Disaster and post-traumatic stress: A psychological study

Pages: 1064-1067
Md Intekhab Ur Rahman (Department of Psychology, B. N. Mandal University, Madhepura, Bihar)

A disaster is generally referred to as a collective experience through which its survivors share an unpredictable occurrence resulting in a change of their overall perception. Disasters are overwhelming events as they test the capability of the community and individuals to respond and can temporarily lead to massive disruption. The extensive and enduring effects of disasters are apparent on the psychological and physical health of survivors. Personality characteristics like gender, ethnicity and coping, variables connected to disaster like injury and situation factors all are considered as threats for psychological problems after disasters. A “disaster” can be a frustrating and multifaceted task that proves difficult even for scholars. Natural disasters are often described as “acts of God” a term that automatically eliminates human responsibility. The aftermath of natural disaster includes an unambiguous physical impact, resulting in property damage, injury, and death of victims. These are catastrophic occurrences with the capacity to impose various kinds of hardship, e.g. loss of property and personal possessions, enduring hunger and physical discomfort, or injury to separation from family and close friends. Devastation of social support networks as well as loss of financial income is just a few examples of the long-term hardships many survivors have to experience. The present paper emphasized that individuals as well as societies can play a major role in the rehabilitation process and should be taken into account rather than just focusing on the impact of environmental factors on individual vulnerabilities.

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Pages: 1064-1067
Md Intekhab Ur Rahman (Department of Psychology, B. N. Mandal University, Madhepura, Bihar)