Building Resilience: Navigating Traumatic Stress and Finding Hope After Hurricanes Helene and Milton
October 23, 2024 • 35 mins
Counseling Resources:
If you are feeling suicidal please call or text 988.
A free, 24/7, multilingual hotline that offers crisis counseling and support for people experiencing emotional distress related to disasters:
Call 1-800-985-5990
Text "TalkWithUs" to 66746
Spanish speakers can call and press "2" for bilingual support
Florida 211 Network: A 24/7 network that provides resources, including mental wellness care and local health and community services. CALL 211
Florida Disaster Mental Health Resources
Discover the transformative power of resilience as we navigate the complex landscape of traumatic stress following the fierce hurricanes Helene and Milton in October 2024. What if you could turn overwhelming stress into a catalyst for growth? Join us as we promise practical insights and strategies to equip you with the tools needed to manage the profound mental and physical health impacts disasters leave in their wake.
Explore the intricate ways in which stress manifests, from heightened anxiety and sleep disturbances to more severe conditions like PTSD. We unravel the signs that often go unnoticed, emphasizing the importance of recognizing these early indicators to prevent long-term health issues. Offering more than just theory, we introduce actionable strategies and resources like BetterHelp to support those without immediate access to professional care. By acknowledging these challenges, we position ourselves to better understand and address the cognitive hurdles that can arise during such trying times.
Finally, find solace in stories of hope and resilience, underpinning the belief in a higher plan that offers comfort amidst chaos. We highlight the significance of building routines and practicing self-care, from mindfulness and journaling to engaging in fulfilling volunteer work. Through faith and community, there's renewed strength to face uncertainty, reminding us that even in darkness, there are paths to healing and renewed purpose.
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Recording(s) "You're Gonna Be Ok" by Bethel Music (4:21)
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I know it's all you've got to just be strong and
it's a fight, just to keep ittogether, together.
I know you think that you aretoo far gone, but hope is never
(00:26):
lost.
Hope is never lost.
Hold on, don't let go.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey everybody and welcome back to the Wednesdays
with Watson podcast.
It is October of 2024 and thisis a special episode dedicated
to addressing the disasters thathit the southeastern United
States, notably Florida, georgia, south Carolina, north Carolina
and Tennessee.
And then, just 10 days later,hurricane Milton made landfall
(01:04):
60 miles from where I am sittingright now.
The devastation from both ofthese storms is unfathomable.
The reason for this episode isto help those of you navigating
this.
Either you're navigating itfirsthand, because you lost
something in the storm, or youare like me you are navigating
it vicariously, watching it playout in the community and on the
(01:27):
news.
So it is important to addressboth of your mental and your
physical health, as thesetragedies will affect us in both
ways.
Today we're going to talk a lotabout traumatic stress in my
attempt to help you navigatethese disasters.
Attempt to help you navigatethese disasters, as many, many,
(01:47):
many people are rebuilding theirlives and then others are
having compassion fatigue, asit's simply just too much for us
to absorb.
Just as, by way of reminder,let's talk about quickly what
traumatic stress is.
So traumatic stress refers tothe physiological or the
emotional response that occursafter experiencing or witnessing
a traumatic event.
(02:08):
This can include, and oftendoes include, situations that
threaten physical harm, such asaccidents, violence, natural
disasters or the sudden loss ofa loved one, which could have
also happened in these disasters.
Symptoms of traumatic stresswe're going to talk about a lot,
but can involve anxiety,depression, flashbacks,
(02:30):
difficulty sleeping andheightened emotional responses.
We're going to talk about allof that.
It may lead to conditions likepost-traumatic stress disorder
if these symptoms persist overtime.
Many of you are likely walkingaround with an acute stress
reaction, which is easy not easy, but it is fixable before it
(02:50):
turns into post-traumatic stressdisorder, and so we're going to
talk about this today, andmaybe somebody will be helped as
we are navigating this.
First, though, remember thattraumatic stress, or traumatic
response, is a response toevents that are extraordinary,
so it's a normal response to anextraordinary event, and I want
(03:11):
to stop there, because many ofyou may not understand why
you're feeling a certain way.
Maybe you're like me, and allyou did was you're a little
inconvenienced, couldn't findgas, but everyone has the
propensity to have a normalresponse to these extraordinary
events, and that normal responseis, in fact, traumatic stress,
so I want those of you who aretrying to talk your way out of
(03:34):
the way you feel, or explainaway the way you feel, or not
even acknowledge the way youfeel.
Tell any guilt and confusion tohave a seat, as your body and
soul were only created for somuch.
We talk a lot about the windowof tolerance on this podcast.
This is unique to eachindividual as the image bearers
(03:55):
that we are, and this is why wedon't compare traumas.
Imagine that your capacity forlife stressors is a balloon and
has air in it.
What happens if there's toomuch air?
Right, it pops.
This is a good description ofthe window of tolerance, if it
is truly a window that is uniqueto you.
And once you've exceeded theGod given window of tolerance
(04:17):
for stress and trauma, you willexperience traumatic symptoms.
The goal here today is to helpyou understand this and then why
.
Some of you may, as I mentionedalready, have a diagnosis of
acute stress reaction, but wewant to help you fix that and
address that so that it does notturn into PTSD, which is harder
(04:38):
to treat.
So, first of all, many of youmight be asking what parts of
these disasters are causing metraumatic stress.
That seems like a prettyCaptain obvious question.
They were two storms 10 daysapart that did absolute
destruction, but I want, forthose of you who need to
understand why you feel acertain way, I want to explain
(05:01):
why these disasters are probablyproducing traumatic stress in
many of us.
First of all, is the extent ofthe disaster?
In this way, the extent of thedisaster was far-reaching.
In particular, it went fromHurricane Helene affected
(05:21):
everywhere from Florida to NorthCarolina, and so the extent of
the disaster was vast in both ofthese.
And the question becomes canyou escape the repercussions of
the disaster?
Do you live in a neighborhoodwhere everybody had to take
their things out on the street?
And so the extent of thedisaster and how much you are in
close proximity to it willpredict whether or not you will
(05:45):
experience traumatic stress.
Another predictor of traumaticstress, as it pertains to these
storms, is the ability to meetyour basic needs right, and so,
for almost a week after Heleneand Milton, millions of people
were without power.
Gas was, especially for thesecond storm, almost impossible
to find, and some people, rightnow as I speak, are still
looking for a place to livewhile their destroyed homes gets
(06:09):
replaced or fixed.
For those in Florida, withthese storms just 10 days apart,
many, many people are lefthomeless like that, they're also
left financially responsiblefor finding somewhere to live.
So see, this is a significanthardship, and one that is being
played out in hundreds, if notthousands, of times.
So this inability to meet basicneeds, remember, takes the part
(06:32):
of our brain, the prefrontalcortex, offline.
That's the part where we makesense, we make logic, we make
good decisions, and so a lot ofpeople might be walking around
on high alert, being ruled bytheir fear center, simply
because this storm took awaytheir ability to meet their
basic needs.
Another predictor of traumaticstress, as it pertains to these
things, is if the event happenedat night.
(06:54):
Now, both of these storms hitFlorida at night, and I imagine
parts of Georgia, south Carolina, north Carolina and Tennessee
also got either nighttimelandfall or got early morning,
and so if the event happened atnight, we can predict traumatic
stress.
