Sunday, May 15th, 2011
Christchurch Quake Healing
The September 4, 2010 Canterbury Earthquake broke more than the contents in my house. My confidence, emotional and mental strength took a huge hit. I had only just managed to feel that I was returning to pre-September levels when the February 22, 2011 Christchurch Earthquake hit.
High Street Mall April 2011
The damage caused by the February Quake is hard to comprehend if you are not living in the worst hit areas. Besides the physical damage of broken homes, buildings, workplaces and contents, there is the mental and emotional damage caused by lives being put into limbo and facing a very uncertain future. For those of us who are, we are now supposedly having normal psychological reactions to our very abnormal situation. Not that there really is a clear definition (ref American Psychological Assication – Recovering From Disasters).
The Psychology of Change
In The Press Your Weekend edition, Saturday, 14 May 2011, there is an article about The Psychology of Change. For many of us in Christchurch, there is nothing that resembles our pre-Christchurch Quake life. As a result of our natural disaster, almost everyone in my city is faced with constant change. There is very little that has remained as normal – families are hosting other families in their homes, schools are sharing sites (two schools at one site), workers are in cramped working conditions or suddenly forced into working from home. And as for toileting… there’s a portable toilet on every block which we are encouraged to use. Great if you’re caught short when out and about.
The change we are facing is constant, unpredictable and extremely discomforting. As humans, we are not built to deal with this on an ongoing basis. We are always on edge, not knowing when the next aftershock is coming through, or if or when our houses will be assessed and repaired. All of my favourite places of retreat in the city are either destroyed, behind the perimeter fence of the CBD, or covered in raw sewerage!
There are few public places left that I feel safe in. I’ve become paranoid and it takes a lot of courage to even go to a Mall. When I do get there, I join the queues of cars circling the outside car parks. Like me, everyone is just too nervous still to leave their car in an underground or multi-storey car parking building.
Last weekend it all got too much. The emotion that erupted from me released enough pressure, I’m sure, to compete with the Christchurch Quake. It could only be described as a dangerous mix of “depression, pre-menstrual tension and menopause at its worst”. Look out anyone who got in my path!
Fortunately the damage was minimal (I hope), as I shut myself away into isolation for the weekend. But it still has had a flow on effect.
Whilst these can be positive feelings, as I move through the act of grieving for the life that was stolen from me, if I linger too long in this phase, these feelings could become all consuming and paralyse me to the point where I give up everything I’ve worked hard to create over the years. Being depressed, angry, exhausted and paranoid is not fun, and it is becoming very disempowering.
Becoming Empowered From The Christchurch Quake
As the week drew to a close, having thought hard about my mental and emotional state, I decided that I was not going to let the Christchurch Quakes get the better of me. It’s time to fight back and use the knowledge and experiences of my past to strengthen my resilience and become empowered.
Over the next few weeks I will share with you my Ten Steps to Becoming Empowered. These are:
- Be A Class Act
- Dream. Visualize. Create A Goal.
- Research
- Know Yourself
- Plan
- Take Action
- Be Committed & Focused
- Avoid Distractions
- Build A Positive & Like Minded Team
- Celebrate Each Attempt Forward
I invite you to follow along and apply them to your own Christchurch Quake Healing Program. I would suggest that you use the 80/20 principle to achieve your recovery – that is, to put 80% of your focus on your own recovery, and 20% of your focus on supporting others to achieve their recovery. After all, if you’ve ever flown, you will know that in an emergency, you apply your own oxygen mask first.
The Christchurch Quake Healing Program is also for people around the world who are also trying to recover from equally devastating natural disasters or stressful situations. In the past few months the media has been full of images of earthquakes, tornados, floods, cyclones, hurricanes, fires, tsunamis, man created disasters, etc. As a Natural Disaster Survivor, I find these images distressing as they trigger my memories of the series of earthquakes we are living through in Canterbury.
My hope is that anyone who has experienced any trauma relating to any of the above may find these ten steps helpful. The key thing to remember is that you are a survivor; you have your life and all that makes you the person you are. If you can find meaning by creating goals, and have the determination and attitude to rebuild your life, you can and will recover in time. No matter what you resources you have lost from the devastating experience you had.
Experiences Shared Help Empowerment
I’m not a psychologist (unless Psych 101 and a lot of self-study and life experience qualifies me as one). I have, however, survived the fatal Christchurch Earthquake. I was in the worst hit area, the Central Business District, when the earthquake struck. The building that I was in is most likely among the 1,000 plus buildings to be demolished. When we went in to retrieve essential items, it was not only heartbreaking to see what happened to my beloved central city, but it was also very frightening to be inside areas where I used to feel safe. The damage is almost too much to comprehend. Everything in my life changed forever in those few seconds. I believe this puts me in a position where I do know first hand what other disaster survivors are experiencing, and wish to offer my empathy and support to you if you are one of them.
There are several ways to access my support: either online through this blog, through my Facebook page, or if you live locally to me, send me a message through the contact me form on my website. I will then send you information about the Support Team I am setting up to meet regularly at a local cafe.
You deserve to live a Substantial, Happy and Empowered Life – Make This Your Goal and please keep me posted with your Christchurch Quake Healing Program progress.
Deb Donnell
