After two earthquakes with a magnitude of 7.7 and 7.6 in Kahramanmaraş, very bad news came one after another.
Turkey has experienced one of the greatest natural disasters of the last century. The disaster of the earthquake, especially the people of the affected region, deeply affected the psychology of the whole of Turkey.. Due to Turkey’s geographical conditions, the fear of earthquakes, which already existed, took the society under its influence once again with this disaster. Specialist Clinical Psychologist Melis Ünlü, who made a statement on exactly this subject, said the following about the effects of this social trauma on people: “The earthquake can be explained as a natural disaster that has the power to deeply shake people’s lives and create serious psychological effects, as well as the structural destruction it caused in the geography it is located. The reactions of people during and after the earthquake may differ due to the severity of the event, personality structures of the victims, social values and beliefs, and past experiences. Strong mental and emotional states such as fear, grief, guilt and anger can be found among the psychological reactions after an earthquake. Sleep and focus problems may occur. What happened can be constantly revived in one’s mind.” Experts also offer some suggestions on dealing with the process.
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Melis Unlu, Noting that in the weeks immediately after the earthquake, anxiety was naturally among the most common reactions, “It would be useful to practice some behaviors in order not to prolong this period and to relieve the symptoms. Give yourself and those around you time to regain emotional health and regain control of your life. Accept that the situation is a difficult situation and do not avoid this difficult situation. Recognize your feelings. There may be ups and downs in your emotions, so be patient with yourself. Everyone who has experienced this event feels feelings similar to what you do. Be in solidarity with them, share your feelings. Be careful not to shut yourself in.
Stay away from alcohol and other drugs. These will do more harm than good. However, do not neglect the use of medicines prescribed by the doctor. Keep yourself busy with some constructive activities. These distractions can be in the form of helping others, trying to get your life in order as much as possible at the moment, or taking care of your children and your environment more closely. Try to find out what you might experience emotionally in the near future. Get information or contact the special units of health institutions created for earthquakes. In order to get back together, put your most important needs and the things that need to be done in order and deal with them one by one.
Only trust information from reliable sources, and only forward information from trusted sources to others. Take care of your own physical and mental health, do not neglect it. When you think it is necessary, don’t waste your time, get expert support and get it around you” said.
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Expert Clinical Psychologist İremnur Balandi on the subject whereas; “Of course, the healing process will begin, even if we stay in the same place, time passes. Whatever we have in ourselves that we have difficulty in healing, sometimes time gives it to us… In social traumas, the effects progress gradually from most to less. In the first stage, shock phase occurs. The first few days of the process in which it is not possible to fully comprehend the event and we cannot think logically… Emotions and situations such as fear, outbursts of anger, crying crises, and anxiety are experienced. It is quite natural to experience these feelings. Being unable to react, feeling numb, and feeling emotionally empty are also natural effects of trauma experienced after a disaster. Therefore, before judging each other, it is useful to know that each person’s response to trauma is different.
In the second stage, After the first shock, a clearer understanding of the event and then avoidance of all kinds of information and images reminding of the earthquake are observed. At the end of the first week, people who are exposed to intense information become very sensitive to this information. Reactions and emotions such as fear, insecurity, anxiety, restlessness, depression, feeling of loneliness and emptiness, and that everything seems meaningless are observed.
The third and final stage is the recovery phase. There is a decrease in negative thoughts and behaviors given after the earthquake. People who feel hopeless and aimless in this phase gradually feed hope for the future and continue their lives. Psychologically and physically, people begin to recover themselves. The intense fear and panic experienced at the time of the earthquake and immediately after the earthquake diminishes after a few weeks and leaves its place to anxiety. People who have suffered material and moral damage have anxiety about what they will do next. They think about how to move forward and begin to plan in order to be able to resume their lives and return to their old patterns. This is the period when people with Post Traumatic Depression and other mental problems mostly seek therapy and are most open to recovery.
Maybe not yet, but after the critical hours of the struggle for life have passed, we will need both individual effort and social solidarity to heal our wounds after the earthquake.” said.