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| Photo by Sara Fogan |
I
love mountains. I love their power and majesty as they tower over the tallest
buildings. I love how invigorated I feel when I am in their midst, breathing in
the clean, fresh air and enjoying the scent of the pine trees that cover this
landscape and not the pollution that often covers the city over a mile below.
Of course, mountains are the product of a powerful force of nature that many
people in Los Angeles experienced early Monday morning: earthquakes.
California is no
stranger to earthquakes. Anyone who experienced the 1989 San Francisco or the 1994
Northridge quakes knows how deadly and destructive they can be. Consequently, public-service
announcements regularly remind us to prepare for the Big One (it’s coming!).
The local news features stories about seismic activity that has occurred in
other parts of the world and reminds residents to store enough food and water
to last five days, in case it happens tomorrow. Many people who lived through it
still reminisce about the Northridge quake as if it just happened. But even a
comparatively minor one like the temblor we had yesterday—it was only a 4.4
magnitude, compared to the 6.7 magnitude of the one 20 years ago—is terrifying and
disorienting. They also trigger our two most basic emotional reactions, as
described in John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind: fear of loud noises and fear
of falling.
When the ground
starts to move, buildings creak and groan as the structures sway or collapse on
their foundations. Furniture and the objects resting on them, books standing on
shelves or pictures hanging on the walls, may crash to the floor. The ground
moves beneath our feet and can trigger vertigo and the innate fear of falling. Even
if you never experienced an earthquake before, you probably know already knew enough
about this phenomenon to be concerned for your safety when the shaking started yesterday
morning. Everyone who has felt an
earthquake before probably did feel genuinely, understandably scared yesterday.
However, this fear was not just about the disorienting physical sensations we experienced,
but the violence of our anticipatory anxiety that was also triggered when the
shaking started.
According to Dr.
Kappas, anticipatory anxiety is an example of the fight/flight response,
whereby a person instinctively prepares himself or herself to face a potential
threat based on previous experience that the threat exists. “You’ve had the
panic [and] you start worrying it will recur. You’re more affected by what you think will happen,” he observed. When the
shaking started it triggered many people’s memories of the last Big One and
their anticipatory anxiety about what could happen, this time. This is how it started/what it felt like
last time. There is nowhere to go! There was so much damage to my house! The neighbor
had a heart-attack. Two homes in the neighborhood were condemned… Many
people were still sleeping (and had not yet eaten breakfast) when the quake
started, so a lower blood-sugar-level may have also exacerbated the physiological
sensations that can occur during a fear or phobic response. In just the few seconds
that the earthquake lasted, heart-rates accelerated and breathing became
shallow. Some people may have started to sweat profusely, felt dizzy or
confused, and even experienced tunnel vision as they were reminded that they
have no control over the environment (at that moment).
Fortunately,
yesterday’s earthquake caused no significant damage to buildings, and no one
was injured or killed. It was, however, a well-timed reminder to us all of how
the beautiful mountains that surround Los Angeles, came to be. As Dr. Lucy
Jones, a seismologist with the United States Geological Survey, explained
during a press conference yesterday, we do live in an earthquake zone, and the
Big One is coming. None of us have control over when, where and how large the movement
of those tectonic plates beneath us will be. However, we absolutely can and do have control over our response next time they do.
Take these hours
and days when the memory of the fear and “flight” response is still fresh in
your mind, and write a new mental script that focuses on and will activate the “fight”
response. Make and rehearse an emergency plan with your family so everyone
knows where to go, what to do and who to contact if there you need to reunite
somewhere after the quake. Know where your gas meter is located on your
property and be able to turn the gas off to prevent a leak. Participate in the earthquake
“drills” at your school/college and in your neighborhood so you know what to do
during and where to go after the earthquake. Learn CPR so you can provide first
aid to the injured. Memorize the access routes into and out of your community
if you need to evacuate the area. Pack the recommended quantity of food and
water for you, your family and your pets—and make sure these supplies are accessible if you need to grab them in a
hurry. Create a list of neighbors and out-of-state friends or relatives whom
you can contact to send a message to loved ones about your health and
whereabouts in case the phone lines are down after the earthquake. Learn
breathing and relaxation techniques—even self-hypnosis—that you can use to be
calm and focused during and after the earthquake, which will enable you to help
yourself and others survive the days and weeks to come.
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in
Southern California. She graduated with honors from the
Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about
Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
© 2014
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