If there was any familialseparation for any reason,
planned or not, so if you stayedhome and you sent your family
(07:18):
to evacuate, that is anotherpredictor of traumatic stress.
Another predictor of traumaticstress is the intensity of the
media coverage, both before andafter.
I don't know what was beingplayed out nationally, but I
will tell you that I experiencedsignificant stress.
Merely fielding text messagesfrom family members who didn't
(07:39):
live here.
Their opinions, whileappreciated and made me feel
extremely loved, stressed me outas I was making the best
decision for me.
But what they were seeing onthe news I still don't know made
them scared enough to prettymuch harass me to evacuate.
The media coverage for both ofthese storms was vast, as it
continues to be.
(07:59):
If you watch the intense newscoverage some of us here in the
Tampa Bay area did because itwasn't until two or three hours
before the storm made landfallthat we found out that it wasn't
coming directly into Tampa Bay,so we had to watch the news,
the tornado warnings and thatkind of thing.
But if you did that because youhad to, then there is a good
(08:20):
reason to believe that you havesome traumatic stress.
Here in the Tampa Bay area weactually have a weatherman who
is not keen on scaring people.
He operates in fax and that washelpful.
But even he, as the storm camecloser and closer to the west
coast of Florida and I'm talkingabout Milton here was pretty
grim and it was scary, and sothe intensity of media coverage
(08:42):
is a predictor of traumaticstress.
Here's another one that I foundvery interesting in my research
If the storm affected youunexpectedly and so this would
be like what happened in NorthCarolina, georgia and Tennessee
Like that was completelyunexpected, with the rivers
cresting and roads, interstatesbreaking down and collapsing and
(09:04):
those folks definitely willhave reason to have traumatic
stress, because they wereexpecting a tropical storm and
they got a hurricane and a wholelot more than what they
bargained for.
And so if the storm affectsunexpectedly, then we can
predict traumatic stress.
If you already have a historyof traumatic stress, you're
likely to have traumatic stress.
If you already have a historyof traumatic stress, you're
(09:25):
likely to have traumatic stress.
After events like this, yourtolerance for these kinds of
things are lower, and so youdefinitely need to pay attention
to how you're feeling and whatyour body is trying to tell you.
And then, obviously, if youlost your home or if you're
displaced, you're going to be aprime candidate for traumatic
stress.
This is also true if you knowsomebody who died in the storm.
(09:45):
Those are super extraordinarycircumstances and are going to
require a lot of attention sothat you don't suffer long term.
The truth is, most people willrecover and not have to worry
about post-traumatic stressdisorder, and some of you
probably don't even have theacute stress reaction, but for
those who won't fare so wellwith that, it's important to
(10:08):
address this now.
So, as I talk today and thesethings sound familiar to you,
it's important to address it nowin a way that works for you,
your preferences and yourresources.
I know that not everyone willbe able to afford to see a
counselor or visit a site likeBetterHelp or something like
that, but I encourage you tolook for community resources.
(10:31):
I'm going to do the same and ifI can find any, I'm going to
put them in the show notes.
But there probably are somecommunity resources out there
for storm victims, and so I'lltry to put those in the show
notes.
But it is important importantif what you hear today sounds
like you that you address it byway of getting professional help
.
(10:51):
The truth is that these eventsexceeded the capacity of almost
everyone, and so all of you needto pay attention, whether it's
compassion, fatigue or anotherfacet of these events that are
causing issues for you.
You need to know that there ishope and there is help, but time
is of the essence, as I'vementioned a couple times,
typically, if traumatic stressis not addressed in a meaningful
(11:13):
way, it will give way to PTSD,which this podcast covers
extensively.
It is not a diagnosis that'seasy to live with and is very
difficult sometimes to walkthrough.
My desire for this episode isfor you to stop, think and take
care of you.
So how do you know?
If you're like me, you mightjust keep going and living off
(11:37):
of the fumes of adrenaline, hopeand optimism, but know this
lurking in the background willbe traumatic stress.
If you were affected in that wayby either hurricane we never
(11:57):
even lost power and the mostinconvenient thing that happened
to me is that I had to find gas.
I couldn't find gas for like aweek.
Yet I'm experiencing symptomsof traumatic stress.
Without question, my history oftraumatic stress is in play
here is I don't have thecapacity that I used to have, or
maybe never, never did have andchose not to address it.
The bottom line is, even thoughI was not directly affected, I
(12:18):
am suffering a little bit fromsome of these symptoms.
I've had to take extra care ofmyself, sleep more, had to stop
watching the news.
I've had to remember the wordsof John Eldredge in his book
Getting your Life Back in aWorld that's Gone Mad when he
talked about the term benevolentdetachment.
As Eldridge and many of myfriends reminded me, I am on
(12:38):
this planet to minister to myvillage, not the world, and
certainly that is such goodadvice for such a time as this.
For those of you, like me, whohave compassion fatigue, it is
very difficult to do this, butyou're going to have to stop
putting it in front of you.
Stop watching the news.
Help where you can.
No doubt your church orsomewhere local is raising some
(12:59):
money to help hurricane victims.
Help where you can, but stopwatching what you can't fix.
So how do you know, as Imentioned, if you're
experiencing traumatic stressand what do you do about it?
How do you know if a loved oneis experiencing traumatic stress
?
Well, here are a few thingsthat you can know.
One the first is physicalsymptoms.
(13:19):
This is probably the firstthing to come.
This one might be the obvious,the most obvious of all of them,
but it is also possible that ifyou're unable to feel bodily
sensations and this is probablydue to an adrenaline dump, and
so you could be one of twodirections on this you could be
still running in what's calledthe heroic phase, where you're
(13:41):
just running off of pureadrenaline and you're not
feeling the emotional effects ofany of it.
You will, though.
After events like this, we aremade to survive.
Many of you, if you've beenaround for a while, will
remember that.
I give an example of a cheetah.
A cheetah is the fastest animalon the planet.
It can, and often does, outrunanything trying to kill it, but
(14:01):
the problem is, at some pointthe cheetah runs out of energy
and then is in grave danger ofdeath.
Think of your body running onadrenaline just like that
cheetah.
You will crash, and when thatcrash comes, it will not be
pretty.
So pay attention to your body.
Schedule some downtime.
(14:22):
Try to stay away fromstimulating activity.
Stay away from the tragedy ifyou can, so that your body can
rest and digest instead of fightand run, because, you see,
traumatic stress is played outin the body by way of engaging
your nervous system and all ofits survival mechanisms.
You may find that you'reconstantly on edge, and that's
not who you normally are.
You might be yelling at peoplein traffic.
You might find that things arestartling you that didn't
(14:44):
startle you before.
You might feel your heartracing, because it probably
actually is, especially ifyou're running off of adrenaline
, you may be experiencing GIissues that you didn't
experience before.
You may not have an appetite atall, or you might not be able
to stop eating.
You may be struggling to sleep.
This, too, is connected tomassive adrenaline and cortisol
(15:06):
dumps after such events.
Sadly, though, if yourtraumatic stress is not
addressed, you could experiencelong-term effects to your immune
system and even the onset ofautoimmune disorders, and lately
, research is coming out thateven cancer is connected with
traumatic stress because of thatsuppressed immune system when
we stay in fight or flight.
