WACO, Texas (KXXV) — Child and adolescent psychiatrist, Dr. Taha Ansari, shares ways on how we can properly process all that is happening when it comes to recent flooding and the Texas Hill Country.
- The Texas Hill Country experienced a devastating flooding event starting on July 4th, 2025, having more than 120 fatalities to date
- Dr. Ansari says the number one way to process the devastation: start talking to someone, whether it be a family member, spiritual leader, or counselor
- Other ways to process is to limit your media intake, pray, journal, volunteer, and donate
Watch Heather talk about how to handle the tragedy with an expert:
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
We’ve been immersed in it now for over a week, the devastation that’s hit the Texas Hill Country.
“It hits home because, you know, we take pride as Texans in a sense of community,” Dr. Taha Ansari, Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist with Baylor Scott and White, said.
Seeing harrowing images and hearing victim's stories can take a toll on us in more ways than one.
"Grief, anger, feeling helpless, the survivor's guilt, these are what we call secondary trauma or vicarious grief, and this is a valid response to any psychological response,” Dr. Ansari added.
Dr. Ansari says that seeing events unfold like this can be a lot for us to handle.
“This basically struck home for us where entire multiple family members were wiped out. Entire areas were washed out overnight, and this happened at summer camps where children are there. So, to us, these were our neighbors, our community members, so it hit home,” Dr. Ansari said.
So how can we process these emotions so it doesn’t become too much?
“So what we have to do is talk to our family members, friends, spiritual leaders, or counselors, and even though we have success there are moments, it's ok to limit constant exposure to media because being informed doesn't mean you have to be consumed by the information,” he added.
“Prayer, journaling, these are some of the ways where you can overcome grief and confusion, and there's a lot of ways you can help as well taking compassionate action like volunteering, donating, supporting survivors. These are some of the ways that we can process our own pain and grief,” Dr. Ansari concluded.
