Naples Daily News

Centerpiece: Tired from the trauma

Health-care practitioners suggest ways to control stress from the Sept. 11 tragedy

Sunday, October 7, 2001

By I.M. STACKEL, imstackel@naplesnews.com

Your throat feels scratchy and your glands are swollen. You're tired from the second you wake up in the morning, but have trouble getting to sleep at night.

When you do get to sleep, you have nightmares or bizarre, confused dreams.

You're edgy, short-tempered and impatient with people you love. You've been running a low-grade fever for more than a week, and waking up with a nagging headache. There's a non-specific achiness in your shoulders, back and knees. Hot showers help momentarily. Ben-Gay helps a little. [Not to mention your sugar's up 50-100% if you're a diabetic. OG]

In short, you feel lousy.

More than likely it is not the flu, or West Nile virus.

Health practitioners say it is probably a case of what most of your 275.6 million fellow Americans feel: stress. And it could go on for a long, long time.

We are a society of hyped-up, move-fast people under the best of circumstances. But the events of Sept. 11 have left so many feeling so helpless, sad and angry, that we're manifesting physical symptoms.

People complaining of exhaustion and flulike symptoms have been reported by everyone from massage therapists to psychologists.

Nine days after the attack on our people and sensibilities, Marco Island massage therapist Monna Coons observed that more and more clients were coming in saying "I really don't feel too good." "My last client just walked in here, saying 'I'm exhausted,' " said Coons, owner of Alternative Health Therapy on South Collier Boulevard.

The reaction is natural after a major trauma. We have no control over what happened, and we internalize the stress and sadness we're feeling, Coons said.

Naples psychologist Riccardo Rivas said it is by no means imaginary: Stress produces chemical changes in one's body that account for physical symptoms, and people must find ways to cope with the effects.

Every time people view the TV image of the World Trade Center twin towers crumbling before their eyes, chemicals flood their systems: cortisol, a hormone that stimulates energy in crisis situations, and adrenaline.

"Those chemicals, if not used up, will make people tired, devoid of energy, depressed," Rivas said.

Cortisol and adrenaline are hormones manufactured in the adrenal glands. Cortisol is responsible for regulation of cardiovascular function, blood pressure and the body's use of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Adrenaline contributes to increased metabolism, blood pressure, mental activity, blood flow to muscles and increased heart rate.

Adrenaline produces the "fight or flight" reaction, Rivas said. [And turns to sugar in the blood, as it did when Animal Control was after me. OG]

"What they need to be doing now is manage their cognitions (with) thought-stopping," Rivas said. "We have to stop letting those images live rent-free in our brains. Because if we can't stop the visual images, then we are subjected to keep repeating (the process). We will get another chemical dump." Understanding that most people can't just turn their brains off, Rivas noted that we need to physically work out some of the chemicals, eat right "and don't fight too hard against the images in our brain." Most importantly, talk, Rivas said. "Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk." "We can't help the chemical dump. It happens automatically. (However,) physical exercise will burn up those excess chemicals that get dumped into your system," he said. [So if you discuss it here atthe forum, IT WILL HELP! OG]

Most medical practitioners agree that sustained stress will batter a person's immune system.

Naples naturopath Ronald Steriti said it is not necessarily a case of suppressed feelings doing us in, but that people try to get on with their lives by putting their emotions aside to get their work done. A naturopath is a medical practitioner who doesn't treat symptoms or affected parts for ailments as much as the underlying cause in the whole person, using botanical medicine.

"We have emotional drops during the day. You find yourself feeling it, right down into the pit of your stomach. And then the emotions come up," Steriti said.

Handling emotions is not simple, but it's important for people to understand one simple premise, he said.

"What is appropriate for us to feel? It's appropriate to feel bad when bad things happen. People need to be honest with their emotions. When you have this kind of putting it aside, and it comes upon you unexpectedly, it gets difficult. It can happen during grocery shopping," Steriti said.