(15:27):
It is important to understandthat if this tragedy did not
take your life and clearly, ifyou're under the sound of my
voice, it didn't, if you'reunder the sound of my voice, it
didn't If it didn't take yourlife when it happened, don't let
it take your life now.
If you are experiencingphysical symptoms that aren't
subsiding, you need to reach outfor help.
If you do not have a doctor,services like BetterHelp or
(15:48):
other services that are easierto get into will be good for you
.
Like I mentioned, I willcontinue to give practical
advice, especially at the end ofthis podcast, but do not ignore
physical symptoms that were notthere before.
If they're not subsiding, theclinical definition is it
becomes post-traumatic stressdisorder if these symptoms last
longer than four to six weeks.
(16:10):
Traumatic stress is also playedout in behavioral changes, and
so not just being on edge, butmany of you want to know if some
of the changes that you'reseeing in other people might be
related to this.
And while this isn't bad, youneed to watch out for yourself
and examine yourself too, to seeif the same thing is true.
But if you're experiencingtraumatic stress and are headed
(16:32):
towards PTSD, we can help youmitigate those risks when you
pay attention.
So now we're going to payattention to how it's played out
in your behavior, because youare so worth it.
You didn't come this far tocome this far.
So if you see a significantchange in the way you're acting
or behaving, anything a lacharacter for you as you
(16:52):
interact with other people,consider traumatic stress for
you as you interact with otherpeople.
Consider traumatic stress Ifthere is an increase in
substance use since the stormsanother big red flag, because
that desire to numb or dumb downyour nervous system with
substances needs to be addressedimmediately.
With behavior changes andsubstance use only comes the
increase of family difficulties.
(17:12):
So remember, everyoneexperienced this in one way or
the other.
So none of you are the bestversions.
Family difficulties so remember, everyone experienced this in
one way or the other.
So none of you are the bestversions of yourselves.
But if difficulties inside thefamily or behaviorally are not
getting better as time goes by,you need to consider traumatic
stress and you need to considertalking to someone about it.
As I'm going to say, over andover, untreated traumatic stress
(17:34):
in the context of familialsituations can turn into abuse,
and this may be the saddest partof it all.
We saw this after COVID abusein the home skyrocketed, and so
that is something that isimportant is that with these
behavioral changes can comeshort fuses and abuse, in
(17:54):
addition to the hurricanes.
For some people, it's hard tomake ends meet in a time that we
find ourselves, and that toocan cause problems inside the
home.
Everyone's balloon is gettingfull and it won't take much for
it to pop, and that usually isat the expense of relationships,
and those behaviors, especiallyin the context of abuse, leaves
marks, sometimes forgenerations to come.
(18:16):
This is especially true if youalready had trauma.
You need to evaluate how yourbehavior has been affected.
Provide for yourself plenty ofgrace for not being quite
yourself, but also don't ignoreit if it's not getting better.
Traumatic stress may also affectyou cognitively.
It might be affected after atrauma like this also affect you
cognitively.
It might be affected after atrauma like this and the time
(18:38):
when you need to be on your bestgame and making decisions for
recovery.
You may find yourself havingdifficulties processing basic
information.
You may not be able to thinkclearly.
Your short-term memory may beshot.
You may have unwanted memoriesfrom the storm intruding into
your consciousness without yourpermission.
You may have nightmares aboutthe devastation.
Some of you may question yourfaith.
(18:58):
All of these are normalreactions to these extraordinary
events and not to be leftuntreated.
There are other things toevaluate when you consider
getting help.
If you are having difficultiesat work or school, this is your
body and mind trying to get yourattention and obviously, if you
have any suicidal thoughts inany way, please reach out and
(19:19):
get help.
That in particular, please dialor text 988.
You are so worth it and thisplanet needs you.
Your story matters and it's notover yet.
So if you're having suicidalthoughts in any way, you must
immediately get help because youmatter.
It is also possible that someof you will have an extreme,
(19:41):
delayed reaction.
In other words, you're sayingto me none of this is happening
to me right now.
I must be good, watch out forthe delay.
Sometimes these kinds oftragedies require us to stay in
cheetah mode.
So watch out.
When things begin to feel normalor safe again, some people will
begin to display traumaticstress then, and these are the
(20:02):
cases where professional help isalso warranted.
So, besides reaching out andgetting help, besides the things
that we talk about on thispodcast between church,
community and counseling, whatare some practical things you
can do as you begin to recoverfrom these traumatic events that
happened within 10 days of eachother?
(20:25):
There's several things you cando, and this certainly isn't an
exhaustive list, but the firstone does speak to the community
aspect of this podcast.
Connect with others early,often and frequent.
Sharing the experience istherapeutic on its own and it
helps you feel less alone toknow that others have shared the
(20:46):
experience and, even better,there are people who want to
talk about your experiences, whowant to listen to you.
It's also important right now toestablish routines, especially
if your normal routine has beeninterrupted because you're
living in an Airbnb or anynumber of things.
Often, these events producetraumatic stress because of the
(21:06):
routine is interrupted, and soquickly, as quickly as you can,
establish some sort of routine.
Wake up at the same time, go tobed at the same time, try to
create things that are familiarto you, since the landscape
changed for much of us, and so,in any way you can to make your
environment as as close as itwas before.
It is important to do that.
(21:27):
So follow routine and followsome routines and set a routine,
and your brain will thank you,you know.
The other thing is, self-careis a buzz word right now and
maybe overused, but you need toself-care, we all need to
self-care.
We've all been through a lot,and I'm just talking about the
(21:47):
storms, not even the upcomingelection or anything else going
on in the world right now.
It is dark out there, and soit's important for us to take
care of ourselves.
Prioritize downtime.
Find something that you like todo that takes you out of the
situation, even if it's for 30minutes.
I love the adult coloring books, anything like that, where
you're using your hands andnothing that plugs into a wall.
(22:10):
Get away for 30 minutes to anhour so that you can just calm
down your nervous system andyour brain.
Get plenty of rest.
Drink more water than usual,eat more healthy than you
normally do, take a long bath,go for a walk, watch a funny
movie the other day notnecessarily a funny movie, but I
(22:31):
downloaded and watched InsideOut 2.
Things like that, things thatyou know are going to make you
feel good or make you laugh,even when you don't feel like it
.
You will feel very guilty aboutthis, because life has become
so unraveled, but it is one ofthe ways you will survive this
with the least amount ofpsychological damage.
Right along with self-care andcertainly as a Christian, this
(22:55):
is more important to us, and weknow how to do it.
But it's mindfulness or prayertime that will allow us to focus
on the truth of what is, andnot what our traumatic stress
wants us to believe.
Mindfulness is simply takingtime to stop and pay attention
to what is, and not whatimaginings we have or what
things that need to be checkedoff of a list or the flashbacks
(23:17):
or the film strip that is in ourbrain.
Mindfulness keeps us in thepresent moment, knowing that we
are safe right now and that wehave a God who is on the throne
and has not abated his powerbecause two hurricanes hit For
the Christian, this intentionalprayer time will help your body
and mind as we are promisedpeace that transcends all
understanding when we stop andtrust in the Lord with all of
(23:40):
our hearts and we stop and welean not into our own
understanding, and we stop andin all of our ways we
acknowledge him and he willdirect our path.
