"I woke up that Tuesday morning feeling good about where
I was in my life and happy about where I was going. Now, that
sense of
security is gone, and since the 11th, for some
moment every day, I have
been scared."
--- Chelsea Clinton,
LA Times, 11/9/01
Sound familiar? Perhaps you could have spoken these
words. Surely, we all have clients that have been exhibiting
signs of
posttraumatic stress related to the terrorist attacks
of September 11, 2001.
On one of the news radio stations
recently, I heard a therapist in New
York, state that she has
seen an increase in the number of people hitting the
ice cream
containers in the freezer. A report about a month ago
stated that they expect a baby boom next spring.
Newspapers reported that
people had a strong need to
seek out physical intimacy (safety?)
after the attacks and surveys showed an increase in sexual activity with
mates, as well as single
people with "one night stands."
I believe that
this country has been in shock since the
election of 2000.
I have felt a sense of anger and depression from
people
that our dependable system did not work. Now,
before we have been able to
fully grieve and heal from this
injury to our sense of fairness and
justice, we get hit with another incident that threatens our physical lives and
even more strongly
undermines our sense of daily well-being.
Through the media, we are reminded daily that we are at
war, to expect more violence in our own back yards, and
that no one is safe.
How many of us have long been news
junkies? How does this impact our
inner peace and mental
health when we are constantly bombarded with this
type of information?
These are issues that cannot be ignored. In my
opinion,
they must be dealt with consciously, within
ourselves and with our clients.
We cannot underestimate the
impact that this is having on the
clients we see daily. While
we explore the impact that childhood, family, a
past or current
relationship has on the emotions and behaviors
exhibited
by clients, I encourage all of us to also bring up the
topic of
September 11, 2001 and to ask our clients to
honestly look at the connection that
this more current event
is still having on their emotional, mental, and
spiritual state. |