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LCM Bookstore: Order Tapes and Transcripts Check out The Infinite Mind's broadcast date and time in your area
Copyright © 1997-2002
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 State of Mind: America 2002: Journalist Robert Krulwich presents an exclusive interview with U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher. He reviews again the results of The Infinite Mind/American Psychological Association survey which found a percentage of those surveyed equivalent to about nine and a half million Americans who said they were feeling more anxious and/or depressed than they had at other times in their lives directly because of September 11th. These are people who may be new to questions of mental health and new to feeling like they might need help. After outlining the second hour's programming, we return to Dr. Fred Goodwin in Washington who introduces a video interview with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher by noted journalist Robert Krulwich. Dr. Goodwin points out that the Office of the Surgeon General has issued five reports on mental health. All five were the initiatives of Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher, who sat down with noted tv and radio reporter Robert Krulwich during his final weeks in office. Dr. Satcher explains that though there is certainly much healing in the nation five months after 9-11, some people are not healing. Of those who experience PTSD, for example, 50 percent will recover within six months, while 50 percent will not. Mr. Krulwich and the Surgeon General discuss that while things are, obviously, different for those people with a personal connection to the events of September 11th, some people could in fact be traumatized by repeated exposure to the images of disaster that were repeatedly shown on television. Different people come to these experiences with different histories and those who may have already suffered some damage may be more susceptible. Dr. Satcher said that he was in Oklahoma City three weeks after the terrorist attacks and that some of his colleagues reported symptoms like sleeplessness in patients who had made good recoveries from the 1995 bombing there. The Surgeon General explains that his office's report predicts that some 10 percent of those directly affected by the events of the 11th will develop PTSD. But he cautions that the prediction is not as precise as he's like it to be, mainly because data on mental disorders is so sketchy. And why is that? Because we've created an environment in which people feel that their character is lacking or that they are weak if they're suffering from a mental disorder. But mental disorders are common. Things go wrong with the brain as with other organs. Our experience with rescue workers shows that people feel more comfortable seeking help for a pulled muscle than they do asking for help for mental problems. Robert Krulwich's last question to the Surgeon General concerns a point of personal history. In his youth in Alabama Dr. Satcher experienced some of the more traumatic aspects of racism-for example, grew up 60 miles from Birmingham, where four young girls were killed in a church bombing in 1963. He also personally experienced violence when protesting segregation. Krulwich asks whether he learned anything from those experiences that he found applicable to dealing with the aftermath of September 11th. Dr. Satcher replies that one of the most useful lessons he learned was the importance of taking action, of not just dealing with things internally. |
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