Longer term effects
The longer term consequences of exposure to disaster affect everyone to a greater or lesser extent. In fact it is said that no-one who is involved in a disaster, either at first hand or by contact with those who were there, is ever totally unaffected.
Fortunately you can mitigate most of these effects by preparation in various ways. The first of these is simply to know about them so that you can recognise them in yourself or others and be prepared to deal with them.
You should also realise that although individuals will differ in their reaction, some groups are particularly vulnerable. These groups include some of the members of these forums, or of communities of which they might become a part, so they and their companions should be alert to the danger. These especially vulnerable groups include:
· The elderly
· People with existing mental illness – especially depression
· People who have previously experienced extreme trauma – particularly, but not necessarily, if of a similar nature to the current one
· Women with young children – often more so than the children themselves, who will be affected but who are often far more resilient
Briefly, you or others might experience?
· Boredom
· Anxiety
· Fear – generalised or specific e.g. of open or closed spaces, of fire or water, etc, often depending on the cause of the disaster and how the individual was immediately affected
· Fatigue
· Grief
· Loss of self-confidence and belief
· Loss of belief and confidence in systems, other people and/or religion
· Guilt
· Depression
These might be short or long term, might arise soon after the disaster or up to years later, might be presented as generalised anxiety syndrome, or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Some of the results of these effects might include:
· Insomnia
· Nightmares
· Hallucinations
· Flashbacks
· Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
· Extreme dependency
· Withdrawal
· Anger and propensity to violence
· Alcohol or drug abuse
· Suicide
That’s the last bullet-point list, I promise! Instead let’s get to more detail and the practical stuff i.e. what we can prepare to do about them!
Boredom
The easiest one first! Whether this will be a problem depends on the situation and how you are dealing with it. If you can move around outside you might have a mass of work to do: clearing up after the disaster; enhancing your security; tending the garden/crops/animals; foraging; gathering fuel or firewood; wombling: or a host of other jobs. The kids can help in much of this too and might revel in it.
The problem comes, of course, if you are confined inside and especially if utilities are down. Initially there will still be jobs to do, such as cleaning, security, inventory of supplies. Some of these will need to be maintained as part of the new routine but others once done are done. Depending on the level of preps you have reached, you might have alternate communications so that you can talk with other group members. If not you will almost certainly have at least a radio and will be able to scan for news or music, though it is possible there will be none being transmitted. Studying references will/should take up some of your time, and training in/practising various skills might be possible, as will discussing emergency plans and routines. But for the younger group members especially, pastimes of some kind will be essential. Books and board games are useful, even more so if people have come to enjoy them before the event, but access to some electronic entertainment will help to ease the sense of disruption. For these you will need a way to provide a continuing source of power, such as 12v batteries with inverters and solar chargers, and smaller rechargeable batteries with appropriate chargers.
Do not underestimate the importance of preparing to deal with boredom. Stress levels will be high and associated irritation and anger never far away. I’ve seen fights break out between soldiers after 3 days locked down under simulated NBC conditions, over things that would normally be laughed off. In a real situation there are enough issues to deal with, without allowing one as relatively easy to prepare for as this to make things worse.
Anxiety and Fear
These are completely natural reactions in the aftermath of a disaster. The anxiety or fear might be ill-defined, simply a general feeling of disquiet, or it might be very specific. After a hurricane hit Central America in 1982, I was trapped when part of a building from which we were recovering injured people collapsed. Colleagues got me out about an hour later, but it felt like a lifetime. Now, 27 years on, I still have a hard time fighting claustrophobia in very confined spaces. I could easily empathise with the people in Mexico City just 3 years after my own experience.
After the earthquake in Mexico City in 1985, most of the survivors I talked to were extremely nervous of entering, and especially of sleeping in, a building and much preferred to stay in a tent or even outside. This was true even in areas where the damage caused by the quake was relatively mild.
I have also chatted on-line with a lady who was so traumatised when a tsunami killed all 9 of her family members and who herself only escaped by luck, that she moved to central USA from the island that had always been her home. Although completely recovered otherwise, after 7 years she still suffers nausea and trembling fits at the sight or sound of the sea.
Some of the generalised anxiety people experience is due to fear of the unknown, of things that might happen, and not knowing what form they might take. You can reduce that to some extent by learning as much as possible about what really does, and importantly what does NOT happen in the aftermath of various events. This is where the study of documentaries, rather than purely fiction, is important. However realistic the author might try to make it, a story is still a story and can be better for exaggerating situations somewhat. Knowing also that you are well prepared for most things that you can or might reasonably expect should help to dispel some of the fear.
But it has to be admitted, knowledge and logic doesn’t always work totally with post-event traumatic fear, and it isn’t something for which you can fully prepare. Talking to someone helps. CBT can help. Exposure also helps. After Belize in 1982 I took up potholing for a while. I hated it, but I did it. I’ve deliberately gone into other confined spaces in the dark. I control the fear while I’m awake by deep breathing and examining the situation and my feelings logically and in detail, but it hasn’t gone away, and can be particularly bad just as I’m falling asleep. I’ve learned to deal with that by directing my thoughts elsewhere. Hopefully similar techniques will help you. We have a thread somewhere on fear that maybe S1 will move to this area, or perhaps other members will also post their experiences and solutions.
