As per the report that was made by the New York Times, both the general public and the school children who watched the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks manifested post traumatic stress symptoms. “The manifestations related to the juxtaposition of coincidence and predestination applied to the terrorist attacks” (Frank-Stromborg, 362). Those in New York City were the most affected and effects of the disease were reported immediately after the attacks according to a survey that was done a few days after the bombings.
This survey shown that the New York City residents when compared to those of Manhattan, the former expressed more symptoms indicative of this stress and this was also dependent on the floor one stayed in fact it was more to those above the ground floor. (Weissman, Kushner et al, 1641) There are also some eccentric behaviors that were noted to crop up to the New York City dwellers, this is per the survey that was conducted after the attacks. This research was conducted to establish whether there was any relationship between the increased use of substances and the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
The research found that the two were interrelated in that when people have stress they try to medicate themselves with various substances such as alcohol, drugs and may resort to smoking. All this is done in a bid to deal and control this stress and because various researches that have been conducted before show that disaster victims are vulnerable to stress, anxiety and other symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder, this was established to be true by this research.
The research served as a wake up call to counselors and others who offer other related services that event such as terrorist attacks leads to an increase in alcohol intake, drugs abuse while others tend to smoke more. (Niles et al, 2003) According to this research, due to PSTD, people who never used to before smoke started to smoke or to drink after the attacks and there was an increase in consumption of both “among those who were using these substances before September 11, 42. 2 percent smoked more cigarettes and 41. 7 percent drank more alcohol after the attacks.
(Medicine Net. com, 2008) People suffering from PSTD do not enjoy life because there were recurrent flashbacks and dreams about the nasty experiences that they had experienced. These people try at all costs to avoid activities and thoughts that would take their mind aback to what happened. These cases were reportedly said to have increased after September 11 attacks as per a survey that was conducted by the National Sleep Foundation. This survey showed that sleeping became a problem as many spent sleepless nights after those attacks and this is one of the symptoms of PSTD.
It showed that about half of the Americans, two months after September 11 found it difficult to sleep when compared to a quarter whom experienced the same before this period. This survey shown that the problem depended on gender and sex because it is women who were affected by the sleep problem than the case in men in fact, 50 percent of women reported this problem compared to 37 percent men who had the same problem. This was a clear indicator that these terrorist attacks increased the posttraumatic disorders (Rathus, 525)
After the attacks, various institutions both private and government sponsored were established to cater for those suffering from the disease for example, in New York City many emergency institutions were established and the mayor advertised them to the general public so that people suffering from these disorders would know where they would go incase they needed help. The city of New York set aside $100 million dollars to cater for the PSTD and other related problems in its health program.
Relief workers who were responding to the September 11 attacks were also affected by PSTD. According to a study that was carried out on 109 relief workers in the mental health who had a chance to go to ground zero after the attacks appeared traumatized and this was an indicator that those people got sick because of either being directly or indirectly exposed to the attacks or both. Those workers were quantified to be six percent of all the relief workers who were there. The survey also show that 4.
6 percent of these workers suffered from the PSTD as a result of hearing the news from their friends and the media. This study also shows that the number of those suffering decline after six months. (Weissman, Kushner et al, 2003) From various studies and surveys that were conducted in connection with September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Many American and particularly the victims suffered from post traumatic stress disorders. The prevalence of the disease and increased with proximity to the city.
Other surveys also showed that as a result of PSTD, some people resorted to drug abuse for example this study shown that some people who had never smoked or taken alcohol started to take it while those who were already in it, increased their rate of consumption. To address the problem, the United States government in collaboration with other organizations established institutions to take care of all those that were affected. Most of these researches show that the rate of prevalence varied across gender and sex for it is women who were more affected than men.
References: Frank-Stromborg Marilyn and Olsen, Sharon J. 2004. Instruments for Clinical Health- care Research. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. Gorski Terence T. 2001. Incidence of PTSD after Terrorist Attacks. http://www. tgorski. com/terrorism/PTSD_Incidence_After_Terrorist_Attacks. htm Rathus S. , 2004 Psychology: Concepts and Connections. Thomson Wadsworth. Medicine Net. com. 2008. Stress, Depression and Drug Abuse: Fallout of September 11. Available at http://www. medicinenet. com/script/main/art. asp? articlekey=24251
Niles, B. L. , Wolf, E. J. ALB; Kutter, C. J. 2003. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptomatology in Vietnam Veterans before and After September 11. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease. 191(10) Weissman, E. M. , Kushner, C. S. Marcus S. M. and Davis D. F. December 2003. Volume of VA Patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the New York Metropolitan Area after September 11. Vol. 54 No. 12