Newsweek: Psychology of coping. The psychology of resilience: watching the flames

(Don't know if this will be helpful by those affected by the fires or not, but wanted to post it just in case it might be)

Life on the Edge
Each catastrophe teaches psychologists more about how the mind copes.

Three nights after his side of San Diego's Wildcat Canyon had been evacuated, Bob Younger talked his way through the police barricade and returned home. While half a million acres of the surrounding region burned and thousands of people sought shelter in Qualcomm Stadium, Younger, 54, and several of his neighbors decided to stay in their houses and fight off the giant embers and spot fires that threatened to burn them down. "We were prepared," he says. "We have water and generators and all the clothing and equipment that firefighters have."

Younger might seem irrational. But to psychologists who specialize in the mental trauma associated with natural disasters, his response is normal--perhaps even healthy. "After a disaster, there are people who flee and people who stay and become more proactive," says Gilbert Reyes, author of the 2005 "Handbook of International Disaster Psychology." "Both are ways of coping and both are normal." The key: people who see their responses to disaster as a sign of personal weakness are more likely to suffer long-term trauma, psychologists say. "That's the single best predictor of how long it will take people to recover," says Gerard Jacobs, director of the University of South Dakota's new Disaster Mental Health Institute.

More.... http://www.newsweek.com/id/62099

Them winds can peak at 100 mph. At this velocity, its essentially a blowtorch. Far too risky for life and limb.....

the question comes up...is it worth it? Not only for the homeowner, but them FFrs who will have to come save their asses should the situation arise....this is nuts....if so, now 2 parties in harms way....

where you believe if you control everything just right, you can avoid the pain of grief and move right to acceptance. Not everything is as it seems with grief. It can take years to accept that nothing more than chaotic chance has turned your life upside down.

as a person who experienced PTSD as a result of a natural disaster, I can tell you that you do not know how it will affect you until it happens. We are not ever "in control" of our destinies. But coming to terms with that is a hard way to live. Most humans need a sense of being in control. However it's not to be confused with true inner strength.

I'm glad that people are wired differently and think it's OK that some people can convince themselves that they can overcome just about anything. We all have our delusions. Some delusions can come in handy. These are often the people who rescue and help others.

Humans can go far on hubris.

... are more likely to suffer long-term trauma, psychologists say. "That's the single best predictor of how long it will take people to recover," says Gerard Jacobs, director of the University of South Dakota's new Disaster Mental Health Institute.

Well, that does help to explain the torrential downpour of hostility and criticism that the Katrina survivors faced. There were a lot of people, especially affluent white conservatives, whose reflexive response to the suffering was to insist that it was the victims' own fault that they'd gotten stranded in the path of the hurricane in the first place.

I don't know whether the people who spewed that kind of hate are ever likely to be completely honest with themselves about why they reacted that way. But I think it may have been something in the nature of seizing an opportunity to demoralize a "threatening" perceived rival social group, thus using the situation to secure a competitive advantage for their own group.


At some level, they know that their words are demoralizing. That's why they say them. They want the people they fear and resent to be as traumatized as possible.