Reopening Old Wounds

When New Yorkers heard about a plane crashing into an Upper East Side building Wednesday, many naturally thought of September 11, 2001. Though federal officials promptly declared there was no evidence of a terrorist attack, images of smoke and debris and the cacophony of sirens and helicopters in the city couldn't help but stir up old fears. Dr. David Spiegel is an expert on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and has studied the stress levels of New York City residents in the aftermath of the World Trade Center tragedy. He spoke with NEWSWEEK's Jessica Bennett about how Wednesday’s crash might trigger stress symptoms. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: When something like this happens, what kind of emotions can it trigger?

David Spiegel: Well certainly it can, will—and it did in me—trigger memories of 9/11, and you wonder, "Is it another terrorist attack?" It tends to get you back in the frame of mind that you were in when 9/11 happened, so it's a lot of anxiety and insecurity and wondering what's going on. It's a recognition of how vulnerable you are. It does give you the feeling that you're not safe anywhere, and I think it understandably makes people anxious.

Is there any way for a person to stay calm or not freak out when something like this happens?

That wouldn't be the way I'd approach it, frankly. There are times when you shouldn't be calm—our anxiety, our arousal systems are there for a reason. You know, we're not very big or strong or fast creatures, and so when we're threatened we need to get ourselves aroused to respond, to get out of harm's way. So, there's nothing wrong per se with being anxious when a situation like this happens, it's more, what do you do about it? What I tell people is not, "Don't be anxious." It's how to be anxious. It's how to worry. And if you worry in a way to further address what's going on and to figure out what to do about it, that's a constructive thing.

Is it sometimes better not to watch coverage of these types of events on TV?