Survivors of Tsunami Showing Signs of Serious Mental Illness

[NJCher]

This report was from BBC Radio's Julian Marshal, who was at a village two hours from Phuket. He said there was row upon row of tents housing 3000 people. The report was broadcast at 9:30 1/6/04.

Marshall interviewed a doctor who said many tsunami survivors have tried to commit suicide. They are having trouble talking about their grief and loss. Some have lost 9 or 10 people in addition to their homes.

The doctor said there are other symptoms: some have withdrawn from others, i.e., separated themselves from the group. Others are hallucinating and hearing voices.

Six hundred from one province alone have been admitted to a psychiatric hospital.


Cher

[DemBones DemBones]

1. What a tragedy for so many to have lost so many and so much.

It's simply inconceivable.

[The Stranger]

2. The same thing is happening to millions of Iraqis, but the press will not

report on that.

[DELUSIONAL]

7. My thoughts exactly

The people of Fallujah -- those who return will have constant reminders of the inhumanity of the US military. Just as the survivors have constant reminders of their lose.

Both are traumatic events -- life changing and life altering.

One was caused by one individual and the other was a result of the earth making adjustments.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

3. If I lost my kid, my wife, my home

I'd be less than enthused about the rest of my life.

[Skittles]

17. and your business

they've lost everything :(

[Coyote_Bandit]

4. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

is a natural reaction to very abnormal traumatic circumstances.

In and of itself it is not an illness. But if the grief is left unresolved (and untreated) it can lead to life long behavioral changes (re-experiencing, avoidant behavior and the inability to form attachments, rage, dissociation, etc.). The earlier it is treated the better the long term prognosis.

The relief and recovery efforts have focused primarily (and at this point necessarily) on physical and material needs. I would hope as individual areas are stabilized that some form of grief and trauma counseling is made available to the survivors. They surely will need it.

[bleedingheart]

5. this is just so horrible...

[NashVegas]

6. No Surprise

Last week, I finally allowed myself to watch some TV coverage. I think it was ABC and there was a feature including a Swedish man who was searching for his wife. What stood out was his calmness. He was obviously numb. When you're in the middle of a traumatic experience, it can be easy to block out your senses and deal only with what you have to to get through it. If you've seen the pictures of all the dead bodies, this was nothing, if not a traumatic experience.

[GumboYaYa]

8. Last night on CNN Aaron Brown looked terrible.

While I know his situation pales in comarison to those who lost everything including family, it was poignant seeing Brown's truly human reaction to the devestation around him. He had only been there a day or so. It is unimaginable to me to have lived through that disaster.

[aquart]

9. Numb is only one stage of reaction.

The one that worries me is the anger reaction. When that hits millions of displaced people, I don't know what will happen. And it's part of the natural process.

[GumboYaYa]

10. Wow, good point.

Where do they direct that anger: their God, their government, others around them or us?

That is a real danger that I had not considered.

[evolvenow]

12. It is absolutely heart-wrenching, the loss, staggering. Aaron is a real

compassionate man. Perhaps, he will be covering the suffering of these people, the people in Iraq, and around the world, in order to help with the enormous sorrow, and appeal to end the war.

To lose one family member is overwhelming...to lose whole families, friends, villages....unbelievable the pain and grief they must be feeling.

[BlueEyedSon]

15. No empathy for the Iraqis? Fuck him!

[skypilot]

11. On the BBC news...

...a few nights ago they showed one of the survivors who was in a hospital hooked up to an oxygen machine. The man was so tramatized that he couldn't stop hyperventilating. I realized that that is probably what would have happened to me. I am terrified of the ocean as it is and if it suddenly came rushing at me I would probably snap. And, of course, this man probably also lost love ones on top of everything else. The image of him lying there taking shallow, rapid breaths really sticks in my mind.

[lebkuchen]

13. CNNI had shown a woman survivor, an American, I think

returning to the states in a wheelchair. She was crying, telling the news reporters that she had been struggling in the water after the first wave, and another woman from another country, Spain, I think, was near her and told the American, "Take my hand." The American told the woman that she would not be able to hold on to the both of them. Then another wave hit, and the Spanish woman was gone, drowned.

I cried over that story. I think CNNI only showed it once. It was gut-wrenching.

[Lisa]

14. A Canadian reporter who filed an initial story from Thailand ...

... was describing the hundreds of deteriorating bodies he was seeing, a couple of days after the disaster. A few times he had to choke back an understandable human reaction, of pity and revulsion.

http://www.cbc.ca/programguide/personality/?personality=McAuliffe%2C+Michael&program=World+Report

I haven't seen any more reports from him recently, even though he was supposed to be covering that region ... they've brought in a bunch of other reporters. I'm getting kind of concerned -- I've heard that, years ago, the reporter who blurted out "Oh, the humanity!" upon seeing the Hindenburg in flames was disciplined for being unprofessional. I hope that McAuliffe hasn't been fired, or had a breakdown of some sort.

[Skittles]

16. to lose one loved one is hard enough

to lose multiple family members and friends, whole villages wiped out....AND deal with the destruction - I cannot imagine, not at all. :(

[NNN0LHI]

18. Same think happened to about half of America after 9/11 too

They were the ones who voted for Bush.

Don

[aquart]

20. The Bush voters didn't experience the actual damage.

The places that did voted for Kerry.

And most of us endured 9/11 in relative comfort. We had food, water, and, most of us, our homes. And none of us lost it ALL.

But lots of what they're is familiar, yes.

[Robert Oak]

19. grief does NOT EQUAL mental illness! Christ

a temporary psychotic break is the last hold out in a psychic defense.
(R.D. Laing).

I'm so disgusted with the "mental health" i.e. drug and torture, community claiming that a reaction to an extreme trauma suddenly
makes someone "mentally ill"...which is a PERMANENT definition.

No doubt Prozac will be shipped in the millions, although with some
sort of recommendation that "once crazy, always crazy" and these
people should be put on anti-psychotics and anti-depressants for life.

People can and do "go nuts" after extreme trauma and it dissipates...
only if it goes over for > 6 months after an event like that is it "mental illness".

Americans man...it's like any strong emotion or something they have no control over magically is now classified as "a defect, or mental illness".

Thank you.