• (Photo : Unsplash)

If your community suffers a natural disaster hit, you're probably one of the thousands of people affected and trying to understand what happened and deal with the stressful situation. These events can change someone's life and create a big amount of stress and anxiety. It is well-known that there are some prone areas to natural disasters and people are dealing with very high losses and even the loss of loved ones. But those who survive are likely to be affected for a long period of time. Here's how you can deal with stress after a natural disaster.

Common Reactions to a Natural Disaster

Have you ever been involved in a natural disaster? This article may help you understand that the period after a natural disaster is very tough and can come with serious reactions. A person who suffers such an experience is likely to feel shocked, scared, anxious, depressed, disoriented, emotional, angry and irritable, etc. It's perfectly normal to find it difficult to manage your feeling after shocking events like this. However, you don't have to deal with the stress, because it can harm your mental and physical health. The first thing you could do is to talk about the event with others, you'll release the stress and find empathy in other people that might share the same feelings. Also, another important tip for you to consider is to prepare for natural common disasters like this, especially if you live in a prone area, like Florida, for example. The best thing to do is to buy home insurance to have your back covered. You can find information about home insurance cost by searching online and see which one can cover all the damages a natural disaster can provoke.

Spend Some Time with Your Family and Friends

Spending time with family and friends can change your bad mood and help you get through this tough time. If you don't live with your family, stay in touch with them by phone. Also, if you have kids, ask them about their feelings and concerns about the disaster. They might feel scared or shocked to talk about it, so it's important to interact with them to avoid trauma. Coping with natural disasters can be very overwhelming and stressful, so find out how to avoid to develop reactions like depression or anxiety. If you have friends that live outside your area, make time and go visit them. Traveling will help you heal faster because it will allow you to focus on other things. Spending time with close friends will also manage to improve your mood and have a better impact overall.

Find Time for Activities that You Enjoy Most

It's wise to choose activities that you enjoy and spend time practicing them. Read a book, go for walks, or watch movies that you like. These healthy activities can help you get your mind off the disaster and keep you out of stress a lot more than you think. Even though you're not in the mood of finding time for these actions, you have to keep in mind that you need to struggle a bit because the motivation is always inside you. Don't isolate yourself in the house and waste your time thinking about the things you lost, be happy that you are ok and that there's a chance to recover yourself from this bad situation. For people under stress, it's important to learn how to think positive and give help to others in pain. Helping people who have lost their relatives, jobs, or homes might give you a good feeling. Giving yourself a purpose in a condition that feels "out of control" can help you rebuilt your confidence.

Work on Each Task at a Time

It's important to give yourself enough time to get through this situation and bring things back to normal. Do not put yourself in circumstances in which you can feel more stressed and depressed than you already feel. Pick one task and try to work on it until you're sure it made you feel ok again. Once you're done with that, pick another task, and so on. Focusing on many things at a time will make you feel hopeless and sad. You need to understand that it takes time to heal from an unpleasant situation. Rushing your process of recovering can only make things worse and overwhelm you even more.

Avoid Drugs and Drinking

It's needless to say that drugs and alcohol might make you feel less stressed but it's temporary, as these habits won't help you get through the hard times of your life. In the long run, they'll create additional problems that didn't even exist and multiple the stress you were already dealing with. Already mentioned above, it's best if you find activities that you enjoy doing, or spend time with your loved ones. However, there are situations in which a person doesn't seem to get through tough situations in any way, so asking for expert advice can help you avoid these harmful habits and get rid of stress completely.

Other Options to Get Help

Already mentioned above, if you feel that you can't deal with stress and it persists more than a couple of weeks, it's best if you seek professional advice. People with past trauma or mental health complications may also have to consider a visit to the doctor. If you are unable to deal with the stress after a natural disaster and your favorite activities don't help, you might suffer post-traumatic stress disorder. Although it's a treatable sickness, it's not recommended to wait too long until you get professional help. You can go to a psychiatrist and discuss the recent events in your life and how well you can cope with them. Going through these hard periods in life it's not something that you expect or desire. So, don't try to cope alone if you feel you can't. It's better to listen to yourself and ask for help, it's not a sign of weakness. It'll make you stronger and much better prepared for the unpleasant events in life.