The Bible tells us be anxiousfor nothing, but in everything.
My prayer and supplication letsyour request be made known unto
God so that you may have thepeace that transcends all
(24:01):
understandings will guard ourhearts and mind in Christ Jesus.
And so mindfulness of prayertime is an excellent way to
treat and mitigate the damagesof traumatic stress.
The fact of the matter is, ifyou don't take time to shift out
of the go mode that you're infor whatever reason you're in
either hurricane recovery orjust go mode period you will not
(24:21):
be able to recover fromtraumatic stress if you don't
take some time off.
If you're like me and your homewas not affected, one way to
relieve traumatic stress is todo something for other people
volunteer.
One day after the hurricane, Iwas filled with anxiety and
compassion, fatigue, and I havea friend actually several
friends whose houses did flood,but this particular friend had
(24:44):
brought everything that theycould salvage, and by way of
clothes and things like that, tomy house, and so we did their
laundry and help them with FEMAand all the other things,
because they were definitelyhaving those cognitive effects
that I told you about, abouttraumatic stress.
They just kind of deer inheadlights as it pertains to
everything that needed to bedone.
So, anyway, we had their stuffat our house, and that day I was
(25:06):
just riddled with anxiety, andI was riddled with stress and
all the things.
Found myself, though, hoveringover my bathtub with my favorite
Taylor candle, laundrydetergent not sponsored, but
should be in the bathtub withall of their stuffed animals.
And some of these stuffedanimals were their grandkids
stuffed animals, some were myfriends when she was little, and
(25:27):
so I just wanted to try to getthe smell of the Gulf of Mexico
out of these prized possessions,and as I was doing that,
suddenly I didn't feel anxiousanymore.
Suddenly, it was not about me.
Suddenly my brain was happybecause it was doing something
instead of just ruminating overwhat was going on.
(25:48):
So volunteering in any capacityhelps your brain because you are
doing something for somebody.
If, even for a second, you feelanxious, a little bit of that
loss of control, go away becauseyou're doing something.
There certainly continue to beplenty of places to volunteer,
not just in Florida, but in allof the areas that are affected.
Another way to help with yourtraumatic stress is journaling,
(26:12):
because you will likely lookback at this event and not
remember a good portion of it,and so processing your emotions
on paper that you cannotarticulate or maybe you don't
even know that you have, is areally good way to journal, and
if you can, one of the ways abrain hack on this is if you can
write at all with yournon-dominant hand.
(26:33):
Journal with that non-dominanthand, because it clicks the
brain out of fight or flightmode when you are using the
other part of your brain thanyou normally use.
You also need to focus on basicneeds for yourself.
Keep it simple Three hots and acot for a while.
What does that mean?
Three solid meals and a goodnight's sleep for a good amount
(26:57):
of time.
Eat your vegetables and sleepmore than you think you should.
Another thing is to participatein community events.
This gives us a sense ofcommunity that is so important
to traumatic healing.
This Saturday our church ishaving its annual trunk or treat
at our main campus, and therewas some question as to whether
we should have it or not,because fewer than two miles
(27:20):
from our main campus is anapartment complex where I
believe is lower income housing,and these kids that live in
this apartment complex go to aschool that our church also
supports, a public school, andthat apartment complex was so
flooded that it was the largestwater rescue in the history of
our county, and so we wonderedwhen it was time for Trunk or
(27:41):
Treat to come this year, shouldwe still do it?
Because these families don'teven have a place to live, many
of them in shelters anddisplaced, and so our community
so heavily affected, we wonderedwhether it would be appropriate
to still have this communityevent, but we're going to have
it because our church leadershipsees the wisdom in getting back
to normal as quickly aspossible.
(28:04):
Find events like this in yourcommunity, where you can be
around other people and feelthat sense of community and
finally I've said it many, manytimes get professional help.
I will link some resources inthe show notes for that, but it
is important that you talk tosomebody and that you process
this so that you don't sufferlong term, because if you are
(28:25):
struggling, remember thatrecovery is a process.
You need to give yourself a lotof grace and take as much time
as you need.
Your body and your mind aremerely yielding a normal
response to an extraordinaryevent.
You were made to respondexactly how you are.
If you were affected by thesestorms, please know that my
(28:46):
prayers are with you, but mostlyit is my prayer that you will
not have to add insult to injuryby becoming psychologically
damaged by this long term.
It's simply not the way thestory has to go.
Your community of people arehere for you.
We are here for you.
Some of you will need extensivecounseling after this and
(29:08):
others will move on like itnever happened.
Remember this isn't ameasurement of how
psychologically strong you are.
It's a reflection of how Godmade you Speaking of God, as
Mama Bootsy always said.
You Speaking of God.
As Mama Bootsy always said, godis not wringing his hands in
heaven over this.
The truth is and this mightserve to cause some issues for
(29:31):
some of you, but work your waythrough it, because the truth is
is that God could have calmedthese storms with his voice
because we know that even thewinds and the seas obey him.
He chose not to do that andit's incumbent on us not to
waste a tragedy.
Nothing could be worse than italready is if we didn't grow as
a people, as a community and inour faith after something like
(29:54):
this, as I mentioned, not eventalking about these hurricanes.
This world is dark, there is noquestion.
A couple hurricanes are just adrop in the bucket, but we we
have a God who sees, a God whoheals, a God who redeems.
Recently, I heard the story ofsomeone who did lose their house
in the first hurricane and then, just about a week later, lost
(30:17):
her father to a long illness.
She was quoted as to say a weeklater lost her father to a long
illness.
She was quoted as to say Romans8.28 is still true.
When I first heard that, Ialmost rolled my eyes because
this verse is so overused andsometimes weaponized for those
in pain.
But she used the verse likeit's supposed to be used and it
sends chills down my spine afterI speak this.
(30:38):
After a hurricane took herhouse and a long-term illness
took her father, she said God isstill working.
All these things were my good.
Can you absorb this with me?
Trust me, this is hard to say,but I believe it.
My friend whose house had fourfeet of water in it, the one who
(30:59):
is displaced.
God is still working it out forher good because he is for her,
not against her.
My childhood stomping grounds inwestern North Carolina is
unrecognizable.
People lost their lives andtheir livelihoods.
Some of them still don't havewater and electricity, but my
(31:19):
God will still work it for theirgood.
We may never see it, but Goddoesn't waste a tragedy.
The biggest tragedy would be ifwe wasted these tragedies.
This has been a difficultepisode to write and record
(31:39):
because I have a 360 degree viewof the devastation in my
beloved home state of Florida.
I know people that have losteverything.
Many of us were traumatizedbecause of these storms were
scary for us.
I was one of them.
I was shocked at how much thesestorms brought up unresolved
trauma and fear, so I do notpublish this episode lightly.
I do hope that it serves tohelp someone navigate these
(32:03):
disasters.
I am grateful to call themaster of the wind and the seas
my Jesus, my Lord, my Savior.
I may not understand his ways,but we know his ways are higher,
and so I will go higher too andseek him in this tragedy.
I will find him there, so willyou, and when we find him there,
(32:26):
we know it's going to be okay,because in this already but not
yet world that we live in, oneday all things will become new,
all the sad things will becomeuntrue.
But until then, we will live onthis planet with our Jesus, and
we're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
You're going to be okay.