Many people who are sensitive to how emotions affect them put aside a daily emotions break, Steriti said. As a lunch break focuses on eating, this one just focuses on one's feelings.

Regular TV viewers who tune in to escape may be out of luck.

We're getting ambushed into watching the (Sept. 11) news footage repeatedly, Rivas said. "Stop watching it." As a suggestion to people who feel they must watch the news, Rivas said he closes his eyes during footage of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center, so he doesn't see the image again. [Very good idea, simple to do. OG] And some networks, acknowledging the disturbing nature of the video, have agreed to cut back on the showing of it.

But then there are those of us who try to unwind by slipping a comedy into the VCR, and do not relax: we feel guilty. Guilty that we are in a position to enjoy a repeat of "Frasier" or "Will and Grace" while rescue workers are still at the WTC site. Guilty that we are not doing something to help survivors, rescuers, something to help our country find these terrorists. It's called survivor's guilt. A major component of what many are feeling lately is survivor's guilt, Rivas said.

"We need a rest from that," Rivas said. "We need to go on a bike ride with our sons. Take a swim in the pool with our daughters." {Snort! Not around here, dear. We could go for a nice walk or check otu the new stuff at Costco, though. OG] "When you're in a bad emotional state for an extended period of time, it's important to get yourself feeling good, no matter what it takes," Steriti said.

He takes breaks by watching "The Simpsons," and appreciates whatever humor can be applied to the tragedy at hand, referring to a popular poster. It shows the family in "The Sopranos," an HBO TV series about a Mafia family, braced to defend America.

"They're saying, 'Tell us where this bin Laden is,'" Steriti said.

Breathe, said yoga teacher Donna Hands, of Hands On Yoga on Marco Island.

In the week after the disaster, Hands noticed smaller classes, but the people who came arrived saying they really needed an hour of yoga.

Some students have told her that the hour in her class is the only relief from stress they'd had in the past few days.

Six women visiting from Boca Raton hired her to teach a private class two weeks ago.

"Two people fell asleep," Hands said.

While students arrive drained of energy due to tension — "they come in full of chaos," Hands said — they leave breathing better, more centered, calmer.

Coons said there are a number of things one can do to fight the stress and tension: yoga, meditation, going out into nature, early morning walks on the beach.

"Take your shoes off, put your feet in the sand and the water," Coons said. [Gawd, where does this guy live? What's his income? Get real here. How about bowling, going to the ball game, real gardening, etc. OG]

For those who need more than that, there are massage techniques for touching the core of the stress and tension.

Trained in all forms of massage — including reflexology, acupressure, energy work and polarity, and shakra balancing — Coons said, "Massage or any kind of body work can take you to a different level of relaxation. I can get someone to relax relatively quickly." Rivas praised massage as a tool.

Rivas, clinical director of Collier County's Critical Incident Stress Management team, said he would love to see massage therapists nationwide organize and dispatch teams to work on rescue workers at the World Trade Center.

"It is wonderful. Very healing, very positive," Rivas said, adding that if he were New York's mayor, he would load up massage chairs and place them at the search site, "and bring those folks off" rescue work, give them a 15- to 20-minute chair massage, to release endorphins, and send them back to the site more relaxed. [Or maybe put up a shooting gallery with bin Laden's face on the thingies! OG]

Massage therapists organized that way after the Oklahoma City bombing, doing their part in the rescue effort by lending relief to rescue workers. It was a huge aid, Rivas said.

The CISM team is part of an international network of such teams, each comprising firefighters, cops, psychologists and emergency medical workers who help their peers talk through and understand their reactions to trauma situations they face. It could be a plane crash, a peer death, a child's death, natural or unnatural disasters.

Advice from all health-care practitioners is consistent.

To get or remain healthy we should: cry, laugh, exercise, massage, stretch, breathe. [And have a good belt if you feel like it. OG]

-- Anonymous, October 07, 2001