More than a feeling: the complex interplay of trauma, emotions, and mental health in post-disaster contexts

While disasters and other forms of environmental change are known to carry emotional and mental health consequences, these consequences have received limited attention from environmental sociologists. In response, I employ 51 interviews with survivors of the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California, nearby wildfires, and professionals involved in wildfire recovery and policy to develop an agenda and framework for better integration of emotions and mental health into sociological climate and disaster research. Thematic principles identified through in-depth interviews reveal deep and intricate intersections among trauma, emotions, mental health, and tangible elements of recovery like housing, migration, and inequality formation. Findings intended to guide and support future research along these intersections include the need for enhanced attention to temporal distinctions in short- and long-term recovery; that trauma underlying emotional or mental health outcomes may arise well after a disaster as a function of recovery processes themselves; the need to view emotional and mental health outcomes as reciprocal drivers of tangible recovery success or failure; and the advisability of attention to the emotional and mental health needs of recovery professionals. In sum, these suggest that emotions influence several disaster recovery fields and emphasize the need for productive collaboration.