Many anxious after Hurricane Sandy

After a natural disaster, short-term emotional stress and behavioral reactions are both common and normal, U.S. experts say. Melissa Brymer, director of Terrorism and Disaster Programs at the UCLA/Duke University National Center for Child Traumatic Stress, and Richard Heaps, a clinical psychologist and professor at Brigham Young University, said mourning loss is healthy and appropriate, CNN reports. They suggest strategies for stress management following natural disasters include: -- People experiencing strong emotional reactions might withdraw and pull inside themselves and this hampers managing and dealing with the stress of traumatic incidents. Do not withdraw from important relationships. -- Keep in touch with people you are worried about, so you know what is happening instead of continuing to worry. -- Don't rely too much on national TV or radio, find out what's happening in your own area. -- Strive for a return to normalcy. -- Think about what you're eating. Do your best to sleep enough. -- Storytelling -- orally, in writing, or whatever other form it may take -- can be healing. -- There is no one way of coping so honor different ways that people express themselves about the event. -- Curb watching repeated TV images of the disaster. -- Calm yourself during anxious moments via deep breathing, meditation, music, singing or praying.