Wigging Out

[funkybutt]

http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/current/cover_story.php

CROSS POST

(*Excellent Article about the state of mind(s) down here*)

WIGGING OUT

Stressed, depressed and drinking more, the people of New Orleans are behaving pretty much as we should.

Sometimes it's hard to remember why New Orleans was ever called "The Big Easy." When everyone's life has been disrupted and day-to-day living is a big logistical headache, New Orleans is worlds away from easy.

--snip-

In short, post-Katrina New Orleans is an urban pressure cooker, a city newly difficult to live in, inhabited by people who are more tightly wound than ever. It's the Big Opposite, and no one living here appears to be immune from the strain.

--snip--

"In non-disaster situations, people generally list their jobs as one of their biggest sources of stress. In post-Katrina New Orleans, where residents across the board have major personal issues, job strain is just another problem on an already long list.

But it's a big one. Those who are employed here tend to be working long hours, with skeleton crews and more demands than normal. "The challenges being faced at work are exacerbated," says New Orleans therapist Michelle Longino. "People are just trying to hold on and get through the day. Their stress levels are so high they're spinning out. I hear that so many times in work places."


--snip--

"Ambien and Zoloft are really popular right now!" laughs Debbie Shatz, tending bar at a packed Parasol's on a Thursday afternoon. From behind the bar, Shatz encounters waves of customers moving back into town and she hears their stories. "I know when someone's in the one-week-back phase and who's in the two-week-back phase," she says. "It's not a coincidence that people are going through the same emotions in the same time frames."

--snip--

""Survivor guilt" seems ubiquitous among those affected by Katrina, wherever they are. "I feel that most people are probably much worse off than me, and I shouldn't really complain at all," says Dan Eberhart, a recent Tulane Law School graduate who had been in the workforce only three weeks before Katrina hit. He's unemployed and living in Phoenix, studying for the Arizona bar exam. "I'm mostly OK," Eberhart says, "but one of my friends is a mental wreck. She's from Port Sulfur and her town is gone. She randomly starts crying all the time. We'll be at dinner and she'll start crying and go outside and sit in the car for two hours. If you ask her what's wrong she just shakes her head."

[EFerrari]

1. Linked. Thank you! n/t

[Swamp Rat]

2. oh i'm wigging out

all the time

and i'm not even home yet ... still in exile and wigging out.

a few more days and i can wig out some more at home ... dancing naked on the levee maybe?

i have to ride my bike through the dead areas to go to what's left of my school ... i'll go crazy if i smell any more dead bodies...