Just remember that you are afighter.
A fighter.
You never know just whattomorrow holds.
And you're stronger than youknow.
(33:23):
Oh, you're stronger than youknow.
Oh, you're stronger than youknow.
Hold on, don't let go.
Yeah, hold on and don't let go.
Just take one step closer, putone foot in front of the other.
(33:55):
You'll get through this.
Just follow the light One stepcloser, one foot in front of the
other.
You'll get through this.
(34:15):
Just follow the light in thedarkness.
You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna be okay.
When the night is closing in,don't give up and don't give in.
(34:46):
This won't last.
It's not the end.
It's not the end.
You're gonna be okay.
When the night is closing in,don't give up and don't give in.
This won't last.
It's not the end.
(35:07):
It's not the end.
You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna be okay.
You're not alone, never alone.
You're gonna be okay.
I know it's all you've got to just be strong and
it's a fight, just to keep ittogether, together.
I know you think that you aretoo far gone, but hope is never
(00:26):
lost.
Hope is never lost.
Hold on, don't let go.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hey everybody and welcome back to the Wednesdays
with Watson podcast.
It is October of 2024 and thisis a special episode dedicated
to addressing the disasters thathit the southeastern United
States, notably Florida, georgia, south Carolina, north Carolina
and Tennessee.
And then, just 10 days later,hurricane Milton made landfall
(01:04):
60 miles from where I am sittingright now.
The devastation from both ofthese storms is unfathomable.
The reason for this episode isto help those of you navigating
this.
Either you're navigating itfirsthand, because you lost
something in the storm, or youare like me you are navigating
it vicariously, watching it playout in the community and on the
(01:27):
news.
So it is important to addressboth of your mental and your
physical health, as thesetragedies will affect us in both
ways.
Today we're going to talk a lotabout traumatic stress in my
attempt to help you navigatethese disasters.
Attempt to help you navigatethese disasters, as many, many,
(01:47):
many people are rebuilding theirlives and then others are
having compassion fatigue, asit's simply just too much for us
to absorb.
Just as, by way of reminder,let's talk about quickly what
traumatic stress is.
So traumatic stress refers tothe physiological or the
emotional response that occursafter experiencing or witnessing
a traumatic event.
(02:08):
This can include, and oftendoes include, situations that
threaten physical harm, such asaccidents, violence, natural
disasters or the sudden loss ofa loved one, which could have
also happened in these disasters.
Symptoms of traumatic stresswe're going to talk about a lot,
but can involve anxiety,depression, flashbacks,
(02:30):
difficulty sleeping andheightened emotional responses.
We're going to talk about allof that.
It may lead to conditions likepost-traumatic stress disorder
if these symptoms persist overtime.
Many of you are likely walkingaround with an acute stress
reaction, which is easy not easy, but it is fixable before it
(02:50):
turns into post-traumatic stressdisorder, and so we're going to
talk about this today, andmaybe somebody will be helped as
we are navigating this.
First, though, remember thattraumatic stress, or traumatic
response, is a response toevents that are extraordinary,
so it's a normal response to anextraordinary event, and I want
(03:11):
to stop there, because many ofyou may not understand why
you're feeling a certain way.
Maybe you're like me, and allyou did was you're a little
inconvenienced, couldn't findgas, but everyone has the
propensity to have a normalresponse to these extraordinary
events, and that normal responseis, in fact, traumatic stress,
so I want those of you who aretrying to talk your way out of
(03:34):
the way you feel, or explainaway the way you feel, or not
even acknowledge the way youfeel.
Tell any guilt and confusion tohave a seat, as your body and
soul were only created for somuch.
We talk a lot about the windowof tolerance on this podcast.
This is unique to eachindividual as the image bearers
(03:55):
that we are, and this is why wedon't compare traumas.
Imagine that your capacity forlife stressors is a balloon and
has air in it.
What happens if there's toomuch air?
Right, it pops.
This is a good description ofthe window of tolerance, if it
is truly a window that is uniqueto you.
And once you've exceeded theGod given window of tolerance
(04:17):
for stress and trauma, you willexperience traumatic symptoms.
The goal here today is to helpyou understand this and then why
.
Some of you may, as I mentionedalready, have a diagnosis of
acute stress reaction, but wewant to help you fix that and
address that so that it does notturn into PTSD, which is harder
(04:38):
to treat.
So, first of all, many of youmight be asking what parts of
these disasters are causing metraumatic stress.
That seems like a prettyCaptain obvious question.
They were two storms 10 daysapart that did absolute
destruction, but I want, forthose of you who need to
understand why you feel acertain way, I want to explain
(05:01):
why these disasters are probablyproducing traumatic stress in
many of us.
First of all, is the extent ofthe disaster?
In this way, the extent of thedisaster was far-reaching.
In particular, it went fromHurricane Helene affected
(05:21):
everywhere from Florida to NorthCarolina, and so the extent of
the disaster was vast in both ofthese.
And the question becomes canyou escape the repercussions of
the disaster?
Do you live in a neighborhoodwhere everybody had to take
their things out on the street?
And so the extent of thedisaster and how much you are in
close proximity to it willpredict whether or not you will
(05:45):
experience traumatic stress.
Another predictor of traumaticstress, as it pertains to these
storms, is the ability to meetyour basic needs right, and so,
for almost a week after Heleneand Milton, millions of people
were without power.
Gas was, especially for thesecond storm, almost impossible
to find, and some people, rightnow as I speak, are still
looking for a place to livewhile their destroyed homes gets
(06:09):
replaced or fixed.
For those in Florida, withthese storms just 10 days apart,
many, many people are lefthomeless like that, they're also
left financially responsiblefor finding somewhere to live.
So see, this is a significanthardship, and one that is being
played out in hundreds, if notthousands, of times.
So this inability to meet basicneeds, remember, takes the part
(06:32):
of our brain, the prefrontalcortex, offline.
That's the part where we makesense, we make logic, we make
good decisions, and so a lot ofpeople might be walking around
on high alert, being ruled bytheir fear center, simply
because this storm took awaytheir ability to meet their
basic needs.
Another predictor of traumaticstress, as it pertains to these
things, is if the event happenedat night.
(06:54):
Now, both of these storms hitFlorida at night, and I imagine
parts of Georgia, south Carolina, north Carolina and Tennessee
also got either nighttimelandfall or got early morning,
and so if the event happened atnight, we can predict traumatic
stress.
If there was any familialseparation for any reason,
planned or not, so if you stayedhome and you sent your family
(07:18):
to evacuate, that is anotherpredictor of traumatic stress.
Another predictor of traumaticstress is the intensity of the
media coverage, both before andafter.
I don't know what was beingplayed out nationally, but I
will tell you that I experiencedsignificant stress.
Merely fielding text messagesfrom family members who didn't
(07:39):
live here.
Their opinions, whileappreciated and made me feel
extremely loved, stressed me outas I was making the best
decision for me.
But what they were seeing onthe news I still don't know made
them scared enough to prettymuch harass me to evacuate.
The media coverage for both ofthese storms was vast, as it
continues to be.
(07:59):
If you watch the intense newscoverage some of us here in the
Tampa Bay area did because itwasn't until two or three hours
before the storm made landfallthat we found out that it wasn't
coming directly into Tampa Bay,so we had to watch the news,
the tornado warnings and thatkind of thing.
