DEP contact information and document ID, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

r Bracing for Trauma’s Second Wave 1

V Depression, Irritability, An^ Raum to New York City w Six Months After Sept. 11 r By LmETTE LAhNADO

PkO SutfKeptnereJTm Wajx Stoeet Journal *W -T-EARLY SIX MONTHS after the rV I Sept 11 terrorist attacks, psycholo- I gists say a second wave of emotional JL VI trauma is hitting Nev Yorkers, and ran it may be tougher to treat than the first In the weeks immediately after the Wald Trade Center collapse, psychologists were d t uged with requests for counseling from su .e vors, rescue workers and victims’ relatfves, as

s wen as people who had mainly watched the trag­ edy on televirion. In November and December, fliere was a luH. But in recent few weeks, calls

1 to employee-assistance programs and private counselors in the dty have started iq) ^ain. The strain of months of living with searing ___.^ memories, frequent terrorist alerts and fears . about what the future will bring is taking a toll. “People have said to me, “we are shouting at each other and we are not even angry,’” says Henty Spitz, who heads the couples therapy program at Columbia mlversity’s medical school “There is a background tension that is there all toe time,” he says The level of irrita­ ft*'jr bility is so high, it’s “like Chalk on a black­ board.” “Our reserves were used up by 9/U," adds Yt'.- /'* Ellen McGrath, a psyCbotherapiri with a pri­ vate practice to Brooklyn. She says the period of greatest danger after a traumatic incident is from the six-month anniversary to the one- year mark and beyond. “This is toe season when it starts,” says Dr. McGrath, who fears an upsurge to rages, self-destructive behavior and even suicides. “The despair, the helpless- ness get so Intense.... It bursts out* Already more employees say they are feel­ ing depressed or anxious or having trouble sleeping, says Irene Lovitz, who heads the employee-assistance program at MentO Lynch & Co., whose corporate headquartf - are next to ground zero. ComPsych Corp, of Chicago, which pro­ vides employee assistance and counseling to T! more than a million patients to toe New York area, says a number of toe companies it. FnarMonar worked with in the faff have asked it to come back. One caff for help came from a human-re- sources official at a major client on behalf of herself, not toe company’s employees. The wife of a Sept U victim from her company FDNY Tries to Rescue Its Own bad committed suicide, and sbe was feeling profoundly shaken. By LtraBTTE Laenado ant culture, have started taking antidepres­ ComPsych’s chief executive, Richard Sta// Reporter of The Waxx Sibbbt Joubnal sants and sleeping pll’'.. And growing num- Chaifetz, says the heightened sense of mal­ The New York Qty Fire Department’is in bers-385 in January, a 50% increase bom the aise isn’t limited to New Yorkers. Residents of are thi-ies of a second major rescue and recov­ month before-are seeking psychological helf other large cities worry that they could be ery effort. But this time. Instead of searching fit oouDsdisg voit. next, he says. People who woik to taU, high- through the rubble of the World Trade Center, Irritability is a widespread symptom. Leth profile bulldlngs-like Chicago’s Sears lbwer, it is trying to find and treat emotionally tnni- argy and an inability to focus are also com­ where some of his company's clients have of- bled firefighters. mon. Most worrisome, says Malachy Corri­ fices-feel particularly vulnerable, be says. Leading the effort is Ore department’s gan, the unit’s director, are the Intrusive im­ Even among New Yorkers, toe reaction counseling service unit, which has ofifices ages that haunt some firefighters. He eites isn’t uniform. Rescue workers and people in one who found that when he was at home areas close to ground zero or In parts of the playing with bis Child on his day oH, all hf dty, like Chinatown, where the economic re­ percussions are most intense, are haring the Therapists have to shed could think of were the body pbts be bad collected during-the week at ground sera. most trouble coping. Elsewhere, there is a semblance of nonnalcy and pecqile seem more traditional approaches Tills Is also a world where •‘closure’ is a dirty word and there seems to be resentment eager to blot out toe past and move on. Randall Marshall, an associate professor to break into dosed of the outdde world for moving on. The notior of “returning