One year after the Türkiye earthquake disaster, trauma haunts survivors | Türkiye and Syria earthquake news

GAZIANTEP, Turkey — When Elmas Abdul Ghani looks back, her body still shakes like the floor of her apartment on that early February morning a year ago.

She woke up to her husband screaming, crying: “Almas, wake up! Save your life!”

“I just remember fear and confusion,” says 35-year-old Abdul Ghani, almost in tears as her mind travels back in time.

Abdul Ghani's husband did not survive the first 7.8-magnitude earthquake, which was followed by a second 7.6-magnitude earthquake later in the day and hundreds of aftershocks, which killed more than 50,000 people in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria on February 6 last year. .

But Abdul Ghani did, and from that day on, she had to deal with the psychological anxiety caused by losing the love of her life and her home in Gaziantep, an important city in the southeast just a few kilometers from the epicenter.

Primitive defense mechanisms

The earthquakes have created unimaginable psychological stress for survivors like Abdul Ghani, from injuries and constant fear of aftershocks to experiencing devastation, displacement and deaths all around them.

After a few weeks of meeting emergency physical needs, groups of volunteer therapists and mental health NGO workers were deployed across the region to support victims and help them process their trauma.

Volunteer therapists worked to provide a safe environment for people to share their trauma [Courtesy of Hayal Demirci]

“I have worked on other earthquakes and natural disasters in our country, such as the 1999 Izmir earthquake, but this was different from any other,” says Hayal Demirci, a psychotherapist from the EMDR Trauma Recovery Group, which has deployed teams of health workers. mentality in tent settlements, container cities, hotels and temporary dormitories since early March last year.

In the first few weeks of their deployment, Demirci and more than 1,000 volunteer therapists worked to provide a physically safe environment to reduce people's acute reactions and, after a period of time, to create a safe therapeutic bond and work with these reactions.

Demirci explains that when the natural connections between people disappear, the mind releases the most primitive defense mechanisms to face the harsh reality.

“There has been so much loss of family members, friends, parties, homes, towns and hope for the future.

“When these defense mechanisms are active, the sympathetic nervous system is on duty and…the person [feels] It's like they're in danger all the time. “It is not possible for people who do not feel safe anywhere at any time to eat, sleep or meet their basic needs properly,” she says.

Most people, even after the aftershocks eventually subsided, felt anxious for several months.

“Even though my family’s house was declared safe a week after the earthquake, I still don’t feel safe staying inside,” says Mert Ozyurtakan, a 22-year-old engineering student at Gaziantep University.

“I was constantly staring at the water bottles to see if the water was moving or at the ceiling lights to see if they were swaying a little. It increased my anxiety levels, and affected my grades.”

While most crisis mental health support focuses on a short-term emergency approach, Demirci stresses the importance of continuing to work with victims online to address triggers and control flashbacks to reduce any symptoms.

For some, the earthquake changed entire lifestyles. Neslihan Heydonmez and her husband, Ali Ozaslan, started living in a van and kept camping sleeping bags on hand because they no longer felt safe in their home.

“The earthquake has completely affected the way we live. We never thought about abandoning our newly purchased home, but we always live in fear that something of this magnitude might happen again.

Impact on children

If adults find the effects disastrous, for children in their early stages of development, the disaster left an indelible mark.

Sari Petir, a fourth-grade student at Ilkokulu Primary School in Gaziantep, still brings her doll to school for comfort.

A child paints his face at an event to entertain and support mental health for children affected by the deadly earthquake in Osmaniye, Turkey, February 16, 2023. [Suhaib Salem/TPX Images of the Day/Reuters]

“It's the first thing I brought with me when we ran away from home,” she says. “You kept me company for three days while we slept in our car because our house didn't make us feel safe. It gives me confidence.”

Children are among the groups most at risk, says clinical psychologist Zeynep Bahadir, who has expertise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and who volunteered for six weeks with the Turkish Red Crescent as an online emergency psychologist for families with young children.

Whether children have been directly affected or have experienced secondary trauma, she adds, “they can be at risk for symptoms of PTSD, including nightmares and avoidance behavior.”

Separation anxiety has been shown specifically in school settings. When Sari returned to school in September, she did not want to enter the classroom because she was afraid to say goodbye to her parents.

It took a very patient teacher and friendly classmates to get her inside, even though she was unable to concentrate for the first few weeks. Some children avoid school for several weeks in a row.

According to Bahadir, fear in children can persist long after the earthquake has passed, which “may be temporary at times, but it can also be part of their lives forever.”

A boy looks at drawings made by children during an event to entertain and support mental health for children affected by the deadly earthquake, in Adiyaman, Turkey, February 17, 2023. [Thaier Al-Sudani/Reuters]
Reliving the trauma of death and loss

Yara Al-Atrash, a mental health worker at the NGO Enara, says the situation was worse for Syrian refugees in Turkey who fled there during the Syrian war.

Al-Atrash was responsible for psychological assistance to Syrians living in container camps and helped many who lost their homes and children, just as they did during the war in their homeland.

“Having to relive the trauma of death, loss and displacement, as well as the realization that the new place that gave them safety was no longer safe, was the final blow for those who survived the Syrian conflict,” she says.

Abdel-Ghani, who lived through an attack on her city of Homs in Syria, says the earthquakes reawakened the traumas she thought she had healed from.

She did not seek treatment, even after the war, but the anxiety she felt over the year since the earthquake approached finally prompted her to seek help about two months ago.

Abdul Ghani has now been living in Istanbul since February 2023, unable to return to Gaziantep and relieve her trauma. In therapy, she hopes to address this fear so she can finally come back.

Zeynep Bahadir volunteers with the Turkish Red Crescent as an online psychologist for families with young children [Stefania D’Ignoti/Al Jazeera]

“The culture of treatment is not yet known in our region, especially in the earthquake zone and the villages that were most affected,” Demirci says.

Many said they were not ready for treatment, but emergency workers tried to encourage them to talk about their wounds. “Those who do not receive support in the acute period may suffer, in the long term, from addictions, including alcohol and drugs, anger and impulse control problems, or even physical problems such as fibromyalgia or migraines,” Demirci adds.

“The consequences could be as devastating as the earthquake itself in the future.”

Demirci's work with survivors will continue for at least three more years, the minimum amount of time needed to ensure their healing path will be effective.

As aftershocks continue in the region, people say that treating them as part of their daily lives is their new normal.

Songul Doğan, who moved to Gaziantep after her home was destroyed in last year's earthquake, was visiting her native Malatya on January 6 when a 4.5-magnitude earthquake struck the city.

“We can no longer trust the ground we walk on,” she says bitterly. “How can we go on and feel safe without losing our minds?”

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