Children who survived the May 12 Sichuan earthquake relax during musical therapy in Haikou, Hainan Province, on Saturday, June 14, 2008. [File photo]

Zhang said that at the six-month mark, there had been a second wave of PTSD.

Many people were "trapped" in the memory of trying to save themselves or others, which caused depression. Although society as a whole had moved on to the reconstruction phase after several months, the passing of the acute stage of the crisis had left survivors with more time to think about the tragedy, leading to sadness.

And although more attention should be given to psychological work at this time, fewer and fewer volunteer psychologists were able to continue doing the work, Zhang said.

Chen Ting is a long-term volunteer psychologist helping the survivors in Juyuan High School in Dujiangyan City, very close to the epicenter.

"It's difficult to round up as many volunteers as during the first two months, " said Chen, a 37-year-old psychological volunteer leader.

Chen used to lead a team of more than 20 people but only has six now, including a high-ranking local official and a professor.

She worried that many volunteers were not professional and would cause more problems than they solved.

"Some could only ask questions such as 'did you feel miserable?' but had nothing comforting to say when their questions aroused bad memories among survivors.

"That's not 'help'," said Chen, who trained many volunteers for free.

The trained volunteers were far from enough for the worst-hit areas, let alone the less-affected regions, she said. The province at one point had thousands of volunteer counselors but that number had fallen to a few hundred, most of whom were not professionals.

Zhang said some people didn't realize that the physical symptoms they were having had been caused by mental problems and tended to deny their problems entirely. And for many people, Zhang said, the window for healing had simply passed.

A girl presents flowers for the victims in the May 12 Wenchuan earthquake in Donghekou Earthquake Relics Park in Qingchuan county of southwest China's Sichuan Province, Nov. 12, 2008. Donghekou Earthquake Relics Park, the first memorial park of Wenchuan Earthquake, opend to the public on Wednesday. [Xinhua]

(Xinhua News Agency November 12, 2008)