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What Factors Increase the Risk of Lasting Readjustment Problems?
Survivors are at greatest risk for severe stress symptoms and lasting readjustment problems if any of the following are either directly experienced or witnessed during or soon after the disaster:
**Life threatening danger or physical harm, especially to children.
**Exposure to gruesome death, bodily injury, or bodies.
**Extreme environmental or human violence or destruction.
**Loss of home, valued possessions, neighborhood, or community Loss of
communication with/support from close relationships.
**Intense emotional demands, such as faced by rescue personnel or caregivers.
**Extreme fatigue, weather exposure, hunger, or sleep deprivation.
**Extended exposure to danger, loss, emotional/physical strain Exposure to toxic contamination, such as gas or fumes, chemicals, radioactivity.
Studies also show that some individuals have a higher than typical risk for severe stress symptoms and lasting Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD), including those with a history of:
**Exposure to other traumas, such as severe accidents, abuse, assault,
combat, rescue work.
**Chronic medical illness or psychological disorders.
**Chronic poverty, homelessness, unemployment, or discrimination, recent or subsequent major life stressors or emotional strain (such as single parenting).
Disaster stress may revive memories of prior trauma, as well as possibly intensifying pre-existing social, economic, spiritual, psychological, or medical problems.
Source: National Center for PTSD
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