Hyderabad: Continuous exposure to natural calamities, one after the other, is leading to a lot of anticipatory anxiety among people as they are aware of an impending disaster which will result in financial losses, loss of property, loss of crop or in the worst cases, loss of livelihood.
With Cyclone Lehar set to strike Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, people are jittery as they are still to recover from the aftereffects of Cyclones Helen and Phailin.
The effects of the natural disasters they have witnessed, leave them anxious and depressed most of the time affecting their daily living.
President of the Hyderabad Psychiatrist Association, Dr P.C.B. Gupta said, “People who are vulnerable tend to react immediately to these natural disasters.
They are angry, irritated and also get violent as they feel that they are the only ones who are being affected. These elements can make a situation very difficult to control at the family and also at the society level.
They can trigger a bout of negative feelings among people. This will also tend to create a behavioural pattern where the natural calamity is blamed for their own failures in life in future.”
With the increasing frequency with which natural disasters are striking all over the world, the number of people suffering from ‘anticipatory anxiety’ has seen a rise.
Dr K.K. Chandrashekar, consultant psychiatrist at Asha Hospital, said that the recurring natural tragedies were giving rise to a lot of insecurity among people. Due to changes in the environment, the rate of natural disasters might have increased, but it was very important to educate people to look at healthy ways of coping up with it.
Dr Chandrashekar said, “There is a post traumatic stress period which every individual will go through after an event. But the ability of the mind to learn to cope with it will ensure that he has worked best on his ‘survival instinct’ proving his ability to cope with the situation.
The increasing rate at which the calamities are striking makes it very important for everyone to be mentally strong and also opt for measures to deal with it.”
The analysis among mental health professionals is that a depressed state of mind is clogged with too many negative thoughts, which makes them easy targets when natural calamities strike.
