most
common ‘reaction’ to a car accident or any natural or man-made disaster. These
symptoms- for some may last for a few days/weeks/months or even years; while
for others they become occassional unsettling experiences from time to time. It
is especially disturbing and painful for brain injury survivors as cognition is
extremely fragile. In fact brain injury rahabilitation takes an extrmeley long
time, that can go up to

So, what does one do in such cases? We have
the Post-trauma Survival Safety Kit that has all the tips we need.

Seek
Support: If you suffer from any of these symptoms, it is very important to
seek some sort of support. This can be sharing your feelings with a family
member,a friend, a counselor; basically someone who you can talk to face
to face and who will not judge you. This actually will provide you with a
sense of relief.
Engage
in Social Activities: Although you may not even like to, it is very
important to engage in social activities soemtimes. These activities, of
course will have nothing to do with your traumatic experience and you will
probably also enjoy yourself and make some friends.
Join
a support group for trauma survivors: Sometimes It is important to join
support groups as well as the entire experience is empowering- that you
are NOT facing your trauma alone. By volunteering in some activity, it is
a great way you can challenge your sense of ‘helplessness’ that very often
accompanies the trauma. It is important, at such times to remind yourself
that you have some strengths of your own and by helping others you are
actually RECLAIMING your sense of power!
Reconnect
with OLD friends: Sometimes we race through life a bit too fast and forget
about our friends from yesteryears – college or old jobs or even school.
Re-connecting with such people whom we had once retreated from is an
extremely heart-warming feeling.
Make
NEW friends: Its very important to keep yourself constantly active and
active in the sense of reaching out and making the effort to meet new
people. Its easy to do this by joining a club/a gym or even a class where
you can meet people who share similar interests. You can also reach out to
your neighbours, connect to an allumni association or your work
colleagues.

Of
course there are some people who will find connecting to other people very
hard.

In
such cases, they can:

Engage
in some form of exercise or aerobics
Vocal
toning: Individuals can engage in this voice modulation technique. In fact
it is actually a very good way to ‘open up’ to social engagement. All you
have to do is sit up straight and make “mmmmm” sounds. You can change the pitch and volume
until you experience a pleasant vibration in your face. This can be done
for as long as you desire.

Regulating your Nervous System

1)
Mindful Breathing: This is especially recommended at
times when you feel confused, disoriented or even upset. At such times it is
highly recommended to engage in mindfulness – a state of active and open
attention to your breathing in the present moment. When you are mindful, you
observe your thoughts and feelings without any sense of judgment of them being
good or bad. You just experience the present as it is- “awaken to it” rather
than dwelling in the past or anticipating in the future. There are many apps
that one can use for mindfulness such as Headspace, Calm, etc.

Take Care of Your Health

1)
Get ENOUGH sleep: This sounds simple but actually
isn’t. A lot of us are constantly experiencing negative feelings like anxiety,
depression and worry; all of which may disturb the quality of your sleep. It is
very important to go to sleep at the SAME time each day and ensure at least 7
to 9 hours of sleep each and every night. This is especially important for
emotional stability.

2)
Avoid the use of alcohol &
drugs: It is
extremely important to avoid the usage of liquor, alcohol and drugs, even on
occasions. These may act as stimulants to increase the feelings of anxiety,
depression the entire sense of isolation.

3)
Make sure your diet is
nutritious: Most
of the time, the main issue is with our diets. Our bodies require enough energy
to function well throughout the day. That means it requires a balanced amount
of carbohydrates, proteins, minerals and good fats. This will help give you
more energy and stabalise your mood. It’s important to cut back on unhealthy
foods and replace them with healthy alternatives.

4)
Reduce Stress: Stress, our number one enemy who
we cannot escape from. Stress, the emotional strain or tension that is
experienced often leads to many other problems. It can overwhelm the nervous
system, which then leads our body to be flooded with chemicals that prepare us
for “fight or flight”. Its important to engage in different relaxation
techniques such as yoga, meditation or even deep breathing exercises. It is
important to set aside some portion of your day for this activity. The
relaxation response basically puts a brake on the stress and brings our mind
and body back into a state of equilibrium. When activated the relaxation
response your:

· Heart rate slows down

· Breathing becomes deeper and
slower

· Muscles relax

· Blood flow to the brain increases

· Blood pressure drops or
stabalises

It is not at
all easy to work through a traumatic experience. It can be painful, scary and re-traumatising.
Sometimes the best way to deal with this is to take the help of an experienced
trauma specialist therapist who is equipped to deal with such situations.

There are
three main ways by which you can seek treatment:

1)
Somatic Experiencing: This focuses on bodily
sensations rather than on memories and thoughts about the traumatic event. It
is by focusing in the body that one can release all of the pent-up trauma
related energy that he/she may be feeling. This can happen through crying,
shaking or other forms of physical release.

2)
EMDR (Eye Movement
Desensitisation and Reprocessing): This method focuses on incorporating the cognitive-behavioural therapy
method along with eye movements or other forms of rhythmic, left-right
stimulation that can be used to ‘UN-FREEZE’ the traumatic memories.

3)
Cognitive-behavioural Therapy
(CBT): This type
of therapy is a talking type of therapy that helps a person manages their
problems by changing the way that they think and behave. It is most commonly
used as a method to treat anxiety and depression, but can also be used to treat
other mental and physical health problems.

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