Fox News Interview: Post-Traumatic Stress Surrounding 9-11 Anniversary
On Tuesday September 6, 2011 Fox News invited me to speak about post-traumatic stress surrounding the anniversary of the tragic attacks from 9/11/2001. This weekend marked the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks and I wanted to share this interview with you all.
The Fox News reporter wanted to know why and how the attacks still have such a deep impact on us, and how to cope with the pain of our memory from 9-11-2001.
I replied with the importance of acknowledging just how huge this trauma was for our Nation. We should talk about it with one another openly, we should think about it and use tools like journal writing. We can and should reach out to our pastors and therapists. People can also take advantage of tools to process trauma. I talked about meditation as a tool settle down the nervous system and really help to process these deeper impressions of heart and mind.
The video below is about 6 minutes long. Click the play button below to watch the interview:
Post-Traumatic Stress Surrounding 9/11 Anniversary: MyFoxDC.com
The Fox news reporter asked me a very great question about when to turn away from the media and imagery that would most certainly accompany the anniversary of 9-11. After a certain point, exposing ourselves to this imagery is really just creating more stress by rehearsing the trauma. The repeated exposure can create more nervousness, and more fear. Instead of rehearsing trauma we can remember the tragedy in different ways. We can think about it ourselves and ask ourselves powerful questions such as: What have we learned from the 9-11 attacks? How have we grown as a nation? Have we grown stronger? This type of honest inquiry restores a sense of stability, strength and resiliency without rehearsing this traumatic stress, again and again.
If you found this interview useful, please consider pressing the “like” button below or sharing with your friends and colleagues with the share buttons above.
Wishing you Light and Transcendence,
Norman
I am a psychiatrist, researcher and author, who loves discovering new ways to help people feel better and stay well.
September 22, 2011 at 1:50 am, Nancy Hamel Routt said:
I really like your Blog! So far I’ve only read 2 entries (on 9/11 & EI) & I want to read more! ~Nancy
October 15, 2012 at 2:52 pm, Auth said:
I am the daughter of a Vietnam dtrfaee and I concider myself a survivor of PTSD. I will never forget the day my father threatened to shoot me with a sawed-off shot gun just because I tried to voice my opinion against his verbal assaults. My father reminded me so many times that if I’d been born a boy he would have most likely killed me early on. The most difficult part of my childhood was being bullied by both the children at school and my own father as well. I imagined later in life that while most little girls were protected, loved, and adored by there father’s I on the otherhand was treated like a disease by my father, and invisable to the rest of the World. I never did anything harmful to anyone, and I was not a disruptive spoiled child either. I was not allowed to touch anything in my parents house outside of my own room, and most of my early childhood was spent in isolation in my bedroom. My mother never divorced my father, knowing how abusive he was to me and my younger sister. I am bitter because my mother didn’t protect me against my father but has the nerve to remind me that I should forget the past and learn to trust in God for Guidance. As an adult my father now claimes he called me names and beat me because he didn’t want me to grow up weak. His taunts and name calling were daily and repetative. The only time the name calling would stop was when I raised my voice to him, which always ended with a beating to my head. As a result of my childhood I have bouts of anxiety where I am terrified of people and social situations. I don’t trust anyone, and I feel like my father won, and I have become a complete failure in everything I dreamt to be in my life. I feel the Government owes me the same rights as what my father is given, as well as disability support!! Where do people like me go when we need Group Therapy, and not just drug handouts from pompous shrinks, but a geniune retreat where cries can be not just heart but felt. I am angry even as I type this because it is sad that this is the only website I can share my story with, my own monitor screen and a tone of rambling keystrokes for a random stranger to hear. I am enraged that the shrink I went to a year ago told me he didn’t know of any Group Therapy for the kind of therapy I was searching for and looked at me with narrow eyes as if I was making up all accounts of the abuse I survived. I am exhausted because roughly a week out of every month I become suicidal. I have been diagnosed bipolar, but I think it’s a mis diognosis because I feel I have all the symptoms of PTSD. I cannot find any information local in my area or service provided for Children of Vets. Can someone please send me a link so that I can gain the courage to share my story with others like myself.
October 12, 2011 at 5:37 pm, Norman said:
Thank you very much Nancy!
October 15, 2012 at 4:12 pm, Beero said:
I leave for you the poem my daughter wrote. I think you will get a very clear picrute of what War-Related Intergenerational Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) means to her:
FLASHBACKS I see that faraway thousand mile stare in your eyes the intensityt he craziness that lies within I want to run I want to hide I’m scared for my life in the blink of an eye the person I know is gone filled with rage you scream you cry you get angry and at the moment I don’t know why I don’t understand I cannot comprehend the tormented hell that you have been in for I am only a child WHERE ARE MY GUNS!! you scream you cannot find them I try not to blink an eye so you will not suspect I took them to protect us all to save your life the relentless search continues then you realize I took them you turn to me filled with this rage that is now directed at me the interrogation begins to no avail I will not give in you’ve not broken me I am already broken I shut down terrified I want to cry at moments I wish I would die I can not endure another moment in this hell this horror that I was born into this is my existence this is my hell By Danielle Reyes copyright 2008
As for myself, the mother of children exposed; forever effected, to be constantly pulled between your children; your husband their father who suffers from PTSD creates a wound in the heart that can never be completely repaired. Otherwise here is what I have written about my personal experience with PTSD: PTSD IT’S HORROR I am the widow of a Vietnam Veteran. We were married 27 years and had 2 (two) children. We knew each other for 31 years. During that time I witnessed my husband’s mental (emotional) and physical (he also suffered from illnesses linked to agent orange) state deteriorate dramatically. I have fought alongside my husband and struggled to survive the roller coaster that we came to know as our very existence: PTSD.Our family was profoundly affected by PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). We all suffered. We experienced my husband’s trauma all the time, it never stopped happening. Our family lived in an environment which was always UNCERTAIN. We never knew what would happen next, never knew what to expect because we could not anticipate his actions. We had to be prepared at all times for the worst. Our lives were hell and our home was a war zone, always fearing the unexpected, never an opportunity to escape. PTSD is the worst kind of torture. It’s horror. Slowly wearing you down day in and day out until it has control and becomes unleashed. It ripped a hole in my husband’s soul and it took us, his family with him. It’s like being on an out of control roller coaster ride that will never be over.