But if you did that because youhad to, then there is a good
(08:20):
reason to believe that you havesome traumatic stress.
Here in the Tampa Bay area weactually have a weatherman who
is not keen on scaring people.
He operates in fax and that washelpful.
But even he, as the storm camecloser and closer to the west
coast of Florida and I'm talkingabout Milton here was pretty
grim and it was scary, and sothe intensity of media coverage
(08:42):
is a predictor of traumaticstress.
Here's another one that I foundvery interesting in my research
If the storm affected youunexpectedly and so this would
be like what happened in NorthCarolina, georgia and Tennessee
Like that was completelyunexpected, with the rivers
cresting and roads, interstatesbreaking down and collapsing and
(09:04):
those folks definitely willhave reason to have traumatic
stress, because they wereexpecting a tropical storm and
they got a hurricane and a wholelot more than what they
bargained for.
And so if the storm affectsunexpectedly, then we can
predict traumatic stress.
If you already have a historyof traumatic stress, you're
likely to have traumatic stress.
If you already have a historyof traumatic stress, you're
(09:25):
likely to have traumatic stress.
After events like this, yourtolerance for these kinds of
things are lower, and so youdefinitely need to pay attention
to how you're feeling and whatyour body is trying to tell you.
And then, obviously, if youlost your home or if you're
displaced, you're going to be aprime candidate for traumatic
stress.
This is also true if you knowsomebody who died in the storm.
(09:45):
Those are super extraordinarycircumstances and are going to
require a lot of attention sothat you don't suffer long term.
The truth is, most people willrecover and not have to worry
about post-traumatic stressdisorder, and some of you
probably don't even have theacute stress reaction, but for
those who won't fare so wellwith that, it's important to
(10:08):
address this now.
So, as I talk today and thesethings sound familiar to you,
it's important to address it nowin a way that works for you,
your preferences and yourresources.
I know that not everyone willbe able to afford to see a
counselor or visit a site likeBetterHelp or something like
that, but I encourage you tolook for community resources.
(10:31):
I'm going to do the same and ifI can find any, I'm going to
put them in the show notes.
But there probably are somecommunity resources out there
for storm victims, and so I'lltry to put those in the show
notes.
But it is important importantif what you hear today sounds
like you that you address it byway of getting professional help
.
(10:51):
The truth is that these eventsexceeded the capacity of almost
everyone, and so all of you needto pay attention, whether it's
compassion, fatigue or anotherfacet of these events that are
causing issues for you.
You need to know that there ishope and there is help, but time
is of the essence, as I'vementioned a couple times,
typically, if traumatic stressis not addressed in a meaningful
(11:13):
way, it will give way to PTSD,which this podcast covers
extensively.
It is not a diagnosis that'seasy to live with and is very
difficult sometimes to walkthrough.
My desire for this episode isfor you to stop, think and take
care of you.
So how do you know?
If you're like me, you mightjust keep going and living off
(11:37):
of the fumes of adrenaline, hopeand optimism, but know this
lurking in the background willbe traumatic stress.
If you were affected in that wayby either hurricane we never
(11:57):
even lost power and the mostinconvenient thing that happened
to me is that I had to find gas.
I couldn't find gas for like aweek.
Yet I'm experiencing symptomsof traumatic stress.
Without question, my history oftraumatic stress is in play
here is I don't have thecapacity that I used to have, or
maybe never, never did have andchose not to address it.
The bottom line is, even thoughI was not directly affected, I
(12:18):
am suffering a little bit fromsome of these symptoms.
I've had to take extra care ofmyself, sleep more, had to stop
watching the news.
I've had to remember the wordsof John Eldredge in his book
Getting your Life Back in aWorld that's Gone Mad when he
talked about the term benevolentdetachment.
As Eldridge and many of myfriends reminded me, I am on
(12:38):
this planet to minister to myvillage, not the world, and
certainly that is such goodadvice for such a time as this.
For those of you, like me, whohave compassion fatigue, it is
very difficult to do this, butyou're going to have to stop
putting it in front of you.
Stop watching the news.
Help where you can.
No doubt your church orsomewhere local is raising some
(12:59):
money to help hurricane victims.
Help where you can, but stopwatching what you can't fix.
So how do you know, as Imentioned, if you're
experiencing traumatic stressand what do you do about it?
How do you know if a loved oneis experiencing traumatic stress
?
Well, here are a few thingsthat you can know.
One the first is physicalsymptoms.
(13:19):
This is probably the firstthing to come.
This one might be the obvious,the most obvious of all of them,
but it is also possible that ifyou're unable to feel bodily
sensations and this is probablydue to an adrenaline dump, and
so you could be one of twodirections on this you could be
still running in what's calledthe heroic phase, where you're
(13:41):
just running off of pureadrenaline and you're not
feeling the emotional effects ofany of it.
You will, though.
After events like this, we aremade to survive.
Many of you, if you've beenaround for a while, will
remember that.
I give an example of a cheetah.
A cheetah is the fastest animalon the planet.
It can, and often does, outrunanything trying to kill it, but
(14:01):
the problem is, at some pointthe cheetah runs out of energy
and then is in grave danger ofdeath.
Think of your body running onadrenaline just like that
cheetah.
You will crash, and when thatcrash comes, it will not be
pretty.
So pay attention to your body.
Schedule some downtime.
(14:22):
Try to stay away fromstimulating activity.
Stay away from the tragedy ifyou can, so that your body can
rest and digest instead of fightand run, because, you see,
traumatic stress is played outin the body by way of engaging
your nervous system and all ofits survival mechanisms.
You may find that you'reconstantly on edge, and that's
not who you normally are.
You might be yelling at peoplein traffic.
You might find that things arestartling you that didn't
(14:44):
startle you before.
You might feel your heartracing, because it probably
actually is, especially ifyou're running off of adrenaline
, you may be experiencing GIissues that you didn't
experience before.
You may not have an appetite atall, or you might not be able
to stop eating.
You may be struggling to sleep.
This, too, is connected tomassive adrenaline and cortisol
(15:06):
dumps after such events.
Sadly, though, if yourtraumatic stress is not
addressed, you could experiencelong-term effects to your immune
system and even the onset ofautoimmune disorders, and lately
, research is coming out thateven cancer is connected with
traumatic stress because of thatsuppressed immune system when
we stay in fight or flight.
(15:27):
It is important to understandthat if this tragedy did not
take your life and clearly, ifyou're under the sound of my
voice, it didn't, if you'reunder the sound of my voice, it
didn't If it didn't take yourlife when it happened, don't let
it take your life now.
If you are experiencingphysical symptoms that aren't
subsiding, you need to reach outfor help.
If you do not have a doctor,services like BetterHelp or
(15:48):
other services that are easierto get into will be good for you
.
Like I mentioned, I willcontinue to give practical
advice, especially at the end ofthis podcast, but do not ignore
physical symptoms that were notthere before.
If they're not subsiding, theclinical definition is it
becomes post-traumatic stressdisorder if these symptoms last
longer than four to six weeks.
(16:10):
Traumatic stress is also playedout in behavioral changes, and
so not just being on edge, butmany of you want to know if some
of the changes that you'reseeing in other people might be
related to this.
