Uttarakhand survivors battle post-traumatic stress disorder

While the nation focuses on relief and rescue of thousands still trapped in Uttarkhand and comes to terms with the thousand plus death toll, survivors, even those without major injuries are beginning to show signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) leading to anxiety and emotional overwhelming due to re-experiencing the trauma.

“I keep getting upsetting memories of those horrible three nights when I didn’t know whether my parents and me would survive. I keep trembling and feel like it is all happening again and again,” said Santacruz resident Radhika Mody, 23 who has suffered several cuts and bruises on her feet as their group kept climbing atop hillocks around in the hope that they will be seen by choppers. The wounds of her 43-year-old father Shashikant Mody, a diabetic, has left the family particularly concerned.

“He keeps complaining of pounding in the heart, breathlessness, nausea and body ache,” she says mopping the sweat of her father’s forehead. “You know I have begun to sleep with both my parents besides me,” says Radhika, “I fear I will wake up and find myself alone.”

An hour’s ride away in Thane, at the Sawants’ Vartak Nagar home, several clotheslines in the bedroom and window are choc-a-bloc with bed-sheets and clothes making it dark. Divyesh Sawant, puts on the lights and smiles. “Because of all the drying it has become necessary to keep lights on through the day,” says the 32-year-old employee of a local cooperative bank who had gone on a trip to Gangotri with friends.

“Our group was going to Gangotri when the rains and landslides hit. If it hadn’t been for some policemen who persuaded us to go back to Brahmakanan, I don’t know what would happen as none of the Sangli and Pune group who went ahead against our advice have still been found,” he says extremely conscious of the way the china keeps clinking despite his attempts to steady his hand while sipping chai. “I really don’t know how I will go back to work and write in bank ledgers at work.”

The still shaken Sawant who merely has a superficial elbow injury from a slip, is actually more worried about his 10-year-old son. <span data-scayt_word="" malhar"="" data-scaytid="24">“Malhar</span> is very attached to me and this was the first time since he was born that I went anywhere without him. Whether its waking him up, readying him or putting him to bed, he insists that only <span data-scayt_word="Baba" data-scaytid="25">Baba</span> will do it,” points out the father, patting his son who is sleeping on a mat in the hall clutching him, his head in his father’s lap.<br> <br> This is also necessary since the mattress has been stood against the bedroom wall to dry. “He has never wet the bed since he was three, but when he saw how anxious my wife and parents were and the scenes on <span data-scayt_word="tv" data-scaytid="26">tv</span> he would cry quite a lot and began wetting the bed,” he told DNA pointing out to all the washing dried out and added, “We plan to take him to the doctor today.”<br> <br> Counselling psychologist <span data-scayt_word="Deepak" data-scaytid="27">Deepak</span> <span data-scayt_word="Kashyap" data-scaytid="28">Kashyap</span> explains how <span data-scayt_word="PTSD" data-scaytid="10">PTSD</span> needs professional help. "Counselling can be particularly helpful, especially with children," he points out. "Helping the person accept the inevitability of the event and helping them understand how patience (with what they are going through), perseverance (with the intervention protocol) and passionate compassion (being able to work out the survivor's guilt) can play an important role can be very helpful with these patients," he says.<br> <br> "But the longer these symptoms fester leading to psychological scars the longer it takes for the intervention to work, so it is advisable that at the first signs the patient is taken to counsellor or psychiatrist."<br> <strong><br> Symptoms:</strong><br> <strong>Adults: </strong>Avoiding activities, places, thoughts, or feelings about the trauma, inability to remember important aspects,  loss of interest in life, feeling detached and emotionally numb, depression and hopelessness, difficulty falling/staying asleep, irritability/outbursts, difficulty concentrating, being on constant alert, feeling jumpy/easily startled, guilt, shame, or self-blame, lack of trust, suicidal thoughts, feeling alienated or physical aches and pains.<br> <br> <strong>Children: </strong>Fear of being separated from parent, losing previously-acquired skills (like toilet training), sleep problems and nightmares, compulsive role play//<span data-scayt_word="stories" data-scaytid="30">stories</span>/drawings in which themes of the trauma are repeated, new phobias/anxieties unrelated to trauma (fear of ghosts), aches & pains without cause, irritability & aggression.</p> <p></p><p></p> <p></p>