Word: stressful
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Before Sept. 11, the Pentagon did not have a single full-time working psychologist. Today there are almost 100, working around the clock to make sure anyone who suffers stress, anxiety and depression knows at the very least where to find help. The military has little practice at being touchy-feely; many soldiers love the uniform because it acts as a shield against vulnerability, as a constant reminder of a mission far greater than individual sorrows or insecurities. Since the end of the cold war, old-line soldiers have grumbled that the military's warrior ethos has been lost...
...Vieira's teams do their best to look and talk like normal soldiers, not shrinks. They introduce themselves not as therapists but as part of the "critical-incident stress-debriefing team." Even the Pentagon's new mental-health wing, located inside the main health clinic, has a generic name: the Life Skills Center. Vieira's handouts emphasize that getting emotional "is not weakness." Says Army Major Rick Keller, a psychiatric nurse-practitioner from Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington: "We know we can't get them with...
...stress is most acute for some of the youngest. "A lot of these guys are just 18 years old," says Vieira. "They have never been exposed to death at this level. Some never expected to be." But even officers like William Durm, the Pentagon's chief dentist, who headed the first triage units at the scene of the attack and who has been in the Navy for 25 years, admit the emotion can be difficult to bear. "During the rescue," says Durm, "there was no time to process what was happening. It was later, when I had to pull dental...
...October issue of Pediatrics, kids genetically susceptible to asthma face more than double the risk of developing the disease by the time they are eight if their parents had trouble caring for them in infancy. The study's authors speculate that maternal depression or marital conflicts could cause emotional stress to the infant, impairing development of the immune system...
Fear of flying is often aggravated by catastrophe. Stress and anxiety are known to trigger phobias: many people develop an aversion to flying after an individual crisis, such as the death of a relative. And global events like the Gulf War in 1991-92 and last year's Concorde crash can elicit a mass response. Experts say the fallout from the hijackings and attacks on New York City and Washington is likely to exceed anything they've seen. Flyers have to cope with the recent deaths, fear of terrorism and a depressing world economy. "There's just so much grief...