And while this isn't bad, youneed to watch out for yourself
and examine yourself too, to seeif the same thing is true.
But if you're experiencingtraumatic stress and are headed
(16:32):
towards PTSD, we can help youmitigate those risks when you
pay attention.
So now we're going to payattention to how it's played out
in your behavior, because youare so worth it.
You didn't come this far tocome this far.
So if you see a significantchange in the way you're acting
or behaving, anything a lacharacter for you as you
(16:52):
interact with other people,consider traumatic stress for
you as you interact with otherpeople.
Consider traumatic stress Ifthere is an increase in
substance use since the stormsanother big red flag, because
that desire to numb or dumb downyour nervous system with
substances needs to be addressedimmediately.
With behavior changes andsubstance use only comes the
increase of family difficulties.
(17:12):
So remember, everyoneexperienced this in one way or
the other.
So none of you are the bestversions.
Family difficulties so remember, everyone experienced this in
one way or the other.
So none of you are the bestversions of yourselves.
But if difficulties inside thefamily or behaviorally are not
getting better as time goes by,you need to consider traumatic
stress and you need to considertalking to someone about it.
As I'm going to say, over andover, untreated traumatic stress
(17:34):
in the context of familialsituations can turn into abuse,
and this may be the saddest partof it all.
We saw this after COVID abusein the home skyrocketed, and so
that is something that isimportant is that with these
behavioral changes can comeshort fuses and abuse, in
(17:54):
addition to the hurricanes.
For some people, it's hard tomake ends meet in a time that we
find ourselves, and that toocan cause problems inside the
home.
Everyone's balloon is gettingfull and it won't take much for
it to pop, and that usually isat the expense of relationships,
and those behaviors, especiallyin the context of abuse, leaves
marks, sometimes forgenerations to come.
(18:16):
This is especially true if youalready had trauma.
You need to evaluate how yourbehavior has been affected.
Provide for yourself plenty ofgrace for not being quite
yourself, but also don't ignoreit if it's not getting better.
Traumatic stress may also affectyou cognitively.
It might be affected after atrauma like this also affect you
cognitively.
It might be affected after atrauma like this and the time
(18:38):
when you need to be on your bestgame and making decisions for
recovery.
You may find yourself havingdifficulties processing basic
information.
You may not be able to thinkclearly.
Your short-term memory may beshot.
You may have unwanted memoriesfrom the storm intruding into
your consciousness without yourpermission.
You may have nightmares aboutthe devastation.
Some of you may question yourfaith.
(18:58):
All of these are normalreactions to these extraordinary
events and not to be leftuntreated.
There are other things toevaluate when you consider
getting help.
If you are having difficultiesat work or school, this is your
body and mind trying to get yourattention and obviously, if you
have any suicidal thoughts inany way, please reach out and
(19:19):
get help.
That in particular, please dialor text 988.
You are so worth it and thisplanet needs you.
Your story matters and it's notover yet.
So if you're having suicidalthoughts in any way, you must
immediately get help because youmatter.
It is also possible that someof you will have an extreme,
(19:41):
delayed reaction.
In other words, you're sayingto me none of this is happening
to me right now.
I must be good, watch out forthe delay.
Sometimes these kinds oftragedies require us to stay in
cheetah mode.
So watch out.
When things begin to feel normalor safe again, some people will
begin to display traumaticstress then, and these are the
(20:02):
cases where professional help isalso warranted.
So, besides reaching out andgetting help, besides the things
that we talk about on thispodcast between church,
community and counseling, whatare some practical things you
can do as you begin to recoverfrom these traumatic events that
happened within 10 days of eachother?
(20:25):
There's several things you cando, and this certainly isn't an
exhaustive list, but the firstone does speak to the community
aspect of this podcast.
Connect with others early,often and frequent.
Sharing the experience istherapeutic on its own and it
helps you feel less alone toknow that others have shared the
(20:46):
experience and, even better,there are people who want to
talk about your experiences, whowant to listen to you.
It's also important right now toestablish routines, especially
if your normal routine has beeninterrupted because you're
living in an Airbnb or anynumber of things.
Often, these events producetraumatic stress because of the
(21:06):
routine is interrupted, and soquickly, as quickly as you can,
establish some sort of routine.
Wake up at the same time, go tobed at the same time, try to
create things that are familiarto you, since the landscape
changed for much of us, and so,in any way you can to make your
environment as as close as itwas before.
It is important to do that.
(21:27):
So follow routine and followsome routines and set a routine,
and your brain will thank you,you know.
The other thing is, self-careis a buzz word right now and
maybe overused, but you need toself-care, we all need to
self-care.
We've all been through a lot,and I'm just talking about the
(21:47):
storms, not even the upcomingelection or anything else going
on in the world right now.
It is dark out there, and soit's important for us to take
care of ourselves.
Prioritize downtime.
Find something that you like todo that takes you out of the
situation, even if it's for 30minutes.
I love the adult coloring books, anything like that, where
you're using your hands andnothing that plugs into a wall.
(22:10):
Get away for 30 minutes to anhour so that you can just calm
down your nervous system andyour brain.
Get plenty of rest.
Drink more water than usual,eat more healthy than you
normally do, take a long bath,go for a walk, watch a funny
movie the other day notnecessarily a funny movie, but I
(22:31):
downloaded and watched InsideOut 2.
Things like that, things thatyou know are going to make you
feel good or make you laugh,even when you don't feel like it
.
You will feel very guilty aboutthis, because life has become
so unraveled, but it is one ofthe ways you will survive this
with the least amount ofpsychological damage.
Right along with self-care andcertainly as a Christian, this
(22:55):
is more important to us, and weknow how to do it.
But it's mindfulness or prayertime that will allow us to focus
on the truth of what is, andnot what our traumatic stress
wants us to believe.
Mindfulness is simply takingtime to stop and pay attention
to what is, and not whatimaginings we have or what
things that need to be checkedoff of a list or the flashbacks
(23:17):
or the film strip that is in ourbrain.
Mindfulness keeps us in thepresent moment, knowing that we
are safe right now and that wehave a God who is on the throne
and has not abated his powerbecause two hurricanes hit For
the Christian, this intentionalprayer time will help your body
and mind as we are promisedpeace that transcends all
understanding when we stop andtrust in the Lord with all of
(23:40):
our hearts and we stop and welean not into our own
understanding, and we stop andin all of our ways we
acknowledge him and he willdirect our path.
The Bible tells us be anxiousfor nothing, but in everything.
My prayer and supplication letsyour request be made known unto
God so that you may have thepeace that transcends all
(24:01):
understandings will guard ourhearts and mind in Christ Jesus.
And so mindfulness of prayertime is an excellent way to
treat and mitigate the damagesof traumatic stress.
The fact of the matter is, ifyou don't take time to shift out
of the go mode that you're infor whatever reason you're in
either hurricane recovery orjust go mode period you will not
(24:21):
be able to recover fromtraumatic stress if you don't
take some time off.
If you're like me and your homewas not affected, one way to
relieve traumatic stress is todo something for other people
volunteer.
One day after the hurricane, Iwas filled with anxiety and
compassion, fatigue, and I havea friend actually several
friends whose houses did flood,but this particular friend had
(24:44):
brought everything that theycould salvage, and by way of
clothes and things like that, tomy house, and so we did their
laundry and help them with FEMAand all the other things,
because they were definitelyhaving those cognitive effects
that I told you about, abouttraumatic stress.
