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CNN Saturday Morning News
Americans Faced With Post-Terrorism Fears
Aired September 22, 2001 - 08:21 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Fear, anxiety, possibly paranoia, chances are you might be feeling one or all of these in the wake of last week's attacks. Research says many Americans do feel the effects.
CNN's Bill Delaney talked with some people about their fear factor.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BILL DELANEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): All over the country, shadows on the end of a week in late September. War, that word now like a dark chord within the routine rumble of life. In Boston, officials downplayed concern from the U.S. attorney general about a possible terrorist strike in the city this weekend.
MAYOR THOMAS MENINO, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: And there are no specific threats to the safety of the people of Boston.
TOM REILLY, MASSACHUSETTS ATTORNEY GENERAL: We need to go about our business. Now is the time to get out and go out. Now is the time to visit the city and go wherever you want to do.
DELANEY: Reassurance not dissolving, for some, deep uneasiness.
LINDA GREENVERG, PATRON: I would not take a trip into Boston.
DELANEY (on camera): Why not?
GREENVERG: Because I wouldn't consider doing it.
JAMES CURRAN, HAIRSTYLIST: This is a time to be paranoid. Anything is possible. It's scary. It's, we've had a lot of cancellations for tomorrow already and so chances are the whole day might cancel out on us.
DELANEY (voice-over): From the relatively small scale of a downtown Boston hair salon to a 70 percent decline in hotel occupancy in the same city to brisk sales in Richmond, Virginia of survival gear at an army-navy store, a shift in how things are.
In Sacramento, California, a night out at a comedy club took on perhaps a degree of defiance to difficult times. BRIAN KELLAN, ENTERTAINER: We didn't know how they would take to laughing and right out of the box they were dying. They were the hottest, one of the hottest crowds I've played for in months.
DELANEY: Draped flags mingled pride and grief, flanked by a new presence of police, comforting and disturbing. Near deserted parking lots that usually thronged airports, impossible to see as a blessing. Like beaches with few on them, a glimpse not of pleasure, but foreboding.
Even outside reservoirs in some places, armed guards. While in Tampa, Florida, like so many other places, many decided to take the train for the first time in years rather than fly.
(on camera): U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft says we all now have a vulnerability we should be attentive to, not yield to. But most everyone now is at least wary, many afraid.
Bill Delaney, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HEMMER: Let's examine the fear factor with a professional now. Dr. Helen Morrison says that factor can manifest itself at any point in our lives. Dr. Morrison a psychiatrist based in Chicago. Doctor, good morning to you.
DR. HELEN MORRISON, PSYCHIATRIST: Good morning.
HEMMER: What struck me earlier this week, especially on Monday and Tuesday when I was working outside of Wall Street when the stock market reopened after being closed for four days, whenever a helicopter or a plane flew overhead to help with the rescue operation, nearly everyone stopped and looked up.
I would assume at this point anyway that's a natural reaction, is it not?
MORRISON: It is and I think there are various levels of what we're calling fear. There is the apprehension that we're thinking that there's some implied threat or the anxious concern. But that can easily segue into things such as panic when people try to over master that fear. And it is natural.
I think every individual has been affected. Watching a brilliant sunrise will remind you of the tremendous flames that came out when that second plane went in. And so everyone is going to have that type of reaction. The question is will it paralyze what we're going to be able to do?
HEMMER: Yes, paralyze, interesting word used there. Listen to this research coming out from the Pew Research Center earlier in the week. Seven in 10 Americans, according to their study, say they suffered from depression since the attack. One in three can't sleep. Fifty percent say they can't concentrate correctly.
How do we interpret those numbers, doctor?
MORRISON: One of those, well, it's an indication that this really has touched the probably unknown fears that every individual has ever had in their lives, fears of safety, predictability, the ability to control one's destiny, the ability to do what we want, especially in this country where we're free to do almost anything.
And what we have suddenly learned is that the most terrible and horrific crime that's ever happened in this country was completely out of our control and out of our anticipation. I think...
HEMMER: Doctor, how then, I apologize for the interruption. What about solutions or coping? What advice or recommendations do you have?
MORRISON: Most people will use the same coping skills that they usually have in some type of crisis. But the best thing to do at a period of time like this is to talk about it, share it with someone else, a friend, a neighbor, go to church and share it. Do whatever has provided some comfort to you in the past. Try not to get into a negative coping, drinking too much, partying too much. But be aware of the fact that you do have these fears, that they are not abnormal and that you can find some solace in sharing.
HEMMER: Thank you, doctor.
Dr. Helen Morrison from Chicago.
MORRISON: Thank you.
HEMMER: Much appreciated.
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