How weather disasters can take a toll on your mental health
From anxiety triggered by severe weather warnings to an excessive focus on preparation that stops sleep, the mental health effects on people who survived a weather disaster can take many long-lasting forms.
Transcript
00:00 Imagine losing your home to a tornado or having to be rescued during a flash flood.
00:05 How would you cope?
00:06 Would every beeping weather alert trigger you?
00:09 Would a storm warning or watch increase your anxiety?
00:12 Here to tell us more about the trauma that follows is Christian Burgess, director of
00:17 the Disaster Distress Helpline.
00:19 First, Christian, let's talk about the initial response of someone who has been impacted
00:24 by a weather disaster.
00:26 So a person's mental health can be impacted by a disaster primarily in three ways that
00:32 we see on the Disaster Distress Helpline.
00:35 One is that mental health concerns that the person had before the event can be activated
00:40 or exacerbated by the disaster.
00:43 So for example, if someone already had a diagnosis of depression before a disaster, the disaster
00:49 may intensify those symptoms.
00:51 Second, a person can develop new mental health concerns from a disaster, especially if during
00:57 the event they were exposed to significant losses or threats to life, etc.
01:02 And the third way that we see mental health and mental health impacts on the Disaster
01:06 Distress Helpline is that after the event, depending on how their access to care may
01:11 have been affected.
01:13 And so for example, if it's difficult connecting with resources and providers or your usual
01:19 social networks after a disaster, like friends and family, and that may be because of power
01:24 outages or transportation disruptions, those things can lead to feelings of loneliness
01:30 or anxiety.
01:32 So if someone goes through one of these disasters, like a tornado or a flash flood, how does
01:37 that weather event change one's behavior?
01:40 How a weather event impacts someone's behavior definitely depends on if they were impacted
01:46 by a similar event in the past and had a challenging recovery.
01:50 So in that scenario, yes, even a severe weather alert might activate strong feelings of fear
01:56 or anxiety and bring back difficult memories from what they went through and can then lead
02:01 to new symptoms like feeling overwhelmed, numb, or paralyzed.
02:06 And on the flip side of those kinds of reactions, people who have been impacted by past disasters
02:11 can also show signs of hypervigilance in the face of a new event, like spending much more
02:17 time than is necessary on preparedness, almost to the point of obsession, or being glued
02:23 to the news.
02:24 And so no matter how your behavior is affected by a disaster, if you find that your symptoms
02:29 are persistent and affecting your sleep, your mood, or your ability to focus and complete
02:35 necessary tasks, it's important to reach out to someone you trust, like a loved one or
02:39 health care provider.
02:40 Mental health has come to the forefront in the last couple of decades.
02:44 People are no longer afraid to talk about it.
02:46 We have problems and we have people like you and your organization to help us through it,
02:51 which we truly appreciate.
02:53 So you're saying a person to get help can literally call your helpline.
02:57 They can.
02:58 Sometimes with programs like the Disaster Distress Helpline, we think that they stand
03:02 up only in the event of a major disaster.
03:05 But the reality is, is that there's always a disaster happening somewhere or there's
03:09 always someone recovering from a disaster that happened at some point in the past.
03:14 And so we're available 24/7, 365.
03:18 People can call or text our hotline, which is 1-800-985-5990.
03:23 All right, Christian Burgess, director of the Disaster Distress Helpline, thank you
03:27 very much.
03:28 Thank you.
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