Hurricane Irma’s Effect on our Health
I absolutely love living in Florida,
but when Hurricane season comes, this paradise can easily become a disaster area. Hurricanes can effect our homes, jobs, and even our health. The recent situation with Hurricane Irma tossed our entire lives completely upside down. Do we evacuate? Stay? Where will we go? What will we come home to? Will we even have a home to go home to?? Like millions of others, we found ourselves tackled with incredible uncertainty about this monster of a storm with 185 mph winds with her sights on our home. After making preparations to stay in our home, along with 11 friends and family, plus all their dogs and cats, we felt safe. And then Irma still hadn’t made the turn north as predicted. This would put us directly in the path of her destruction.
We made the most difficult decision we had ever faced.
We chose to leave our home and possibly our entire lives behind. Like millions of other Floridians, we were fleeing the storm in our car loaded down with necessities, survival gear, water and gas cans. Plus, we had two less than enthusiastic cats who were not so happy about being in a car, and especially not for that long! We drove 12 hours all the way to Colombia, SC, just to find an available hotel room. I cried when we crossed the Florida/Georgia line, thinking about our lives at stake and all the horrible possibilities Meanwhile, I had to attempt to stay focused and work as the co-pilot / navigator (and not a great one, apparently). I was desperately trying to find the quickest routes with the least traffic that still had both power and gasoline, while switching between NOAA advisories, Radar apps, Google maps, Waze and Gas Buddy. Thank god for technology and WiFi in the car! What had had once seemed like a ridiculous luxury, now was a life saving necessity!
That fight or flight response was working overtime.
After it all passed, we headed home, repeating the 12-hour stressful ride. Closing in on the last twenty minutes of the return drive, we crossed the Manatee River bridge on I-75 Southbound at 5:30 am. All I could see of two counties I called my home was pure darkness. I sobbed again, not knowing what we were going to find. When we finally arrived, our house was still there, with some minor damage to the lanai and multiple tree issues. The relief for ourselves, the grief for others, and the sheer volume of emotions was overwhelming on so many levels. There was no time to come to terms with what we had just gone through. I was required to go back to work right away, and he went back to reopen his business. Evacuating isn’t cheap either, and talk about adding insult to injury, this was an unforeseen big financial hit. While many rebuild their homes and lives, we cannot forget about making ourselves whole again. But where to start? How can we go back to normal while still reeling from this unbelievable roller coaster ride of emotions?
Hurricane Irma’s Effect on our Health
After a major life event, millions of displaced Floridians, and Texans (from Harvey) need to reset their adrenal glands. I felt like a zombie version of myself. Tired but going through the motions, all while still on high alert with major anxiety. We all felt like we had some version of PTSD, and finally someone coined the phrase PTHD, “Post Traumatic Hurricane Disorder” and I knew I wasn’t alone feeling this way. It was definitely the time to get our stress hormones back under control. We all need to set aside some personal time for healing and self-care, and now it was more important than ever. Studying functional nutrition, I knew it was incredibly necessary to find a way to naturally combat stress, and to start now. To get back in tune it was important to reset our adrenal glands, which had been on extreme overdrive for almost a week. I quickly turned to some Adaptogens and Adrenal Support supplements to help get me back on track on a cellular level. Life is normalizing now, thanks to their help, and other mindful ways. Find out which I recommend taking most and why here.
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