Helping children cope with the continuing impact of earthquakes

How to help children deal with a life-threatening incident? What if I’m nervous? Katie Gossett investigates the far-reaching emotional effects of the Christchurch earthquake.

Ten years have passed. However, when the ground changes even a little, 11-year-old Ella * still freezes over.

“She panics. She sees every part of her life tense and doesn’t say anything.”

Her mom Amelia * said: “Calm down, but you can only see fear, the absolute fear in her eyes.”

The 7.1-magnitude earthquake on September 4, 2010 began a series of earthquakes in the Canterbury area.

Most notably: a 6.2 magnitude earthquake on February 22, 2011, killing 185 people.

Ella was about two years old when it all started and she seemed unperturbed at first, but over time, the anxiety started to show.

Amelia remembered her daughter’s reaction during the Valentine’s Day earthquake in February 2016.

“I looked at it and it turned white. I froze and said, ‘I want to get sick.'”

It’s a similar story to Margaret whose four daughters struggled to cope with the ongoing earthquake sequence.

They were so shocked. Being a massive earthquake was very frightening and took a long time to stabilize. “

So much so that even after a decade, the reactions remain sharp.

“They are very fragile around them. They don’t like even mentioning earthquakes.”

“They are older but I noticed that the other day when that earthquake happened, I was still hugging my 18-year-old daughter because she was shaking physically. So there’s still a long way to go.”

The girls are part of a group of Christchurch children who have grown up amid constant ailments and changes in life.

When clinical psychologist Kathryn Gallagher in Christchurch takes an evolution history from a new client, chatting about earthquakes is now standard procedure.

Talking about their reactions to the earthquake and what happened to them and their families has become just part of that conversation. “

Gallagher has seen many children affected by earthquakes and even ten years later, they still face related issues.

“Perhaps over time it has become more of a pervasive feeling of not being completely stable and secure.

“Some, of course, if a truck passes or an alarm goes off or the wind blows, they can definitely find themselves having a much stronger reaction and that can really be traced back to their experience with earthquakes.”

After all, many saw things that were very disturbing.

“The monitored buildings are collapsing, the routine changes, my mom and dad were under pressure. Continuous aftershocks and constant changes in the home and life.”

In some cases, this stress caused a change in brain function.

“ The main function of the brain is to keep the body in which it lives alive and thus, when faced with danger or uncertainty, it jumps into action, and you know old combat, escape, and freeze. ”

In the short term, Gallagher said the response is designed to be invigorating, prompt action and get people out of trouble.

But she cautioned that long-term exposure could lead to chronic stress.

“This elevated level of stress over an extended period of time takes its toll because maintaining a high alert state can be quite stressful.”

In other words, it is a very stressful time for both parents and children.

However, not everyone experienced the disaster the same way, Gallagher said. It was important to distinguish between those who had fear of earthquakes and those who were already injured.

While it was frightening for many, there were also positives.

“It was related to leave from school, and there are no rules about watching TV, and sleeping in the hall.”

“Some children may feel scared, but when they return home, their homes and loved ones are safe. [they] In fact it returned to normal very quickly. ”

“So these kids lived through something scary, but they might not have been traumatized,” Gallagher said.

The trauma, on the other hand, was the experience of a person who feared for his life.

“I actually mean thinking they are going to die or that the life of someone they love is going to be lost, or feeling completely disoriented by the experience.”

Have my children been traumatized, or have they been frightened?

The difficult thing for the parents was to practice if the child was in trauma or just sadness over a dramatic experience.

The best initial course of action was to provide what Gallagher called the Essentials: “love, support, predictability, and bringing life back as consistent as possible.”

This will help kids in both groups get back into routine.

However, Gallagher pointed to some evidence to help parents understand how affected children are.

So, if your child actually got out of that experience and broke up with them and they were talking about, “I was so worried that I was going to die” or “I thought you were dead,” then those might be some kind of clue that in reality there might be some fecal stuff in there that might be Be a concern. “

Another clue was the degree of malaise.

A child who exhibits fears when asked to go to bed may still be in shock.

“But, if for the rest of that day it’s been perfectly fine and working well, we can doubt that, in fact, it’s about learning how to manage bedtime in a safer and more predictable way instead of thinking,” Oh my God we can, “Gallagher said,” Don’t push them. To overcome the problem of bedtime because they may be traumatized. “

However, parents should take action if the child is constantly upset or shivering and exhibits other symptoms such as “stress, nightmares, flashbacks and problems with concentration”.

“[If] Their mood and their general way around the world have affected, we are looking at something even more alarming. These are the kinds of clues they might need a little extra help. “

Gallagher said it was appropriate to treat children who might be in trauma with baby gloves and may need an individualized plan to help them recover.

However, their parents should continue to help them gradually return to normal patterns.

“I’ve heard parents say, ‘Well, I can’t put them into their own room because that would shock them.

“Now, if there is trauma, we may need to manage this removal from the parents’ bed or those other aspects of safety with great gently and cautiously. We still have to move towards independence and life as usual.”

Gallagher said that if a child has just been struck with extreme fear, parents can return to normalcy more quickly.

“We can put off doing things for fear of disturbing young people as we actually need to step in there and say, ‘Hey, this was a big problem. I’m sorry you got scared but in reality we need to get life back to normal as soon as possible.'”

This included staying strong when it came to family rules.

“If there is a fight and someone punches someone, just“ we’re all nervous doesn’t make this all right all of a sudden. We have to reinforce our rules and expectations the way we usually do. “

Parents should also pay attention to the potential impact of earthquakes on very young children or even babies.

“We used to think, ‘Isn’t it lucky for me that this happened when I was pregnant or when my baby was a baby because they won’t remember it,'” Gallagher said.

This may be true if the child’s immediate world and family life have not changed greatly through experience.

However, if a child’s world is turned upside down, there may be flow effects.

“The more primitive parts of the brain that develop and influence things like regulation can actually be affected and this happens in the womb as well.”

This can double if the infant or young person is in an unstable environment.

“If they were born into families where mom and dad feel nervous and disorganized because of what happened [and] Life is still uncertain, so this will definitely have an effect on them. “

Gallagher recommended that parents take the time to take care of themselves and seek support if needed.

“Most parents are doing a great job and their children will be fine. However, in order to help our children thrive rather than just survive, parents may need to get out of their comfort zone and seek help.”

Gallagher believes that some children severely affected by earthquakes may still need intensive treatment to help their brains understand their experiences.

But these treatments work. Children are adaptive and can learn. “

She said the traumatized children were not affected by the experience.

“With the support, understanding, safety, predictability, and adults who can help regulate their emotions and behavior, they will be fine and that is really important to hear.”

Tips to help children cope with the effects of earthquakes:

Introduce the basics: love, support, and predictability.

Maintain a consistent family routine

Encouraging children to return to their own rooms and beds.

– Imposing house rules – exposure to stress is not considered an excuse to escape from hitting or other misdemeanors.

Pay attention to signs that the child may be more vulnerable to psychological trauma: note the degree of stress and what actually happened to the child during the earthquakes.

Keep your anxiety (parents) or tension under control around children and seek help and support for yourself.

Get clinical help or treatment for a child if returning to normal family patterns doesn’t help.

* Not their real names.

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