The Hurricane Within 

For people with mental health challenges, living in the path of a major hurricane can create an equally devastating hurricane within. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder already elevate ones vulnerability in times of stress. Then add an oncoming category five or four hurricane to the mix and imagine tripling the feelings of terror and dread. 

We think about evacuating or putting up shutters. We plan to buy more water, more batteries and hunker down. Maybe we also buy more medication. But what about people who do not have access to medication or who can not afford these things? And how do you prepare your mind for a hurricane and the whirling storm within?

While living in Florida for nine years, I learned about “hurricane parties” that bring people together so that people are not waiting it out alone. This helps. Being alone with the anxiety and fear can elevated already intense emotions. Now is the time to reach out to one another.   This is especially important for people living with a mental health challenge. 

I’ve been on the phone with my two brothers and sister, all who either evacuated Florida or are hunkering down. We talked about the emotional stress and anxiety that this hurricane triggers. It’s all the uncertainty of the path, the pending destruction and damage, the second guessing of choices (should I stay or go?), the feeling of helplessness, and the ultimate fear of the unknown. For my brother who lives with bipolar disorder, this hurricane is not just out there…it’s inside, too. And I find it making its way into me, even though I live in the “crossroads of America.”

Let’s make a promise: as much as possible, we will not let our sisters and brothers experience this or any other hurricane alone. Something happens to the inner hurricane when it is accompanied by a loved one, a caring friend, a neighbor or a Good Samaritan. The speed of the stress thinking slows and the heart rate calms and the spinning mind begins to settle some. 

Take a moment now to reach out any way that you can to one another. For we all have a hurricane within, some are category five, some four, some lesser level threes, some two or level one and some are tropical storms, not as intense. Just some wind and rain. But we all know the feeling of being overwhelmed by a strange and unwelcome stirring within that we wish we could stop. We need help.

What we can stop is the fear of being unloved. We can show our love and care by expressing them now. Do not wait. The hurricane is coming. We can prepare our minds and hearts. We can love one another. This is what we do as a human family. This is who we are when looking into the eye of the hurricane. Instead of closing our eyes, we open them and we gaze upon each other with love.