- Croatian - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 109kB)
- English - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 87kB)
- Greek - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 227kB)
- Hmong - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 87kB)
- Italian - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 97kB)
- Maltese - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 113kB)
- Punjabi - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 222kB)
- Tagalog - Coping personally after major disasters and cycles (PDF, 87kB)
Disaster recovery
Distress is a normal response to major disasters and emergencies. There are 3 things you need to know:
- normal reactions to emergencies
- positive ways of coping
- when to get extra help.
Normal reactions
You may feel:
- fear, shock and numbness
- horror, sadness and grief when you realise how much you have lost
- frustration, anger, helplessness and despair when it all seems too much
- sometimes fears or old worries may resurface.
These feelings can be because you:
- were directly at risk or in danger
- were worried about family and friends who may be
- saw injuries and pain
- being caught up in panic and confusion after the emergency
- had feelings and memories about grief and loss that happened before.
You can have acute stress (stress that happens during the emergency) or you can have stress later when upsetting images come back to you.
Positive ways of coping
Positive ways of coping vary depending on the disaster but some things you can do include:
- supporting one another, especially in your family and community
- comforting each other
- carrying out practical tasks that need to be done
- sharing your experiences and feelings with others
- looking after your own and your family's general health (rest, food, exercises, company).
Sometimes the support of family and friends is enough to cope, sometimes extra help and support is needed.
When to ask for help
Ask for help when you:
- can’t sleep properly
- feel distressed, irritable and on edge
- feel hopeless, miserable or that you can't go on
- have trouble concentrating and cannot do your daily tasks
- feel your health is not good
- have nightmares or intrusive thoughts about the disaster
- have new symptoms or old problems returning (e.g. breathing, heart and stomach problems).
How to ask for help
Your GP can assist with ongoing concerns and is the best place to start.
Queensland Transcultural Mental Health Centre (QTMHC) can give advice and help refer you to a mental health professional or support group.
Disaster recovery brochures
Disaster recovery brochures are available in many languages. Contact us to get a translated version of any of these brochures.
Telephone: (07) 3317 1234
Email: QTMHC@health.qld.gov.au
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- English - Psychological responses to traumatic stress: what to expect (PDF, 106kB)
- Greek - Psychological responses to traumatic stress: what to expect (PDF, 1MB)
- Hmong - Psychological responses to traumatic stress: what to expect (PDF, 104kB)
- Italian - Psychological responses to traumatic stress: what to expect (PDF, 107kB)
- Maltese - Psychological responses to traumatic stress: what to expect (PDF, 162kB)
- Punjabi - Psychological responses to traumatic stress: what to expect (PDF, 739kB)
- English - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 100kB)
- Croatian - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 932kB)
- Greek - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 444kB)
- Hmong - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 409kB)
- Italian - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 100kB)
- Maltese - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 511kB)
- Punjabi - Coping with a disaster: Information for times of stress (PDF, 382kB)
- Amharic - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 421.43 KB)
- Arabic - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 712.87 KB)
- Dari - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 844.95 KB)
- English - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 106.15 KB)
- French - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 528.48 KB)
- Hindi - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 596.56 KB)
- Oromo - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 533.45 KB)
- Punjabi - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 889.31 KB)
- Somali - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 524.7 KB)
- Swahili - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 525.09 KB)
- Tigrinya - Coping after a crisis (PDF, 506.07 KB)