If the earthquake emergency leaves emotional aftershocks in people, imagine how much it could be aggravated in the leading figures who should handle the situation and under whom the responsibility and decision-making weighs.
“We are all involved in the same situation and mayors and leaders having greater responsibilities will have stress and anxiety as well,” he told Meter the president of the Psychological Association of Puerto Rico, Kalitza Baerga.
Therefore, he stressed that preparation is important to know how to act and respond to the emergency. “That is why we call on people to have their plans, to practice with their sons and daughters how they will act in an emergency so that when this happens, that response will come out more automatically,” Baerga said.
The mayor of Guayanilla, Nelson Torres Yordán, revealed that he has received emotional help from the initiatives that have been sent to his municipality. For example, the municipality of San Lorenzo sent a team of professionals to Guayanilla to serve the employees of the town hall. “These things are very important, we must be fine to be able to help people,” Torres Yordán said, noting that he has participated in the dynamics that have been presented.
The president of the Association of Psychology explained that in the entire population you may experience symptoms following tremors. “The reaction of stress and anxiety to events like this is normal because, obviously, it is a disaster situation that we are all affected,” he said. It went further by pointing out that “even those of us in the north feel uncertainty about what might happen.”
The mayor of Guayanilla said they have multiple coordinated mental health aids for residents.
According to the leader of the psychologists, “it is quite expected that one feels sad, frustration and even a little courage with the situation.” You can also develop difficulty communicating feelings, difficulty sleeping, feeling that we have no control of life, lack of concentration, fear, mood swings.
“The literature tells us that most people who go through this recover over time. Some will need psychological help. Only a minor percent develop posttraumatic stress, ”said Baerga. Also, people who have psychomental diagnoses can be exacerbated, which is why preparation and medication are important.
Uncertainty about the continuity of the earthquakes represents an aggravating factor in people’s mental health. “It is even more aggravating for people who are close to the epicenter of the event because we can say that it is a revictimization, they are feeling all the time that the earth is shaking and they experience the same anxiety, the same fear and the same fear” he explained.
In times of anxiety and stress, physical health can also be affected. “It is important to know that in the emergency one changes their eating habits. A person who is in a shelter cannot eat a low-sodium diet because most foods are canned, ”said the psychologist. There are other elements involved so that physical health affects, for example, the lack of medications can generate stress.
The Association is deployed in the southern area offering psychological aids and first aid through the Mental Health and Disaster Response Network. Anyone who needs to coordinate services or needs any help can call 787-751-7100.
Explains development of conspiracy theories
Before the disclosure of the famous conspiracy theories, the expert mentioned that they arise in search of having an explanation of the emergency in order to have some sense of control.
“People need to explain and understand what is happening and, in this way, we need to understand and explain what we feel. We hold on to things we hear, that let us know: ‘Look, this is happening for that’, but the reality is that we must continue to urge people to get carried away by the reports of the experts, the people who have the scientific evidence to let us know why the earth is moving that way. ”
Some theories of the development of earthquakes are that they have been caused by a barge that was looking for oil on the coast of Guánica, the position of the Moon and even a meteorite.
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