Fatigue
Post-traumatic fatigue isn’t simply tiredness. It is a deep physical and mental exhaustion that is the result more of stress, concentration and responsibility than physical effort. It most often hits when the initial intense activity and immediate threats are over and there is time to reflect. Pre-event preparation can help by ensuring that much of the organisational work is done and factors that could cause concern, such as gathering supplies, are already taken care of. After the event, delegation and sharing responsibility can remove some of the load. Logical planning, prioritisation of tasks and tackling things in an organised manner is important, as is getting sufficient food, sleep, physical exercise and taking time to relax mentally. Fatigue can be a killer. You can get so that you are trying to think of so many things at once that a mistake becomes inevitable. This is one you must be aware of and prevent in yourself and others.
Grief
It is a hard fact that most of us will lose people we care about at one stage or another; perhaps not members of our immediate group but others at a distance who we cannot help. And it isn’t just people that we will grieve for; pets, home, possessions, lifestyle, might all be among the losses of things we hold dear. We can prepare so that we protect as much as possible; in fact that is the primary reason for preparation for most of us. For those people and things we might lose, there have been many discussions in Bug Out threads about copying personal data, family photographs and film, etc, to an electronic medium so we don’t lose everything but memories of them.
It is important to have measures in place to deal with the death of loved ones in ways that are appropriate for you. Sometimes you might be so busy simply trying to stay alive that taking time to grieve seems impossible. If that is true, then you should make time as soon as possible. People everywhere have rituals to mourn those that are lost. Whenever possible you should follow those rituals that are important to you. If you cannot follow those that would be normal then do something else that will meet the need, but do something! Not doing so can lead to guilt and depression that can become increasingly psychologically destructive. The worst case I have known was a man in whose culture cremation was the norm. When his wife was killed he never found the body. It played on his mind so constantly that he eventually pinned a picture of her to his shirt, doused himself with petrol and lit it. Don’t try to deny or be hard about loss. It could cost you dearly eventually.
Loss of confidence
Whether a situation is totally new to you or simply complex and catastrophic, the chances are great that you, and other people you rely on, are going to make mistakes that will have serious, perhaps deadly, consequences. That can lead to a severe dent in your confidence in yourself or the other people involved, whether they are close to you, or faceless organisations you normally rely on. I don’t believe many members of these forums will be shocked by the latter and in fact will expect little from them, but failures by family and friends are harder to bear. Someone falling asleep when they are supposed to be on watch can get you all killed, but it happens. Someone leaving open a gate and letting a fox at the chickens (‘It wasn’t me. I didn’t do it!’ pleaded young John, in Survivors) might be less vital, but equally damaging to confidence in the suspect/perpetrator.
You have to realise and accept that failures are going to happen. You can do your best to fail-safe essential tasks i.e. have staggered pairs on watch but Murphy’s Law (anything that can wrong, will go wrong) will still prevail. Within a group you should do all you can to learn from mistakes and support and reassure one another, but that isn’t easy when you’ve just seen the only good meal you might have had in days burnt beyond edibility. Keep and re-read this section when tshtf! Good leadership will also be of great value here.
Guilt
Survival related guilt is a well researched and publicised reaction. Most often the cause is an illogical feeling that you don’t deserve to have lived when other people didn’t. Sometimes it is because people have died or you have suffered some other loss (see above) and you feel you should have been able to do something about it, even though you couldn’t. The result is too often suicide, either directly or by engaging in dangerous activities without any care for personal safety.
The feelings engendered might be something you can shrug off, or not. They might be ones you want to deal with internally or talking about them might help. It depends on your own make up. The guilt is often illogical and only self-imposed, with no blame being attributed to you by anyone else. Talking to someone who can take you through events and bring you to realise that might help.
But in preparing for the survival of you and your group, you have to be aware that you are potentially putting yourself in a situation where you will be responsible for the death of others and that can bring deep feeling of guilt too. By refusing to give any of the supplies you have gathered to others, you might cause them to die of starvation or illness. Simply by gathering supplies after an event you could be denying them to others who need them as much or more than you. In emergencies you can see are going to be minor or short term, you might be able to help other people by sharing what you have, and might want to do so, but you have to weigh the good that will do against the fact that, in worse circumstances, those same people, and others who hear of your generosity, might expect the same response from you and become angry if they don’t get it.
And in extreme cases, if you are attacked, you might have to defend yourself with deadly force in order to survive.
Ultimately, these are conscience calls that only you can make. It is easy to say now that you think you could do these things, but you have to realise that if you ever have to do so you will have to live with it afterwards. It is something you should think about and discuss seriously with everyone you expect to be with in these situations. Differences within the group later could threaten the survival of you all. There is logic, and there are personal ethics. If you decide that you cannot do other than share and cooperate, that you are not willing to kill to preserve your own life or that of others, then make your preparations in full and open realisation of that and its potential consequences. This isn’t a question of my way is right, yours is wrong, in either direction. Everyone must decide for themselves.
Depression
There are people on this group with far more experience of this subject than I have, and who are able to give better advice, so I will keep this short.
After a disaster, it would be amazing if the stress and other psychological effects did not cause depression in some, or many of the survivors. If you already suffer from this illness then you are obviously more likely to be affected. Anyone who prepares for survival should include in their preparation a study of the signs, symptoms, effects and treatment of this condition. Preparation should certainly include storing medication if you are a sufferer, but everyone should also read up on the alternative therapies, herbal and otherwise because, of course, continuing supplies of prescription medicine might simply not be available.
Conclusion
This has been a relatively short (I know, it might not have felt like it!) series on the psychology of survival but hopefully it will have been enough to get you thinking about the subject.