DALLAS — A month after tornadoes ravaged North Texas, mental health experts are warning survivors to be on the alert for another problem: post-traumatic stress disorder.
Though many people associate that syndrome with soldiers who have been through combat, PTSD can affect about one-fifth of people who were directly affected by a natural disaster, medical studies show.
After an ordeal like a tornado or hurricane, people often have trouble sleeping and concentrating, feel jumpy and may be easily startled, or see the disaster replaying in their minds.
But if those symptoms persist for 30 days, experts say, disaster survivors could have PTSD, which is often characterized by flashbacks, nightmares and anxiety.
“One of the things we get asked the most often is, “Am I going crazy?’” said Michael Booth, a licensed counselor who volunteers for the American Red Cross. He said that even people who fall short of an official diagnosis can still benefit from therapy.
Just half of those who need treatment typically seek it, said Dr. John Burruss, chief executive of Metrocare Services, a nonprofit that runs community mental health clinics in Dallas County.
“Know that there’s a remedy,” he said. “If they think that this is just what you should expect after you have a bad tornado, they may not know that there is something treatable.”
Dr. Carol North, a psychiatrist with Metrocare and the University of Texas Southwestern, has studied men and women who survived disasters such as the 1994 Northridge, California, earthquake, the 1991 mass shooting in Killeen, Texas, and floods in St. Louis in 1993.
On average, she found that 20 percent of people who were exposed to danger developed PTSD and about 6 percent of adults developed depression for the first time.
Other studies have found similar numbers. For example, after the 2011 tornadoes in Alabama, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found 22 percent of people surveyed showed PTSD symptoms.
Not every disaster produces widespread mental health problems, North said, noting that after a tornado in Florida in 1988, only one person out of 40 interviewed developed PTSD.
The American Red Cross estimates that about 7,000 people live in the households that were affected by the North Texas tornadoes, but the group does not know how many were at home when the twisters struck and so might be most at risk for PTSD.
The Garland Independent School District has tried to make sure students have access to counseling. It set up an online form and a phone bank so that neighbors, family members or co-workers could submit the name of students or staff whose property was damaged by the tornadoes.
School officials say they now know the names of the 1,000 students and 600 staff from Garland and Rowlett who lived in the tornado’s path and have assigned mental health professionals to school campuses.
Research suggests that people who were hospitalized with injuries or have had had mental health problems previously are at increased risk for PTSD.
Studies have found increased incidence of child abuse or family violence after some — but not all — natural disasters.
The stress of having a home destroyed or damaged, having to move and worries about money can put kids at increased risk at the hands of grown-ups who care for them, said Dr. Desmond Runyan, a pediatrician and child abuse specialist at the University of Colorado in Denver.
In the six months after Hurricane Floyd in 1999, Runyan found a spike in very young children admitted to hospitals for a traumatic brain injury, though the total number remained small.
Studies found increases in child abuse after the Loma Prieta earthquake and Hurricane Hugo, both in 1989, but not after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Colleen Jamieson, chief operating officer of the New Beginning Center, a women’s shelter in Garland, said she hasn’t seen an uptick in calls connected to the stress of the storms.
If there’s a spike, she said, “it’s going to be in a month or two months from now. That’s what we need to be ready for.”
Although health officials don’t track mental health problems in the wake of disasters, some say that would be helpful.
“It would be worthwhile to collect the data,” said Randy Routon, head of LifePath, a Collin County nonprofit that treats mental illnesses.
“It doesn’t change how you address one particular case, but it does change how you plan” for the future.
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SIGNS OF TROUBLE
Experts advise you to seek professional help if you, a friend or a family member are experiencing any of these feelings after a natural disaster:
_Continued anxiety or re-experiencing the disaster through flashbacks or nightmares
_Crying spells or bursts of anger
_Difficulty eating or sleeping
_Increased physical symptoms like headaches or stomachaches
_Fatigue
_Feeling guilty, helpless or hopeless
_Avoiding family and friends
_Difficulty managing day-to-day obligations
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