An earthquake lasts, on average, less than a minute. But for thousands of people who experience it, the body and mind can continue to “shake” for months or even decades after the ground has gone still.

This phenomenon has a clinical name: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), one of the most documented—and most underestimated—psychological consequences of seismic disasters.

In addition to the ghost earthquake, in disaster situations, it is also very common to experience acute stress reactions.

A wound that is not seen on x-rays

Unlike a fracture or concussion, PTSD does not show up on a scan. However, its impact is just as real. Those who develop it usually experience intrusive thoughts, recurring nightmares and flashbacks to the moment of the earthquake, along with anxiety, sleep disturbances, hypervigilance and difficulties adapting socially, according to evidence collected in studies on adolescents affected by natural disasters in Latin America.

The picture is not limited to specific episodes of fear. People who suffer serious damage or live in devastated areas tend to present more symptoms of “re-experiencing” the traumatic event, greater hyperactivation of the nervous system, persistent sadness, less care for their health and problems solving daily tasks that they previously managed without difficulty, according to research carried out after the earthquake and tsunami in Chile in 2010. Trauma that will now surely be carried by the Venezuelan victims of the double earthquake of 7.2 and 7.5 on the magnitude scale of moment (Mw), on June 24.

A footprint that can last decades

One of the most disturbing facts about this disorder is its ability to persist over time. Specialists from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) have pointed out that post-traumatic stress syndrome can last up to 20 years in those who suffer from it, especially if they do not receive adequate treatment.

Psychologist Benjamín Domínguez Trejo warns that affected people usually lose interest in work and social contact, and that in some cases they turn to alcohol or drugs as an escape route from the symptoms.

This chronicity is not an isolated case. A study carried out ten years after the Wenchuan earthquake (China, 2008) found that, despite the time that had passed, survivors in the most affected areas still presented serious mental disorders, which led researchers to call on governments and health institutions to take urgent measures to improve the psychological care of these communities.

Along the same lines, a systematic review on the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011—which was accompanied by a tsunami and the Fukushima nuclear disaster—set out to reconstruct the mental health trajectories of long-term survivors, precisely because, although the immediate psychological effects of the catastrophe are well documented, much less is known about what happens to that mental health years after the event.

Children and adolescents, the most vulnerable

Childhood and adolescence constitute one of the highest risk groups. It is estimated that between 25% and 60% of children experience a significant traumatic event before reaching adulthood, and earthquakes are among the most decisive.

A study of minors exposed to the 2010 Chilean earthquake and tsunami—one of the ten strongest recorded in the world—documented how this population develops PTSD symptoms in a particularly marked way.

The possible reconstruction

While infrastructure can be rebuilt in months or years, the mental health of survivors requires a sustained commitment over time.

Recognizing PTSD as an expected—and treatable—consequence of earthquakes is the first step so that no affected community is left alone in the face of this invisible aftershock.