back to normal is almost ar of clinical psychiatry at Columbia Universi­ ty's medical school, says it is classic to see an Fire Departrnerii culture. insult," says Ralph Esposito, a peer counseloi unraveling occur now, several months after a with the unit, who journeys each day from one disaster. “After the honeymoon phase, where firehouse to another to plead ‘with bis feUoa you pull together, you enter the fragmentation above Ladder Co. 20 ia Hanbattan’s SoHo. firefighters to seek help. phase where you rip apart," Dr. Marshall But forget couches, credentials and the classi­ Michael O’Keeffe, a battalion chief whe says. Pe(q)!e move info “that survivalist mlnd- cal shrlnS-patlent relatltHistiip. Here, thera­ came on board to help Mr. Corrigan adminis­ set-I have to take care of me and mine.” The pists sit side by side with the people they are ter the growing unit, thinks be knows why challenge for psychiatrists, he says, is how to treating, jewing, flatting and eve'' mnwng more firefighters are coming forward now: help people live in a world that is constantly and esBng together. “We are a groin) of people who are told to do a under threaL As the sbt-month armiTerBary a the Sept job, and we do it," says the chief, (me of only In mid-September, Emily Stein, a Manhat­ U terrorist attacks approaches, psychological fiO battalion heads in a force of 16,000. “In the tan psychologist, was convinced that coo- problems appear to be mushrooming in the days and weeks following, all we had were ples-lncluding her own patients-seemed to Brer 'jtmenL More flrcfighters-102 as of tasks. We worked 24 hours. Then we attendee be growing doser, strangers were behaving '..ttruay, 120 two weeks ago-are out on funerals-tbere were days of 10-12 funerals.’ I more kindly since toe disaster, and there was stress leave now than in December, Some fire­ Then the new year arrived, and with it came a Please Tton to Page Bi fighters, breaking with their macho, self-reli- Please Turn to Page Bi / Six Months After Sept. 11, Bracing for Second Wave Continued From Page Bt tion. “It is the economy and the culture stgt- MHN,abehaviora,aealthc(mcernbased a sense that small problems and everyday tog,‘What is the matter with you? This hap- to San Rafael Calif., ended its work with annoyances had lost their relevance. pened to September.’" the Internal Revenue Service recently. The Now She says rite was wrong about the ’ He worries that many companies, al- ®S’s New York offices, whit* include hun- impact of the tragedy. In recent weeks, her ready trying to cut costs and reduce staff of employees near ground sera, went patient load has ballooned, and so has the because of the recession, won’t be very siq>- so far as to have four full-time MHNcounse- Intenslty of the emotional problems rite is portlve. “There is an expectation that you l<»s on rite since shortly after Sept U. But handling. “I have been seeing so many un- get on with life," he says. Forced to pick and Psychi^JM De^ Suite now WMrte thri happy petqile," she says. “It is not that they choose whom to keep and whom to let go, he “me IRS; employe^ may be left to the lost husbands or children. It Is a subtle is afraid that some crnnpMles may be *“’*• ““O' gnawing black Cknid. whltii is hard to tempted to take a Darwinian approadi, tar- SS*.*®’

-KSKTiX-Nw. sr.lSSSKSSiSS a5Sa5Si»S52S a»as?sasttx lisssssss-ssis cleariy Wentity a place of safety versus a place of high risk. cal psychologist Peter CampancUi, says he president to charge of public affairs, says jg finding that some of his empfoyees are toe company sSl a^fuU-time psycholo- But while it was acceptable-even desir- “having difficulties sleeping, baring bad giri cm site, and Marsh employees can get able, to a way-to confess to feelings erf dreams about people faffing out the win- .unlimited counseling for at least a year. stress a few months ago, now revealing amd- dow.” One worker, be says, “sits at home With so many colieagues gone, even sbe ety may be risky. “You see a less sympa- sometimes and breaks out crying." And a tods herself reliving the tragedy frequently. theUcenrironmenlltisnotsoOKtofray," manager has been “a krf more irritable. We “You want to call someone and you realize says Uoyd Sederer, director of clinical ser- have gotten complaints from her staff that that person isn’t there,” she says. “It's going ! vices at the American Psychiatric Associa- she is short-tem^red." to take a long tone.”

NYC-WTC_000152007