Tracey Butler's Blog

Gosh, what a month September turned out to be. From the enthusiasm of 'Sugar Free September' starting on the 1st, at 4.35am on the 4th Mother Nature (in the form of the 7.1 magnitude earthquake) slapped us around the ears and gave us other things to think about. Like whether our homes and offices were safe, how long we'd need to be without power and water, and whether our animals were going to come home any time soon.Mind you, at the time my family didn't really realise quite how bad it was. When the ground stopped lurching around, and we managed to gather the human family members together and attempt to find torches (yay for the torch app on the cellphone) in the dark, we discovered our home was relatively unscathed. Bookshelves had toppled, a tv in the bedroom had faceplanted off the chest of drawers, and all of the drawers in the kitchen were open (yay for drawers).Outside, the chap across the road had lost his low fence, and a power pole up a long right of way was on a jaunty angle - so we figured the quake bark was worse than its bite and headed back to bed to ride out the aftershocks and await daylight.It was only once we found a radio to listen to (thanks Bondy at MoreFM) we heard that the impact was worse in other neighbourhoods. Buildings had tumbled, and the central city was being cordoned off. The face of Christchurch changed forever.So, how did that event affect our health?Stress activates the sympathetic nervous system - the 'fight or flight' response. Our heart beats faster, and we are readied for action. It helps us to react quickly to a situation, and to run away or to fight for our lives. It's brilliant, but not when it's on high alert for an extended period of time! And with the constant aftershocks day and night, most of us were on edge for a good week.And I doubt many of us were sleeping either. For a start, it's not a natural response to sleep when we're 'under attack', but if we did manage to shut our eyes another shake would either wake us, or would wake children who would then wake us.So the last thing on most people's minds was heading out to a gym or exercise class - and not just because many of the facilities were closed, temporarily at least, while buildings were checked and given a green, yellow or red card. But instead of working out, people were working together. Neighbours were helping each other move bricks, dig silt, and clean 'quake relish' from the kitchen floor - all of these activities providing an excellent whole body workout incidentally. People who had lived in the same street for years were getting to know each other and looking out for each other. For a while at least, community returned to the suburbs.Making healthy food choices was a challenge. For a start, without power, water, and open supermarkets, you were really limited to what you had (left) in your kitchen and/or emergency kit. And even when most people did have there services restored, food choices were often influenced by how we respond to stress - some of us can't eat at all and lose weight, and others respond by wanting to eat lots of sugar and other junk. That tends to have the opposite effect.However, on the up side, life for most has returned to normal (more or less) by now. Yes, we are still getting aftershocks, but they are smaller are far less frequent than they were (as if on cue, just experienced quite a jolt of an aftershock while writing that). Yes, you can expect that 'fight or flight' response when you feel a shake, but if you are still stressed most of the time, if you are not going about your normal routine because you a worried about what could happen, if you are not sleeping because there might be an aftershock - then it's time to look at getting yourself some help. Sustaining that level of stress for such a long time isn't good for you, physically or mentally - so talk to someone (eg Jan and Maree at www.nwow.co.nz), or get a massage, go to a yoga class, go to a boxing class, come to one of my classes. Or head away to somewhere that isn't shaking for a few days to catch up on that precious sleep.Don't allow this extraordinary event to impact your life any more than is necessary. We've come through the worst of it, now let's move on!PS: This is the info on the aftershock that happened as I was writing...QUAKE: Mag 4.5, Thursday, September 30 2010 at 9:39 am (NZDT), 20 km south-west of Christchurch.http://tinyurl.com/2ctzhzy #eqnz