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CNN Live At Daybreak
Families Dealing with Feelings After the Attacks
Aired November 01, 2001 - 05:52 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Being careful versus carrying on, it's a struggle that everyone is dealing with as CNN's Kathy Slobogin explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED KIDS: Trick or treat.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Happy Halloween.
KATHY SLOBOGIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This Halloween, 6-year-old Perry (ph) worried about keeping her colander on her head and not losing her meatballs. Her parents were worried about whether the candy had anthrax in it.
SHERRY BURKA, PARENT: Actually, my anxiety index is higher in the last few weeks with the anthrax scare then it was with the plane crashes. I think that and it's moving closer and closer to us.
RICHARD BURKA, PARENT: You just don't know what to expect. You know it's like we don't know whether we're going to go out in our mailbox and find any, you know, peculiar looking letters or, you know, what's going to happen.
SLOBOGIN: The Burka's are doing their best to embrace normalcy, to cherish routine, but even in the after school carpool, it's hard to keep anthrax out of the conversation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can you pass up free candy?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is it like (INAUDIBLE)...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Free candy with anthrax in it.
SLOBOGIN (on camera): Millions of families are showing the signs of stress. A University of Michigan survey found that more than half of Americans are depressed or having trouble sleeping. According to NBC Health, a company which tracks drug sales, prescriptions for antidepressants, tranquilizers and sleeping pills are significantly up since the September 11 attack.
(voice-over): Like many families, the Burka's find politician's calls not to give into fear at odds with repeated FBI alerts of impending terrorist attacks. S. BURKA: I think it's unrealistic, and we have three kids we have to think about.
SLOBOGIN: Dr. Lisa Van Susteren says in many ways the anxiety seven weeks later is more wearing than the shock of the attack itself.
DR. LISA VAN SUSTEREN, PSYCHIATRIST: It's no longer that we're kind of mesmerized by the sights on television, now we're beginning to feel in a very personal way the lives of the people that were lost and what might be waiting for us.
SLOBOGIN: Dr. Van Susteren, a psychiatrist who treats adolescents and adults in Washington, D.C., says the family members most traumatized are twentysomethings who've just gone off to college.
VAN SUSTEREN: The ones that are just beginning to try on being independent, and what has happened is that just as they were beginning to break away from mom and dad, boom. And the consequence I think is that in their minds they need to race back to that sense of safe harbor.
SLOBOGIN: Younger children seem more resilient, according to Van Susteren.
VAN SUSTEREN: I think they kind of think of this as an adult's sort of world and adult's problem and mom and dad will take care of it.
SLOBOGIN: Perry Burka remembers the attack vividly.
PERRY BURKA: The building that crashed was like the best building in the whole world. It was like the importantest. I was really sad.
S. BURKA: All right.
P. BURKA: Mom.
S. BURKA: What?
P. BURKA: Today in music we -- it was the first time that we used instruments.
SLOBOGIN: But Perry, like many young children, seems to have moved on to normal 6-year-old concerns.
S. BURKA: What kind of instruments?
P. BURKA: Like the xylophone. I can't remember what the other one is. Sort of like things that like...
BRET (ph) BURKA: Are they like bells?
P. BURKA: Yes, they go ching, ching.
SLOBOGIN: Eleven-year-old Bret is old enough to have a little more insight and a little more fear.
B. BURKA: I could just imagine how hard it would be on the kids that lost their parents.
SLOBOGIN: The 14-year-old, Ian (ph), thinks about how close their suburban Maryland town is to the capital.
IAN BURKA: I'm afraid that they could bomb -- they -- the Afghani people could try to bomb Washington, D.C. and they could miss and maybe hit our town or city.
DR. T. BERRY BRAZELTON, AUTHOR PEDIATRICIAN: I'd like to give these kids back a feeling of safety that none of us really feel at this point.
SLOBOGIN: Dr. T. Berry Brazelton, a world renowned pediatrician, has spent the past weeks consulting with schools in New York City where he says children are clingy and having nightmares.
BRAZELTON: One 16-year-old yesterday said to me, I don't see any reason to take the SATs. I'm not going to be here next year. SATs aren't going to be here next year.
SLOBOGIN: Dr. Brazelton's advice to parents sounds like normal good parenting, but it's even more crucial in times like these.
BRAZELTON: The things that we suggested were routines, those are critical. Be sure you have breakfast and supper everyday with your kids and use that as the time to talk, but use it as a time to just feel close again. Other thing is discipline. Discipline is absolutely critical right now. If kids are getting out of hand, help them understand why they're getting out of hand right now. You're testing the limits. We all feel like testing them.
SLOBOGIN: Dr. Brazelton says parents should let children determine how much they want to know about terrorism, not force them to take on more than they can handle. He also says parents can draw strength from their children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Spaghetti and meatballs -- yummy. You want some parmesan?
BRAZELTON: You know kids are better than we are at handling something like this. They're more resilient.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What are you, a bowl of spaghetti?
SLOBOGIN: Kathy Slobogin, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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