Since late Tuesday night, the eyes of the world watched as one by one, 33 Chilean miners were finally freed from the tiny cave that had become their home for two months after a mine collapse on August 5.
All 33 of the men have now emerged from their rock prison, taking a precarious 15-minute journey through the earth in a rocket-like capsule hardly wider than their shoulders. As each one rose out of the hole, they were immediately greeted by cheers, waving flags, the president of Chile and, of course, their anxious families.
Most of the miners appeared to be perfectly healthy, while others were known to have medical problems ranging from diabetes to black lung. All men underwent two hours of medical testing at a makeshift hospital near the mine before being flown to a hospital in the nearby town of Copiapo.
While the men are being treated physically, the long-lasting emotional effects are the concern of psychologists, who warn that the lasting mental trauma may take a few days to appear. We spoke with Dr. Karen Jacobi, a licensed psychologist with St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, to explore some of the immediate and long-term mental symptoms the freed miners may experience.
In general, for all of the men, describe the biggest emotional challenges they will face in the next few days.
Well, they’ve been isolated, so when they come up they’ll be over-stimulated and bombarded with light and sound, seeing family members, seeing the media. The biggest challenge is that they’re coming out of a deep, dark, controlled environment and now they have to reintegrate to daily life. It needs to be a slow process. When they are out they are likely going to be grateful, but also extremely overwhelmed.
What are the typical side effects of a situation like this—being cut off from the outside, living in seclusion?
From a psychological standpoint, they could have a total avoidance and fear of ever going back into a mining situation. They also may not be able to reconnect to their families in the same way. The fact that all of the men were together down in the mine may help mitigate some of the effects versus if they had been alone. Many may have temporary psychiatric issues, such as visions and feelings of being overwhelmed, and will need short-term reorientation, which could include removing themselves from places with too many people. They’re going to need continual professional help getting acclimated to what’s going on.
What about long-term effects? The men have such a strong group mentality – how do they go back to being individuals?
They, as well as the families, are changed. Going through this whole scenario, not only are they going to have to learn to become an individual again, but they also have to become individuals again with their families. The future can hold some post-traumatic stress symptoms for the men—fear, helplessness, dreams and flashbacks, and some of the miners may not want to talk about this incident after awhile. Their families have also changed because they’ve had to, for months now, do things like paying bills and keeping watch over the camp. They may have not gone to work at times because they’re waiting for their family member—things that they may have never done before. There is also going to be a lot of initial getting to know each other again. A miner just coming out of the mine needs to get used to finding their role in the household again since the other family members have had to take over these roles.
What sort of impact will the constant eye of the media have on the miners? How will this affect their re-adjustment to society?
Hopefully there will be people present who can help pick which of the men will want to talk to the media and let the others stay away from it. Most or all have never experienced being in the media and have just been regular working people, and now all of a sudden they’re celebrities and heroes, which can be extremely overwhelming. Some will have a natural ability to handle it and some will feel very uncomfortable.
What steps should their families take to aid their transition?
They need to be educated on what may be going on with their family members. The family members are ready to pull them back into the family, but these are men that may actually be a little bit jumpy, restless or irritable. It is also likely that they will feel detached from the family at some points because events have happened that they couldn’t participate in. It will be really important for the families to work with professionals to understand what’s going on with that individual. If they’re irritable and that’s not their typical personality, the families need to give them space. Expectations of the miners versus the families are probably going to be a little bit different. Families want to reintegrate immediately and the miners may be surprised that it may be harder to reintegrate.
