Natural Disasters

Apart from damages to homes, businesses, and infrastructure, natural disasters have a psychological and emotional impact on individuals and families. Human beings experience the trauma caused by death and injury. 

There is a great need to improve capacity among health and other support workers to deal with the psychological impacts of natural disasters. It is both a professional and personal issue for many of those workers. 

Issues like acute disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are prevalent in these circumstances. If these issues remain untreated, they can worsen. 

Let us discuss how natural disasters affect psychology.  

How Do Natural Disasters Affect Psychology? 

People sometimes get deeply affected by the destruction all around. Unfortunately, many kids and adolescents face ongoing emotional issues depending on the disaster. Even after a couple of months after a disaster, they showcase distress in its various forms.

In terms of identifying kids and adolescents after the disaster, it firstly depends on their age. An adolescent might present with classic PTSD or another form of anxiety disorder, like a phobia or depression. Generally, what an adolescent presents is what they experienced during the event. 

If you experience a lot of fear and very high threat perception, you will go down the PTSD path. Whereas, if you had a lot of grief and loss, you would go down the depression path. 

For younger children, natural disasters affect psychology, causing a developmental delay. So, they can fall from their normal growth trajectory. Parents and teachers usually observe it through behavioural changes, such as:

• Younger people acting immature 
• Individuals becoming clingy 
• Sucking their thumb 
• Wetting their bed 

Feeling that We Have No Control

A major reason behind the psychological effect of natural disasters is that they make us feel that we have no control over the circumstances. 

Catastrophes affect not just living beings but also the infrastructure, such as the schools, monuments, and places to meet. Sometimes, entire towns have to relocate, which can impact anyone personally. 

Consequently, it has a significant impact on our capacity to feel like we are back in control. It undermines the struggle to get back to a normal life.  

Types of Psychological Responses 

Psychological impact after a disaster is a very broad issue. People have many reactions, and that is the first point to note; not everybody reacts the same, and not everybody responds simultaneously. 

If we talk about the primary responses, we have PTSD. People with PTSD have very intrusive, distressing memories and nightmares and can’t stop thinking about them. The thoughts that we have of a bad event bring back the experience. These experiences are so real that typically people want to avoid them.  

Often people have complicated grief that can last for a long time. It can lead to substance abuse and other sorts of anxiety. 

How to Treat Psychological Damage 

Many people make the mistake of getting stuck on PTSD in terms of categorising symptoms, and we need to get beyond that. In children, you might observe other forms of anxiety or a phobia, like fear of fire and smoke. Children also get survivor guilt. 

Treatment in children is generally a much broader concept. One cannot apply the trauma-focused cognitive behaviour therapy model that helps with adults on a kid. Furthermore, we have to work with the child and often even with parents and teachers.  

You have to involve the parent if you are doing hieratical desensitisation or any exposure. They have to be the coach; they have to be the person who provides a lot of motivation. Likewise, they have to be the person who rewards obtaining every level in the hierarchy — so there is much greater parental involvement in the exposure tasks and the behaviour therapy. 

The significant difference for cognitive therapy in children is that you need to be very aware of the child’s development stage. Treatment with cartoons, withdrawing, and pictures help greatly in these cases.  

Conclusion 

Natural disasters can have psychological impact on the survivors. The individuals who live through catastrophes may experience PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Children may be the worst affected.

But having said that, we need to acknowledge that most people don’t develop a long-term problem. Many will find it daunting to face the initial few weeks/months after the disaster, but a lot of them will adapt over time. We know this fact from previous research studies. 

Most of us are resilient. We can move on and restart oru social life and normalise it. We only need the right environment to support us through the trauma.