The anniversaries of trauma are significant times that can trigger renewed distress and cause survivors to revisit their grief, a psychologist has said.
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Dr Susie Burke, who worked for 17 years in disaster and climate change at the Australian Psychological Society and is now a consultant psychologist, said it was important not to define grief as a mental health issue.
"There is no right or wrong way to deal with an anniversary or grieve for the things that are lost," she said.
"Coming to terms with a great loss can take a great amount of time; one year is not very long."
She said immediately after a traumatic event like a bushfire there was an acute stress reaction in people.
This included difficulty in concentration and forming memories, feeling depressed or anxious, avoiding others, increased substance use and avoiding triggers of the event.
"These are really normal reactions that generally subside within the first month," Dr Burke said.
But she said a significant minority of people were at risk of developing a mental health problem such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or complicated grief.
While the normal process of grief is a peak of distress and diminished function that subsides over time, there is also such thing as a delayed reaction where someone who may seem to be coping well in the immediate aftermath of trauma has a dip in their functioning after a period of time, such as a year or even several years.
There are also others who have post-traumatic growth, where they begin to function at a higher level than prior to the trauma such as having a heightened sense of meaning in life, which is another way to draw meaning from the event, Dr Burke said.
She said if you are supporting someone who was affected by the Tathra and district bushfire, now is a good time to check in with them, ask how they are going and say you are aware it is the anniversary.
As she was told by a man who's wife and two daughters were killed in the Port Arthur massacre, "we dread saying the wrong thing, but there's nothing you can say which is worse than what actually happened".
It is also a good time to look for signs that they could still be struggling with the trauma, such as experiencing flattened mood for a long period of time, difficulty sleeping, not coping at work or their relationships with people have changed.
While survivors may avoid doing activities that fill them with a sense of pleasure immediately after a traumatic event as they may not feel like socialising or their time may be taken up by something like rebuilding a house, Dr Burke said it was important to find an activity that was enjoyable because it provided people with a sense of control over their life.
She said the existential threat of climate change can become a part of the worry experienced after a bushfire, as people think "where is the world coming to, will there be more risk?"
"We've just been through the hottest summer ever and there's every chance next year it will be the hottest summer again, so it's likely people are thinking 'we'll we're lucky it didn't happen again' and are worrying what will happen next if next year it is hotter and dryer," she said.
"It's only by seeing this is relevant and salient and happening now people get galvanised to realise we have to do something about it."