Just over a week after floods devastated northern New South Wales, the regular farmers' market have already been back on in Murwillumbah.
The usual showgrounds were still too soggy, so the stallholders set up at the local football club instead.
One of those who made it last week, despite the flood damage to his coffee van, was barista Tony Horrigan.
"I feel like I'm being helped out. I haven't had an income for a couple of weeks," he said.
"It's a good chance to connect with other members of the community and ask who needs help and give them a hug."
While there are such symbols of community resilience throughout the region, mental health experts say flood-affected residents should try to recognise their trauma and show more self-compassion.
It's ok to show self-compassion
Senior teaching fellow of psychology at Bond University, Cher McGillivray, said natural disasters could completely overwhelm people, but the signs might not be as obvious, especially if they were stressed.
"They will still go through that anxiety or might sense those trauma triggers, feeling tense, maybe not be sleeping as well, those are the sorts of things we need to be looking out for," she said.
She said being in a "constant state of fight or flight" during natural disasters contributed to high anxiety and potential trauma.
"Help people validate that yes, they are going to be more anxious in this time but let's not live in that fear all the time," Ms McGillivray said.
"What's still in your control? Try and focus on what [you] can control, not what [you] can't."
Yet, with the massive physical clean up and recovery only just beginning, addressing mental health first can often be neglected.
"Catastrophic loss precludes recovery … it will never leave us the same."
Mental health in your inbox
Get a selection of the best mental health content from across the ABC by subscribing to our monthly newsletter
Create space to talk
Manager of headspace in the Tweed region, Steve Dowker, said families should be especially sensitive to the mental health needs of young people.
"At that immediacy, it's that deep breath and running and all that adrenaline," he said.
"Also tremendous grief and loss when you've lost your home."
Mr Dowker said emotions like denial, anger and avoidance could linger long after the flood receded.
"Be sensitive rather than say suck it up," he said.
"Often young people don't talk to us directly but might do it when they're going for a drive, or fishing, or online gaming."
Time to reconnect with community
While the NSW government has committed $25 million to mental health support, the organiser of Murwillumbah's farmers' market Renae Denny said little community events like this meant locals could "come back and reconnect".
"People have been through devastation. There's a lot of really hard stories to listen to, there's a lot of hugging," she said.
"We're here for our community."
Ms Denny said their return hopefully brought some sense of "normality".
"If that means the weekly market needs to be here, we'll be here," she said.