They just kind of deer inheadlights as it pertains to
everything that needed to bedone.
So, anyway, we had their stuffat our house, and that day I was
(25:06):
just riddled with anxiety, andI was riddled with stress and
all the things.
Found myself, though, hoveringover my bathtub with my favorite
Taylor candle, laundrydetergent not sponsored, but
should be in the bathtub withall of their stuffed animals.
And some of these stuffedanimals were their grandkids
stuffed animals, some were myfriends when she was little, and
(25:27):
so I just wanted to try to getthe smell of the Gulf of Mexico
out of these prized possessions,and as I was doing that,
suddenly I didn't feel anxiousanymore.
Suddenly, it was not about me.
Suddenly my brain was happybecause it was doing something
instead of just ruminating overwhat was going on.
(25:48):
So volunteering in any capacityhelps your brain because you are
doing something for somebody.
If, even for a second, you feelanxious, a little bit of that
loss of control, go away becauseyou're doing something.
There certainly continue to beplenty of places to volunteer,
not just in Florida, but in allof the areas that are affected.
Another way to help with yourtraumatic stress is journaling,
(26:12):
because you will likely lookback at this event and not
remember a good portion of it,and so processing your emotions
on paper that you cannotarticulate or maybe you don't
even know that you have, is areally good way to journal, and
if you can, one of the ways abrain hack on this is if you can
write at all with yournon-dominant hand.
(26:33):
Journal with that non-dominanthand, because it clicks the
brain out of fight or flightmode when you are using the
other part of your brain thanyou normally use.
You also need to focus on basicneeds for yourself.
Keep it simple Three hots and acot for a while.
What does that mean?
Three solid meals and a goodnight's sleep for a good amount
(26:57):
of time.
Eat your vegetables and sleepmore than you think you should.
Another thing is to participatein community events.
This gives us a sense ofcommunity that is so important
to traumatic healing.
This Saturday our church ishaving its annual trunk or treat
at our main campus, and therewas some question as to whether
we should have it or not,because fewer than two miles
(27:20):
from our main campus is anapartment complex where I
believe is lower income housing,and these kids that live in
this apartment complex go to aschool that our church also
supports, a public school, andthat apartment complex was so
flooded that it was the largestwater rescue in the history of
our county, and so we wonderedwhen it was time for Trunk or
(27:41):
Treat to come this year, shouldwe still do it?
Because these families don'teven have a place to live, many
of them in shelters anddisplaced, and so our community
so heavily affected, we wonderedwhether it would be appropriate
to still have this communityevent, but we're going to have
it because our church leadershipsees the wisdom in getting back
to normal as quickly aspossible.
(28:04):
Find events like this in yourcommunity, where you can be
around other people and feelthat sense of community and
finally I've said it many, manytimes get professional help.
I will link some resources inthe show notes for that, but it
is important that you talk tosomebody and that you process
this so that you don't sufferlong term, because if you are
(28:25):
struggling, remember thatrecovery is a process.
You need to give yourself a lotof grace and take as much time
as you need.
Your body and your mind aremerely yielding a normal
response to an extraordinaryevent.
You were made to respondexactly how you are.
If you were affected by thesestorms, please know that my
(28:46):
prayers are with you, but mostlyit is my prayer that you will
not have to add insult to injuryby becoming psychologically
damaged by this long term.
It's simply not the way thestory has to go.
Your community of people arehere for you.
We are here for you.
Some of you will need extensivecounseling after this and
(29:08):
others will move on like itnever happened.
Remember this isn't ameasurement of how
psychologically strong you are.
It's a reflection of how Godmade you Speaking of God, as
Mama Bootsy always said.
You Speaking of God.
As Mama Bootsy always said, godis not wringing his hands in
heaven over this.
The truth is and this mightserve to cause some issues for
(29:31):
some of you, but work your waythrough it, because the truth is
is that God could have calmedthese storms with his voice
because we know that even thewinds and the seas obey him.
He chose not to do that andit's incumbent on us not to
waste a tragedy.
Nothing could be worse than italready is if we didn't grow as
a people, as a community and inour faith after something like
(29:54):
this, as I mentioned, not eventalking about these hurricanes.
This world is dark, there is noquestion.
A couple hurricanes are just adrop in the bucket, but we we
have a God who sees, a God whoheals, a God who redeems.
Recently, I heard the story ofsomeone who did lose their house
in the first hurricane and then, just about a week later, lost
(30:17):
her father to a long illness.
She was quoted as to say a weeklater lost her father to a long
illness.
She was quoted as to say Romans8.28 is still true.
When I first heard that, Ialmost rolled my eyes because
this verse is so overused andsometimes weaponized for those
in pain.
But she used the verse likeit's supposed to be used and it
sends chills down my spine afterI speak this.
(30:38):
After a hurricane took herhouse and a long-term illness
took her father, she said God isstill working.
All these things were my good.
Can you absorb this with me?
Trust me, this is hard to say,but I believe it.
My friend whose house had fourfeet of water in it, the one who
(30:59):
is displaced.
God is still working it out forher good because he is for her,
not against her.
My childhood stomping grounds inwestern North Carolina is
unrecognizable.
People lost their lives andtheir livelihoods.
Some of them still don't havewater and electricity, but my
(31:19):
God will still work it for theirgood.
We may never see it, but Goddoesn't waste a tragedy.
The biggest tragedy would be ifwe wasted these tragedies.
This has been a difficultepisode to write and record
(31:39):
because I have a 360 degree viewof the devastation in my
beloved home state of Florida.
I know people that have losteverything.
Many of us were traumatizedbecause of these storms were
scary for us.
I was one of them.
I was shocked at how much thesestorms brought up unresolved
trauma and fear, so I do notpublish this episode lightly.
I do hope that it serves tohelp someone navigate these
(32:03):
disasters.
I am grateful to call themaster of the wind and the seas
my Jesus, my Lord, my Savior.
I may not understand his ways,but we know his ways are higher,
and so I will go higher too andseek him in this tragedy.
I will find him there, so willyou, and when we find him there,
(32:26):
we know it's going to be okay,because in this already but not
yet world that we live in, oneday all things will become new,
all the sad things will becomeuntrue.
But until then, we will live onthis planet with our Jesus, and
we're going to be okay.
Speaker 1 (32:58):
You're going to be okay.
Just remember that you are afighter.
A fighter.
You never know just whattomorrow holds.
And you're stronger than youknow.
(33:23):
Oh, you're stronger than youknow.
Oh, you're stronger than youknow.
Hold on, don't let go.
Yeah, hold on and don't let go.
Just take one step closer, putone foot in front of the other.
(33:55):
You'll get through this.
Just follow the light One stepcloser, one foot in front of the
other.
You'll get through this.
(34:15):
Just follow the light in thedarkness.
You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna be okay.
When the night is closing in,don't give up and don't give in.
(34:46):
This won't last.
It's not the end.
It's not the end.
You're gonna be okay.
When the night is closing in,don't give up and don't give in.
This won't last.
It's not the end.
(35:07):
It's not the end.
You're gonna be okay.
You're gonna be okay.
You're not alone, never alone.
You're gonna be okay.
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