Natural disasters and calamities are almost always unavoidable tragedies, and they leave behind death, destruction and overwhelming grief. The recent, devastating earthquake in Haiti is an example, as were the floods in Jeddah at the end of November last year. Those who survived the floods are thankfully physically healthy but the mental trauma shows signs of remaining. Psychiatrists and sociologists have been analyzing survivors since the calamity, but have not yet seen any outward signs of mental distress. Amongst them, Dr. Mohammed El-Barbary, a senior psychiatrist at the military hospital in Taif visited Jeddah recently to evaluate the situation himself. He spoke to Saudi Gazette about his views. “There are two kinds of disasters: natural and man-made, and the consequences of both are terrible and we calculate the consequences in terms of the severity of loss. Sometimes people are affected in terms of material wealth and sometimes from loss of life. However, we always forget about the psychological impact on victims, which is often very severe,” he explained. He added that the victims of this trauma can be divided into three groups: Those involved in the floods, those who were mere spectators and those who weren't even Jeddah residents but have family and friends there. “Some people living outside of Jeddah have a kind of social phobia of visiting Jeddah as they expect these kind of problems and check weather forecasts before planning a visit,” he stated. For those involved in the disaster - directly or indirectly - in the immediate aftermath of the event, Dr. El-Barbary remarked that severe panic attacks have become manifested in their consciousness in the form of sleeplessness, loss of appetite, disrupted mental functions like attention spans and memory and widespread confusion. He recalled the example of a young girl who saw one of her relatives die in the floods and for two weeks she didn't participate in school activities and remained in a confused state. He added that this was because of poor social and academic adaption brought about from psychological trauma; she was isolating herself from society because of shock. Acute distress and panic can last for up to a year or more and it can be chronic so this girl and many others like her need multi-disciplinary treatment, the help of a psychiatrist (to diagnose and treat) and psychologist (for therapy and evaluation) as well as social workers and the administration. He also advocated spiritual counseling. “The ‘gradual desensitization' technique (an act of eliminating or reducing an emotional complex) should be used as well as drug interventions such as tranquilizers that will target panic attacks and sleeplessness,” he explained. In fact, loss of sleep is one of the main repercussions since patients may not be able to forget incidents completely and their subconsciousness awakes fear and panic within them during sleep. This is how nightmares and insomnia manifest themselves within a patient's lifestyle. This multi-disiplinary approach has become popular in recent times because of how it has benefited victims of other natural disasters such as the 2004 Tsunami in the Indian Ocean where teams were organized to collectively help people by providing psychological and social counseling as well as more material help by re-building homes and providing monetary compensation. “This ‘gradual desensitization' we need to eliminate patient's feelings of stress and insecurity brought about by an expectation of the disaster re
