Hurricane Sandy’s reach is beyond the northeast. Locally, it has many worried about their loved ones in the violent storm’s path. Between phone calls to family or friends bracing themselves for Sandy and 24-hour news updates on its potential severity, stress builds.
Here are tips on managing hurricane distress from the American Psychological Association:
- Take a news break. Watching endless replays of footage from the disasters can make your stress even greater.
- Acknowledge your feelings. Some feelings when witnessing a disaster may be difficult for you to accept. You may feel relief that the disaster did not touch you, or you may feel guilt that you were left untouched when so many were affected. Both feelings are common.
- Keep things in perspective. While a disaster can feel overwhelming, it is important to appreciate those things that continue to be positive.
- Find a productive way to help if you can. Many organizations are set up to provide financial or other aid to victims of natural disasters. Contributing enables you to participate in the recovery and engage proactively.
- Control what you can. There are routines in your life that you can continue and sometimes you need to do those and take a break from even thinking about the disasters.
If you have loved ones in the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast, odds are, there's a Patch site in their town that can give you local upates on the conditions there. Go to the Patch homepage and click on a state to find a list of our local websites.