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America Depressed
Wednesday
October 17, 2001
David Letterman is trying to lighten the nation’s mood on late night, but some people are having trouble laughing.
Managing editor Rob Howe says People magazine is dedicating this week's issue to calming America’s fears. He says, “Everyone in our country has concerns and fears and we wanted to address that … We found they have two primary anxieties. One is about flying and the other is about bio-terrorism.”
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Those fears are coming out in various ways: nightmares, anxiety, or depression.
Dr. Alan Schneider says, “I think we've seen an unprecedented kind of trauma to the United States.”
Dr. Schneider is the director of psychiatry at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Beverly Hills. He says that more and more people are turning to pills to heal their psychological wounds. He says, “We're seeing more prescriptions for anti-anxiety and anti-depression medication.”
In the last two weeks of September, nearly two million new prescriptions were filled for antidepressants and another two million for anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping aids. Others are turning to counselors to work through their emotions.
Lee Kaplowitz, who grew up in Manhattan and got married at the top of the World Trade Center, says, “It just felt as if this attack was on me.”
Now living in Los Angeles, Lee had been feeling down before the attack, but after the emotional trauma of watching the twin towers collapse, Lee knew he needed help. He says, “I reached a point where I felt I should go and speak to somebody.”
Dr. Schneider says it's perfectly normal to feel scared and depressed during these turbulent times, but you need to be on the look out for more serious signs of depression.
Dr. Schneider says, “Symptoms like sleep problems, appetite problems, energy problems, and in the worst case, suicidal thinking or acts. Those people really require more intensive treatment.”
Dr. Schneider says the ongoing turmoil will have long-term effects on the American psyche.
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