Shauna Hill: Deal now with mental health issues to avoid disruptions later

July 27, 2023  |  By Shauna Hill

Vermont is again experiencing a truly devastating scope of loss, damage and overwhelm from the catastrophic storms and flooding last week. As a career trauma clinician and resilience science consultant whose own fourth-grade twins were stranded for several days at their remote summer camp in Plymouth by mudslides and floodwaters, I found myself turning to the same neuroscience-based strategies I teach in my work just to tolerate the fear, powerlessness and loss of last week.

Critical events like floods often have a delayed mental health impact, with the grief and trauma going “on hold” in the immediate aftermath and resurfacing later when the crisis is stabilized. This frequently affects our mood, relationships, mindset, decision-making, physical health and general ability to manage daily life, even if we don’t consciously connect these later issues to the original traumatic experience. 

Many Vermonters will struggle with mental health in the coming months as we move through our second recent catastrophic flood on the heels of the Covid-19 pandemic, amid a crushing housing crisis and economy, and increased distress about climate change and our future. 

How we move through the early stages of shock events hugely determines how disrupted our lives become down the line by “stuck” trauma and critical stress that lodges in the nervous system. This is resolute science: What we do to tend ourselves and each other in the next few weeks and months will be the main determinative factor in how we are doing a year from now. 

In my work, I coach folks to focus on a few simple but critically important strategies and nervous system “hacks” in the immediate aftermath of traumatic events. As a single mom who has navigated many “shock events” myself, including a rare cancer and neurosurgery when my kids were toddlers and solo parenting through the pandemic, I use these strategies myself and with my children and loved ones every time we are faced with things that could wobble our mental health and functioning.

I want to share with my fellow Vermonters a few of the core strategies I root myself, my kids and my livelihood in, in the hopes that we can have more personal mental health agency and resilience, which directly contributes to our collective resilience and to greater capacity to collaborate, communicate and be creative together in all that comes next.

Here are four key neuroscience-based universal practices that will help folks process and navigate this flood event in ways that prevent greater struggle down the line:

1. Attention boundaries.

Keeping our focus on the immediate needs around us and a way to help/ be of use that is simple and specific. This helps limit the stress impact of swirling around in overwhelming thoughts of the many losses, needs and challenges, which leads quickly to either disconnection/dissociation, emotional collapse, or a combination back and forth. Focusing on one or two hyperlocal needs protects our neurochemistry and nervous system against traumatic burnout, collapse and the development of long-term mood issues or PTSD.

2. Stay connected in the body.

Virtually any kind of movement — including chores, exercise, recreation like dancing or skateboarding, stretching and other sensory-motor experiences — are enormously integrating/healing of stress, anxiety, grief, and other overwhelming emotions. Intensity doesn’t matter as much as frequency and variation.

“Salt and peppering” even five or 10 minutes of movement or sensory-motor activity throughout the day and following our body’s cues and instincts to move how it wants to move will stave off our system’s natural instinct to disconnect from the body’s messages, which can be difficult to manage and lead to more disruptive trauma responses later.

3. Look for resilience.

It’s easy to fall into hopelessness, anger or a sense of futility in times like this. Intentionally steering our thoughts and attention to the incredible stories of cooperation, heart, ingenuity, courage and connection that are ample in the news and on social media right now is a powerful “neurohack” that reduces risk of depression, PTSD and toxic stress load.

Some people worry that this means avoiding any bad news or taking advantage of privilege instead of being present, but making an attention commitment to our own care does not have to involve divesting of news reports, facts or empathy. The key to staying aware and present while also protecting our mental health is in the ratio: How many minutes we spend on the tougher parts must be met or surpassed by the minutes we spend in gratitude and witness to the helpers, the heroes, the stories of Vermonters showing up for each other the way we do.

4. Engage kids, teens and young adults.

Vermont’s young people have been through so much these past few years. Their parents, educators, neighbors and leaders have been overwhelmed by long-term crises, complex problems to solve and the longitudinal stress, fatigue, burnout and mental health struggles.

One of the most critical investments we can make for our collective mental health resilience here in Vermont is to turn directly to our young people in this moment and invite them into meaningful roles and relationships in this recovery. This intergenerationality is part of Vermont’s culture but has been interrupted in recent years.

I still carry a clinical caseload of Vermont teens and college students; they are desperately seeking connection to others, purpose, and a vision of a hopeful future. This flood recovery is an opportunity for us to heed the call state officials and youth leaders have put out on youth mental health. Instead of asking our young people to self-occupy while we handle things, we must invite them to be an active part of our community response and healing.

Vermont continues to face an intractable mental health work force and treatment-access crisis, with no magic-wand solutions on the imminent horizon. As those of us in the behavioral health field in Vermont continue to work on effective solutions, we must turn to public health approaches and each other with practical information, tools and strategies people can put to use right away.

There is no army of new therapists around the corner and our existing treatment system has been buckling under the scope of need since well before Covid. Gov. Scott called this flooding event “an all-hands-on-deck situation,” and this means all hands on deck for the mental health impact we already know our existing treatment system cannot effectively respond to.

To rise and meet this moment sustainably, we must care for ourselves and each other in ways that keep all hands able to be on deck, and that build resilience in real time. If you are struggling with the emotional impact of this event, be gentle with yourself. You make sense, and you are not alone.

To access emergency mental health assistance in Vermont, text “VT” to 741741 anytime, 24 hours a day, to be connected with crisis counselors and information about accessing support.

Shauna Hill of Burlington is a trauma psychotherapist and former behavioral health executive. She is co-founder and CEO of StateChange Media, a mental health media and education start-up in Burlington, and a board member of the Vermont Cooperative for Practice Improvement and Innovation at Vermont State University. This commentary was originally published on VTDigger.org on July 26.