Reliving the Trauma
Reliving the trauma Post-traumatic stress disorder haunts victims after ordeal
Jacob Messer
Wednesday July 25, 2001; 02:27 PM
EDITOR’S NOTE: During the next few months, the Daily Mail will follow the progress of the Shea family of Dorothy, Raleigh County, to illustrate the recovery process hundreds of households in Southern West Virginia face after the July 8 flood. Today’s story focuses on how the traumatic experience of the flood has affected the family’s emotional well-being.
SPRUCE MOUNTAIN -- Sometimes, when his older brothers toss and turn in their sleep, Jacob Shea gets bounced around the waterbed he shares with them in the guest bedroom of their relatives' house.
This disruption evokes bad memories and opens emotional wounds that are less than three weeks old.
With each bump caused by his brothers' movements, Jacob remembers fleeing his home in the Raleigh County community of Dorothy earlier this month, running with his family through rampaging floodwaters more than half his height, falling prey to the strong current, being unable to right himself without help from his mother.
"It feels like I'm going down again," 9-year-old Jacob said, describing his nightly ordeal. "It keeps pulling me down. I try to get up, but I can't. I get mad.
"It feels like I'm going to die."
So, Jacob yanks the covers around his chin and puts a pillow over his head. And he lies there. The closeness of his two brothers and the light of a three-bulb lamp are the only things keeping him from crying or screaming. Hours later, exhausted, he falls asleep.
His symptoms -- nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts -- suggest Jacob is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental illness identified by pronounced signs of distress in people who experience events that prompt fear or helplessness.
And, to certain extents, so are his parents -- Jeff Sr., 34, and Betty, 31 -- and his brothers -- Joseph, 15, and Jeff Jr., 11.
The Sheas lost their home, their vehicles, their possessions, their clothes and almost their lives during the July 8 flood that devastated their tiny Clear Fork Road community.
"What they are going through is normal," said Dr. Robert Butterworth, a nationally renowned authority on post-traumatic stress disorder with the Los Angeles-based International Trauma Associates. "It's important that they know that. They aren't going crazy. They are reliving their trauma."
After Jacob, Betty seems to be the most affected. Like her youngest son, she also can fall asleep only after exhaustion exacts its toll.
"Every time I close my eyes," Betty said, "I see that wall of water coming toward the house, headed for me and my family. I can't stand to see it. I hate it. But I can't get it out of my head. So, I open my eyes and lay there."
Like his younger brothers, Joey now wears his clothes to bed after years of sleeping in only his underwear.
"I wear them just in case something happens," Joey said. "You know?"
Jeff Jr. was not with his family the day of the flood; he was at his maternal grandparents' home in Beckley. But he, too, is dealing with its emotional aftershock.
The fact that his aunt died in a flood four years ago only adds to his anguish.
"First, my aunt. Now, my family," Jeff Jr. said. "I worry about something else happening to us. That's what I'm scared of. I think about that a lot."
Not even Jeff Sr. is impervious.
"He used to sleep like a baby," Betty said. "Now, he tosses and turns all night long. He never did that before. Never."
The parents are prone to emotional breakdowns during which they cry uncontrollably, a fact that seems to embarrass Jeff Sr.
But that is healthy, Butterworth said.
"Crying is good," he said. "If you don't cry, the stress, the pain, everything can build up. That can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Crying helps."
Staying busy also helps, Butterworth said.
The Sheas do that during mornings and afternoons. Both parents work. The kids play basketball and swim with their cousins and friends.
When the nights come, so do the problems.
"That is normal, too," Butterworth said. "They are doing things that keep their fears and recollections in the back of their minds. That is good. The worst thing they can do is sit around and do nothing.
"But at night they can't help it. All their fears and recollections come back to them. They can't help but think about them. The thoughts are there and they can't get them out of their heads."
Time will heal their emotional pain, Butterworth said.
"It is like a bruise," he said. "When you touch a bruise, it hurts. But after a while the bruise goes away.
"It is the same with this. It hurts now because it is fresh and they think about it a lot. But in time, their memories will be less vivid and they will think about it less frequently. It will go away.
"The good news is, they will be OK a year or two from now."
The Sheas say it will be sooner than that because they say they have the best possible therapist, one who is available 24 hours a day and whose services are free -- God.
"The reality has set in," Jeff Sr. said. "We've lost everything. But we didn't lose each other. We survived the flood. Now, we have to overcome it. It's going to be a process. But God will get us through it. He is all we need."
Sleeping in Clothes
The Shea brothers — Jeff Jr., Jacob and Joseph — now sleep in their clothes after the July 8 flood destroyed their home and changed their lives. Each battling their own emotional demons, they use a three-bulb lamp as a nightlight. All show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder such as nightmares and flashbacks.
Jeff & Betty
Jeff and Betty Shea — sweethearts since he was 15 and she was 12 — say their love has helped them deal with the loss of their house, their vehicles and their belongings.
Reading bible
Jeff Shea uses the Holy Bible to seek comfort and guidance following his family’s near-death experience in the recent flood that ravaged their Raleigh County community. “God will get us through it,” Shea said. “He is all we need.”
