As survivors of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struggle to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives, the reality of just how much things have changed for them is setting in. While early in the diaster they may have been running on adrenaline and coping well with events, they are now finding it harder and harder to go about their daily lives. Sleep is disturbed and anxiety levels remain high. They may feel depression and deep despair over their losses. As with any survivor of a traumatic event, they are at strong risk of developing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
What Is PTSD?
The American Counseling Association, offers us 10 criteria for recognizing PTSD:
- Re-experiencing the event through vivid memories or flash backs
- Feeling “emotionally numb”
- Feeling overwhelmed by what would normally be considered everyday situations and diminished interest in performing normal tasks or pursuing usual interests
- Crying uncontrollably
- Isolating oneself from family and friends and avoiding social situations
- Relying increasingly on alcohol or drugs to get through the day
- Feeling extremely moody, irritable, angry, suspicious or frightened
- Having difficulty falling or staying asleep, sleeping too much and experiencing nightmares
- Feeling guilty about surviving the event or being unable to solve the problem, change the event or prevent the disaster
- Feeling fears and sense of doom about the future
How to Overcome PTSD
The following are several of the methods currently employed to help patients with PTSD:
- Antidepressants and Anti-anxiety Medications Can Help Relieve Symptoms
- Grief Support/Counseling
- Behavioral and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Help Deal with Anxiety Symptoms
- Group Therapy with Other PTSD Patients
- Exposure therapy (such as systemic desensitization and imaginal flooding)
- EMDR
Preventing Long Lasting Damage
Mental health specialists from the National Center for PTSD who deal with survivors of disasters say that early intervention will offer the best success in helping victims. These experts suggest that the following steps to reduce stress symptoms and to promote post-disaster readjustment:
- Protect: find a safe haven that provides shelter, food and liquids, sanitation, privacy, and chances to sit quietly, relax, and sleep at least briefly
- Direct: begin setting and working on immediate personal and family priorities to enable you and your significant others to preserve or regain a sense of hope, purpose, and self-esteem
- Connect: maintain or re-establish communication with family, peers, and counselors in order to talk about your experiences -- take any chance to "tell your story" and to be a listener to others as they tell theirs, so that you and they can release the stress a little bit at a time in disaster's wake
- Select: identify key resources such as FEMA, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, or the local and state health departments for clean-up, health, housing, and basic emergency assistance
These experts further say that in the wake of a disaster it is critical to take life one day at a time. They suggest that survivors should make opportunities to:
- Focus Inwardly on what's most important to you and your family today;
- Look and Listen to learn what you and your significant others are experiencing, so you'll remember what is important and let go of what's not;
- Understand Personally what these experiences mean to you as a part of your life, so that you will feel able to go on with your life and even grow personally.
