A Press Release from 2001 

ASTSS is an organisation of over 600 health professionals dedicated to the treatment and prevention of trauma.  ASTSS has Chapters in each Australian State and in New Zealand.

Even though the images from last Tuesday are subsiding from our TV screens they remain and will remain in our thoughts and hearts for a long time.

The shock, disbelief, sadness, grief, fear, helplessness, outrage, frustration, resolve, anger, guilt for relief that it wasn’t us, and hope that it will turn out OK, are normal and predictable responses to the trauma we have witnessed.

These feelings arise from the survival strategies we have evolved ashumans: fight (getting rid of the attackers), flight (run, hide, battendown), rescue (giving blood and saving survivors), attachment (childrento adults, adults to community leaders, people coming together), grief(crying, mourning and adapting to our losses), competition (vying forsafety), achievement of goals (rational striving to ensure this doesnot happen again), and cooperation (working together in generositycohesion and coming up with creative solutions).

In Australia the general community has been impacted by the attack uponthe United States, its people and symbols. Specially impacted are thebereaved, witnesses, tourists, returned expatriates, friends andcolleagues of those who are lost or injured, those who have intimateconnections with New York and the US, ethnic groups who fear blame, andsurvivors of previous traumas now reminded of their experiences. Theyare all subject to more intense responses. 

In Australia it is important to keep a realistic perspective. Toachieve this, adults need to make connections between their feelings,behaviour and the trauma. Talking, sharing, not suppressing feelings isimportant. So is taking time out to do routine and pleasurable thingswithout guilt.

Children need to be listened to. They may have concrete and personalmeanings to the trauma with questions such as “Will daddy go to war andbe killed now?’, “Are planes going to fly into tall buildings like myschool?”. Adults can allay these fears to help children feel safe. Theycan protect them from seeing too many horrifying images.  Adolescentsmay become anxious as they try to comprehend the future they aregrowing into.

We must be careful to not make things worse by increased coffee,alcohol consumption, smoking and drug intake, careless driving,neglecting general safety and health needs and taking unnecessary risks.

In the absence of an identifiable perpetrator on whom to vent anger,some people strike out at the closest person representing their idea ofthe aggressor.  Scapegoating innocent people and groups only serves tospread the terrorists’ wanton violence. As individuals and as a societywe must beware of being caught up in fear driven hate.

Most of us have been immersed in trauma this week, brought into ourliving rooms time after time. We need to keep a sound perspective onthe world and ourselves even while we sit with uncertainty and wait forevidence based solutions. And while we bear the uncertainty, we neednot feel guilty for returning to our lives, walking away from the TVand looking after ourselves. We need to, in order to remain clearheaded and healthy.