Trauma soothed after deadly quake

(Xinhua)

08:04, April 27, 2013

LUSHAN, Sichuan, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Anxious and worn out, Xiao Cheng sat silently as class took a break in a makeshift school which is a tent.

The 16-year-old has found it difficult to sleep and is easily startled ever since the 7.0-magnitude earthquake severely damaged his home in Lushan County, southwest China's Sichuan Province, on April 20.

"The aftershocks are so scary that I am afraid of losing my family," said the slim teenager who barely survived the earthquake with his family.

In a counselling center set up in the tent school in Longmen Township, Xiao Cheng (alias) took an hour-long session playing computer games and deep breathing with Zhu Zhuohong, a counsellor with the Institute of Psychology of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

"I feel more relaxed now", said Xiao Cheng after the session.

What Xiao Cheng is going through, according to Zhu, is a post-traumatic response as constant flashbacks of the disaster causes excessive concern of future shocks.

In the face of an earthquake that destroyed lives and properties, psychological intervention is needed to help people deal with the quake's emotional impact and move on.

Counselling services are still available for survivors five years after an 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck Wenchuan in the same province, leaving about 87,000 people dead or missing and more than 370,000 injured.

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