Dealing with hurricane anxiety

Hurricane season is here and you might have some anxiety going into it. News 25’s Payton Malone met up with a health care professional and has some tips on how to ease your stress this storm season.

Some noises can be responsible for causing extreme anxiety with veterans, but those who have served our country aren’t the only one’s suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Joannie Evans said, “They’ll portray it has to be physical. It has to be death, it has to be war. It has to be something so violent that it has to be that to be PTSD and that’s not the truth. It doesn’t have to be that.”

With hurricane season here, anxiety is running high after a number of record-breaking storms in 2017 and you might find yourself suffering from extreme anxiety and stress or even PTSD, especially those of us here in South Mississippi who lived through Katrina. “It causes significant symptoms, symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of vivid dream, nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance of that kind of topic, avoidance of that situation,” said Evans.

If you do have anxiety going into this hurricane season, the best thing you can do is be prepared and that does include having your hurricane kit put together and know the evacuation zone you live in and where to evacuate if you have to. “Have a support system in place. It’s very important to have people that care about you, that know your condition, what’s going on, to support you. It’s very important to have someone on your side.”

While staying weather-aware is important, if you have storm anxiety or stress, it’s important to know when to rely on others. “That’s where it comes in to you watching out for yourself to be prepared, but not to trigger your anxiety, but you rely on your support system to give you that information, to allow you to know that information.”