"Aftershocks can cause disaster victims to experience fear and anxiety again."
Earthquakes strike people suddenly and shake them. Individuals who have been exposed to an earthquake can relive and experience the situation they experienced over and over again in their minds for a long time. Shock, confusion, dullness, horror, fear, helplessness and panic may occur. Aftershocks may cause the victims to experience an intense acute situation and cause anxiety and fear to recur. It may cause people to feel anxious about an earthquake occurring again, to repeat their experiences over and over again in their minds, to be unable to sleep, to have a decrease in appetite, and to have nightmares. These reactions after an earthquake are extremely normal. The critical point here is that these reactions do not become permanent.
The trauma may be permanent in some people after severe earthquakes
Severe earthquakes can cause trauma. In some people, trauma may become permanent and “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” may subsequently occur. If symptoms last longer than four weeks and begin to interfere with work or home life, it may be post-traumatic stress disorder.
These symptoms:
- – The inability to banish unwanted memories of the traumatic event, nightmares, Severe reaction to elements that remind you of the event,
- – Numbness phase,
- – Trying to avoid situations or people that cause you to remember the traumatic event,
- – Negative beliefs and emotions to have,
- – The way a person thinks about themselves and others may change due to trauma. You may feel guilty or ashamed, and your interest in activities you enjoy may decrease. The feeling that the world is dangerous and that no one can be trusted,
- – Over-reactivity,
- - Difficulty in focusing and falling asleep, startle, restlessness, anger, anxiety, panic and over-arousal to potential dangers.
Early intervention is important in trauma
At this point, early intervention is important. Earthquake is a natural disaster and the severity of the earthquake, the age of the person, where and how they were caught in the earthquake, whether there is any loss or not have an important place in the level of trauma.
Ba While some people can easily get over the emotions they experience related to the earthquake, some people, for example, if they were caught in the earthquake at home, may not want to go back to that house again, may become unable to sleep because of fear, and the house may now become a fear factor for them. Negative automatic thoughts such as "what if there is an earthquake again, what if I get caught alone again, what if I cannot escape this time" repeat in the mind and may cause anticipatory anxiety, causing the person to be unable to perform daily functions. In other words, what we can call a permanent psychological problem; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder may occur.
It must be treated.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder must be treated. PTSD should be treated within a plan supported by psychotherapy or medication. There are areas in the brain where traumatic experiences are recorded, and these areas can even be triggered by repeated thoughts or earthquake-like stimuli. Therefore, receiving effective treatment will help the person continue his life in a quality way.
"Earthquake news negatively affects psychology"
During the earthquake that deeply affected our society recently, we experienced fear, anxiety, pain and sadness at the same time in many of our provinces. Expert shares also provide information that will help all of us to raise awareness about earthquakes. However, when people with high anxiety levels watch earthquake news in written and visual media, it negatively affects their psychology. At this point, sharing negative images of the earthquake on social media as if it were an unavoidable disaster causes people to despair about it. to be created in some way; It can be done by providing enough support rather than feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. Having it on the agenda more will prevent people from overcoming their fears and concerns. For this reason, publications about earthquakes should be reduced.
How should earthquakes be explained to children?
Earthquakes can cause children to develop fear. Therefore, informing children about earthquakes correctly is important to keep children safe. It is very important to make them feel that they are safe and to rehearse earthquake drills (according to age appropriateness). Let's not forget that children's ability to cope with problems is different from that of adults.
The explanation given to the child should be appropriate to the child's age and developmental level. Young children who are not yet of school age have difficulty understanding what is happening and expressing the emotions they experience.
If we explain the earthquake to children by normalizing it, we can prevent fears
Children in this age group They may especially ask "why" questions a lot. It is very important to correctly express what children are curious about. Parents should explain the situation to their children as simply as possible and make the child feel that he and his family are safe. Play is where the child rehearses life. Therefore, explaining it to children through games will be much more effective. If we explain the earthquake to them by normalizing it, we can prevent their fears. We can use Legos and wooden blocks when explaining the earthquake to children. Explaining to children by providing concrete examples is effective in helping them understand the event better.
The family should control the level of reaction to the earthquake.
The news and images that children may be exposed to on television screens about the earthquake should be supervised by the family as much as possible. . The family's reaction to the earthquake and controlling the level of reaction have a great place in being a role model for children.
Read: 0
