Some Myanmar survivors now cringe at wind, rain

Unlike most survivors of Cyclone Nargis whose lives have begun to return to normal, Hnin Mya has withdrawn into silence since the storm swept away her husband and two young children two months ago.

She tried to recount her loss, but words failed her. She started sobbing quietly, her body shaking.

"She sits and stares at the river the whole day. But she frantically searches for a place to hide whenever she hears strong wind or heavy rain," said U Kaitila, a monk at the monastery, which has provided shelter for Hnin Mya and 16 families made homeless by the storm.

The dead have been buried or cremated, the hungry fed and a massive effort to provide shelter has been launched since the May 2-3 cyclone. But the mental trauma affecting survivors like Hnin Mya may not be so easy to deal with, and it appears to be widespread.

"You can have the supplies, you can deal with a lot of practical problems ... but in the end people also need support to reconstruct their lives and make it worth living," said Kaz de Jong, a mental health specialist from the humanitarian group Medecins Sans Frontieres who traveled to some of the hardest hit areas in the country's Irrawaddy delta.

He recalled a woman telling him: "You know you are all worried about rice, and enough rice, that's important, but do you also worry that people must also have motivation to eat it? At this moment my life is not worth living. ... I've lost all my family members."

Some 80,000 people were killed in the storm, with another 50,000 unaccounted for, and hundreds of thousands of families had homes battered or destroyed.

Preliminary findings of a survey undertaken by the government, U.N. agencies and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations found that 22 percent of storm-affected households reported psychological stress. Common symptoms among survivors include the inability to sleep, recurrent nightmares and flashbacks, apathy, absentmindedness and concentration problems.

Some victims also experience headaches, body pains and palpitations.