Moldovan children, elderly people, persons with sick hearts feel most strongly last night earthquake

Chisinau, 24 September /MOLDPRES/ - Specialists in health say the earthquakes with the magnitude of 5-6 degrees on the Richter open scale may trigger states of panic and anxiety, especially among elderly people, children, persons with various cardiovascular and neurological pathologies.  

According to psychotherapists, the fear or phobia of earthquake makes itself felt on at least three symptomatic segments: physiological (nausea, weakness, suffocation, trembling, accelerated breathing); behavioural (feeling of stone block and running); subjective reactions when one obsessively repeats: “I will faint”, “I will lose self-control,” “I will die,” etc.   

Specialists said a special medical pouch for survival must be always prepared in the families of people with such phobias.

At the same time, the “technique of distraction” is efficient too. For instance, it can yield results through faith/religion, associated with a correct behavior indicated by specialists. “You pray just as you know or feel on that moment full of emotions and you act accordingly, as you know that you are not allowed to run on stairs, stay nearby high and heavy furniture, near windows and mirrors, for example,” specialty press reads.

Sometimes, the fear of earthquake hides another two fears, which are stronger or equally intensive – fear of death and claustrophobia (fear of small spaces). In these cases, one needs therapy at a psychotherapist. Yet, in crisis situations, physicians say that “it is important not to lose the emotional control, to act reasonably, in accordance with the techniques of survival in case of disasters.”  

An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.8 degrees on the Richter open scale jolted Romania and Moldova last night. The seism’s epicenter was placed at a distance of about 220 km far from Chisinau. In Moldova, the earthquake had an intensity of almost 5 degrees on the scale of seismic intensity of 12 degrees (MSK 64).  

(Reporter L. Grubii, editor L. Alcaza)