Post-tsunami stress, grief visible on online message boards
IndiaExpress.com
09th Jan 2005
By IndiaExpress Bureau
The impact of tsunami is being felt far and wide. A cyber storm is
brewing with messages of grief and sorrow which people all over the
world are feeling, distances notwithstanding.
“I am shocked and horrified about the thousands of deaths from the
tsunamis!… It is like unreal… The photos are wrenching my heart…
Little kids and all, oh God, it’s horrible… The pics are all too
vivid,” read some of the messages on online message boards.
The death count from tsunami is staggering, but health experts caution
on the mental problems the disaster cause all over the world.
“Intense studies of recent disasters – including 9/11, Hurricane Andrew
in Florida and the 1988 Armenian earthquake provide startling numbers. A
large proportion of survivors will suffer from major depression. Many
more will get stuck in the worst part of the grieving process, a
phenomenon known as complicated grief,” says Dr Randall D Marshall,
director, trauma studies, New York State Psychiatric Institute.
The scale of this mental health tsunami is difficult to imagine, says
Marshall in an online report. He says studies suggest that the mental
health consequences of a disaster are even more severe in developing
nations.
“Stress or trauma arises when you are exposed to death, accident,
disaster. It results in horror, helplessness and fear. And it is not
necessary that you have to be at the site of the accident to feel sorrow
or grief. Television has reduced distances and visuals tend to lot of
emotional arousal,” says Dr Sameer Parekh, a psychiatrist.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress