Torillo Life After 9/11 Analysis

For Mike Cross, September 11 was a different story. He started out his day by going to work for Planning Systems Incorporated in Stephenville until he heard about “a plane that crashed into a tower, you didn’t know it was a terrorist attack.” Mike’s office had an irregular approach to the situation, nobody made a big deal about it. Nobody went home. “It seemed like a far off distant place of New York.” Before 9/11, “Terrorism wasn’t in the vocabulary.” After the attack, nothing went back to the way it was before. “Everything was looked through the lens of terrorism.” The trust between fellow men and coworkers was gone, lost in the past. “Everyone was viewed as suspicious… and

I learned quite a bit about the psychological impact of the Boston Marathon Bombing. After researching the effects, I realized how much trauma these innocent people went through during a moment that was supposed to be joyous. People that were healthy and filled with life were either severely injured or had there life taken away by a senseless act. Some of the injured victims will never be able to walk again, others, never able to see their loved ones again. Martin Richard, an 8-year old boy whose life was taken during the attack, will never get to see his family one more time. The amount of grief the Tsarnev brothers caused can never be taken back and it has left a psychological effect on the viewers and the victims – runners, adults and children.

These men and women risked their lives to try to save the thousands of men, women, and children trapped inside the Murrah building. In assumption people would think this traumatic experience of trying to recover lives after the explosion would not only be very heartbreaking, but very traumatic also. Surprisingly, from all the rescue workers only 13% (24/181) were diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (North). A test was approved and ran by the Washington University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board (North). This test involved the first group of firefighters who were involved with the bombing victims (North). These firefighters are the ones who helped recover bodies and body parts from the rubble of the bombing (North). “Two-thirds (68%) reported feeling somewhat or very upset by either or both of these activities, although many (36%) described removing the bodies as providing a sense of relief and closure to their evacuation work. Firefighters acknowledged feeling somewhat or very upset by contact with body parts (54%) and body fluids (36%), but encounters with children’s remains (72% of total sample) had the highest rating of associated upset”

On September 11, a plane crashed into The World Trade Center, demolishing both buildings. Many people were affected by this tragedy, some even were diagnosed with cancer from trying to clean up ground zero. There are speculations that the people who did have health issues were the ones not wearing the respirators, and many died because of not protecting themselves from the dangerous fumes. Some did not realize that, it could be the last day they might see their families and rushed out without saying goodbyes for the last time. There was little help provided to the sick workers. The lawyers of the workers treat them more as heros then the people who employed them to help clean up after the World Trade Center attack. There were many rising concerns given after the attack and a vast majority of people wish those concerns would be addressed.

According to David Plotz, “20 percent of Americans know or have a friend /relative who knows someone injured or killed from the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001”. Even if one doesn’t fall into the 20%, the 9/11 terrorist attacks still affects them and their country. When the planes first struck the twin towers, the employees inside had a very limited amount of time to evacuate the building. Unfortunately, nearly 3,000 people never made it out alive. This is entirely due to the lack of education/preparedness for emergency situations prior to this day. The greatest loss of life on 9/11 was caused by the incorrect survival strategies of the people within the twin towers including distractedness, unpreparedness of emergencies and elevator

September 11, 2001 is a day that no American will ever forget. That day has left a mark on each an everyone of us. That day is commonly known as ‘9/11’ and was the longest day in New York City. Everyone needs to know the dangers of each day, no matter if you see if coming or not. No one on that day know what life changing experience they would go through. Shortly after arriving to work in September 11, 2001, the attacks took place. Flights 11, 77, 93, and 175 were hijacked early in the morning and the crashed occurred shortly after. Not only were the Twin Towers hit that day, but the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania were hit. There are many survivors who shared their incredible stories. They addressed what was going throughout their minds

The experience leading to posttraumatic stress doesn’t have to last hours on end. In fact, the entire confrontation could last but a short thirty seconds. For many first responders in life-threatening situations, these few seconds can adversely affect the rest of their life (Willis, 2014). From that day or night on, the one affected will be plagued by sleepless nights, nightmares during the minimal hours of rest, and periodic anxiety attacks (Willis, 2014). In just thirty seconds, a well-trained first responder can go from being emotionally stable with a happy heart and life to having an unstable family, marriage, and have an inability to effectively perform many of his or her job duties. In just thirty seconds, one can develop a case of (undiagnosed) posttraumatic stress disorder (Willis, 2014).

Post-traumatic stress disorder, better known as PTSD, is steadily becoming a more relevant topic of conversation in our society today. Recently this disorder has received a lot of attention due to the conflicts our military personnel are currently engaged in around the world. Another event that brought PTSD to forefront were the tragedies of 9/11. PTSD is one of the rare disorders that are a direct result of an outside traumatic event. Make no mistake about it, PTSD might be a relatively newly diagnosed disorder, but it has been around for many years. Our military servicemen had reported these conditions for many years before, now we finally have a It is an unfortunate truth that many people in our society are involved in traumatic

Many people, especially among those directly exposed, were likely to develop long-lasting mental health problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. Long-term studies found that young children with direct exposure to 9/11 had significantly high rates of aggression, anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. Adolescents, who are more likely to understand what had happened, and mothers of children, were also affected greatly. Elevated rates of depression in New York City adolescents and mothers were found a year after 9/11. Mothers’ psychological problems also affected their children. Whether a mother had PTSD or depression was linked to rates of behavior problems in children. From these studies, it has been concluded that the most vulnerable were young children. However, direct exposure has been shown to play a small, yet significant role on the severity of the mental health problems prevalent in people of all

The safety of American citizens was extremely questioned in the years following 9/11. Most Americans believed that the country was completely safe and secure. However, 9/11 brought the reality that we are not completely free at all. In return, this created mass national confusion as to why someone didn't like the United States. Because of safety concerns, a more vulnerable society was fashioned. Citizens felt unprotected, scared, and bare of security. Thanks to departments and programs such as the TSA and the Department of Homeland Security, safety was reinstated. Another unfortunate social impact was the diagnosing of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Doctors found a sharp rise in the number of PTSD patients post-9/11 with loved ones, firefighters, bystanders, police officers, Trade Center Workers, and many others. Most patients were found to be involved with “Ground Zero”, or, the area in which the towers had collapsed. At least 10,000 people exposed to the terrorist attack have been found to have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, an extreme psychological damage to society. Roughly 4.3 billion dollars has been spent treating this disorder through the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. “The terrorist attacks of 9/11 have brought a substantial and enduring burden of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder on those people who lost loved ones, as well as firefighters and recovery workers.” - Yuval Neria, Laura

Terrorist attacks has changed the United States tremendously. Since 9/11 there are striker laws that have been passed, more security in known places that terrorist have targeted before. For Example, flying on an airplane or at an airport is totally different since the terrorist attack occurred. “The TSA already uses behavior detection screeners at airports to spot out terrorist and other dangerous travelers through subtle clues in the way these individuals act” (Maras, 2013, p.347). These security measures are just the beginning of how things have changed. Furthermore, citizens are now more cautions of where they go on vacation and people who supposedly look like terrorists can be frightening and bring up those memories. The victims and many

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was a huge cause in this horrific disaster. People who were around or worked the clean-up of the Twin Towers, have a higher risk of getting PTSD. That is more than four times as many as the general population. Workers who worked or people who had been around the disaster have a 19% higher risk of getting cancer. The National Institute for Occupational Safety Program found out that they had found fifty different types of cancer including all pediatric cancers, leukemia, bladder, rectum, colon, thyroid, stomach, esophagus, larynx, ovary, and breast and lung cancer. 1 in 10 rescuers have an onset asthma within 6 years of 9/11. People who had been around the disaster have an aftermath of fear, helplessness, and horror. Most people around the attack showed some stress but that usually goes away after about a week but some people even have stress symptoms years after the attack. People with these symptoms can seek help if it becomes unbearable. The amount of stress can also cause people to increase the risk of using alcohol and drugs. A couple of other mental health disorders are Depression and Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Depression is one of the big side effects on people after 9/11. Depression is usually found in people that witnessed or those who helped the clean-up with or without PTSD.

My mom was in graduate school at Columbia University when the attacks occurred. This Event shaked her life. No one should ever go through this. She suffered from post traumatic stress for a few months after 9/11. This is a very sensitive subject for my mom to talk about.

The City of New York was destroyed in 2001. In 2001 a terrorist group attacked the World Trade Center. The attack changed a lot of things for New Yorkers. A lot of money was spent, many people lost their jobs and many people have died. One attack changed the lives for the community of New York City. In one attack, 3,000 were died and billions of dollars were spent. The community of New York City totally had out turn due to the World Trade Center. However, The police department in New York City and America are now more trained to fight any attack that could take place at anytime. Other countries that include Arabs people were also affected, such as Egypt.

Homeland security was founded under the Bush administration in 2003 due the attacks of September 11 was forever stay in the mind of the American public. It was a tragic event that scared the nation. The 9-11 attacks claimed 2,996 lives that included 19 hijackers. Neria, DiGrande, & Adams, (2011) reported that an extensive amount of the post-9/11 research revealed that in the subsequent 10 years, individuals with greater contact to 9/11 had substantially higher PTSD issues. The PTSD was correlated with other factors (SES, social support, loss of life). For example, Yehuda (2002) showed that lower socioeconomic background is related to an increased risk for PTSD. The rate of PTSD symptoms in subjects examined increased to 19 percent, a five percent rise from the survey performed on about 71,000 registrants two to three years following the attacks (Twemlow, Sacco, Ramzy, & Nadia,2011). Chemtob, Madan, Berger, &Abramovitz, (2011) assessed the relationship between different types of trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, and suicidal ideation among New York City adolescents one year after the World Trade Center attacks. The study found notable associations between trauma exposure, PTSD, and increased suicidal ideation in adolescents. Internationally, youth residing in war zones are even more exposed to traumatic events. For example, the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents is estimated to be 5–8% in