With a little imagination, Shirley Hayes knows exactly what her Seventh Ward home will look like once it is finished. She easily points out where her furnishings will go as she walks through the house, which is still under construction.
The Habitat for Humanity home will replace the one she lost after Katrina five years ago. It is a future she is looking forward to, but this week, the past is creeping in: ahead of the coming fifth anniversary on Sunday, memories are resurfacing about one of the most trying times in her life.
"We don't want to think about what happened," Hayes said. "I mean, it's constantly crying and you couldn't find your loved ones."
Images of Hurricane Katrina's widespread impact in 2005 are getting a resurgence on televisions across the country this week. All those images, though, could be taking a toll on the mental health of people in communities hit hard by the storm.
"It can take a person back to reliving the trauma as if they were there in the moment," said Dr. Amy Dickson, a clinical psychologist with LSU's Health Sciences Center. "We've had our clients talking about, 'Oh, I can't watch it, or I'm not going to look at the TV, or even when I see the promos, I start getting a little teary or I start feeling a little angry.' We have a lot of that."
Dr. Dickson said the images could also lead to something called "vicarious traumatization." It is a triggering of anxiety and depression, even for people who did not experience the trauma of Katrina firsthand.
"Even if they didn't live through it, they can be so frightened by those images that they start having the symptoms of PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder]," she said.
Yet, not everyone will go through that. Racquel Carmouche lost her New Orleans East home five years ago. It was a traumatic experience for her, but one, she said, she is not reliving.
"It doesn't bother as much. It's been five years," Carmouche said. "The city is coming back together, so I don't pay it much mind."
Ignoring the fifth anniversary focus is exactly what psychologists recommend for people still feeling the sting of the storm.
"I would stay away from the stories that make people feel anxious or depressed. The things that are over-emotional for them," Dr. Dickson said. "Everybody has to go through it in their own way."
For Shirley Hayes, that means using the fifth anniversary as a way to mark how far she and the city have come.
"It's getting back to what it used to be, but I know it's going to take a little more time for us to get back the way we used to be," Hayes said.
Psychologists also believe the Katrina anniversary could actually be used to help improve people's feelings about that event-- mainly, by marking the occasion by being together with loved ones and neighbors that have returned home.
