Disasters hurt much more than buildings: Camp Fire survivors battle PTSD and other mental-health disorders

Post-traumatic stress disorder is most commonly associated with war veterans, but it's increasingly a problem for survivors of weather disasters. The 2018 Camp Fire, for example, was the deadliest in California history, killing at least 42 people and destroying more than 7,000 homes. 

"A study conducted by scientists at the University of California San Diego that was published in February in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that an overwhelming number of Camp Fire survivors were suffering from various mental health disorders, most prominently PTSD," Andrea Stanley reports for The Washington Post. 

Senior study author Jyoti Mishra, a UC San Diego psychiatry professor, told Stanley they had found "striking and significant" numbers of Camp Fire survivors with PTSD, and that the phenomenon "really shows how climate change is a mental health stressor."

"To say that everyone in the area affected by the Camp Fire suffers from PTSD would be incorrect. But of the dozens and dozens of people I spoke with for this story, nearly everyone reported experiencing PTSD or PTSD-like symptoms," Stanley writes. "There were other things, of course: increased alcohol and drug use, anxiety, depression, anger, survivor’s guilt, grief. A select few were completely fine, telling me how the fire gave them a chance to rebuild their lives in a better way. But mostly, I heard about PTSD."