Psychological Storm Surges- Managing emotional damage from natural disasters by Dwight Bain, LMHC
Consider that everyone has a capacity for how much stress they can handle in a crisis, (think of it like a balloon inside), and that every major change builds up more internal pressure. So how long can an average person go without "popping" emotionally after a natural disaster like a hurricane, tornado or earthquake? What about a person who is more fragile and susceptible to traumatic stress like an elderly adult or a very young child? It is likely that we are going to see people experiencing an unusual kind of emotional condition after Hurricane Katrina that I call a "Psychological Storm Surge." This is an emotional reaction which in some ways is similar to the actual storm surge that occurs when a hurricane makes landfall and slams into the coastline with a wall of cold sea water, sometimes over twenty feet high. Two Types of Damaging Storm Surge The difference between the two types of storm surge is significant because the damage to life and property when the