LV, nation begin return to normalcy

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 4:38 a.m.

Most Americans have entered the final of three phases of psychological reaction to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, a local professor believes.

Christopher Kearney, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas associate professor of psychology, said the initial phase was shock and disbelief. That was followed by a phase of mourning, depression, sadness and anger, including "a desire for retaliation."

"We're now in the phase where people desire to return to normalcy," Kearney said. "In New York there is talk of rebuilding the World Trade Center towers."

People are beginning to travel more and buy stocks, signs that things are returning to normal, he said of the third phase. But he said it could take years for residents of New York and Washington, as well as relatives and friends of the victims, to return to a normal life. For some "it could take a lifetime," Kearney said.

"The feelings are much more intense in those cities and, because they've been hit once, there's a higher probability that they'll be hit again," Kearney said.

If Southern Nevada was attacked by terrorists, chances are residents would suffer the same trauma as victims of natural disasters.

Psychologists, chaplains and stress-management counselors say both types of events can cause people to develop uncontrollable fears, lose sleep and suffer from a lack of appetite.

"They aren't traumatized by the event itself but by the meaning of the event," Charles Bolin, chaplain at the Riviera, said. "Let's say you ran out of a building and tripped over a gory body. You might dream that that gory body could have been you."

Metro Police officer Kenneth O'Rourke said traumatic events such as terrorism produce three types of psychological victims -- primary, secondary and tertiary. O'Rourke, a trained stress-management counselor and member of the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation, said primary victims are individuals who experienced the incident.

"In 24 to 72 hours you will see the onset of symptoms such as depressed appetite, loss of sleep and avoidance of anyone else who was involved in the incident, with the exception of people you are close to," O'Rourke said.

Secondary victims can be individuals who either responded to the traumatic event, such as law enforcement and rescue personnel, or were repeatedly reminded of the incident by a primary victim. The latter could involve a wife as the primary victim and her husband as the secondary victim, O'Rourke said.

Tertiary victims are people who heard about a traumatic event or saw it on television, such as the events in New York and Washington. O'Rourke said that determining whether someone is a primary, secondary or tertiary victim depends on the person's level of exposure to the traumatic event.

Because of the terrorist attacks, an effort is under way locally to recruit counselors and clergymen to be available to the public in the event large numbers of Southern Nevadans are traumatized by terrorism.

Bolin, a reserve lieutenant colonel in the Air Force, said the effort is being coordinated by the Southern Nevada Critical Incident Stress Management Network, to which he belongs. The network consists of social services, public safety and university personnel who help each other cope with stress.

"We have been real complacent in our society," Bolin said of preparations for terrorist attacks. "It's not healthy to be complacent, but it's not healthy to be hyperalert, either. There's a middle ground."

Kearney estimated that only 10 percent to 15 percent of Southern Nevadans are worried about the potential for terrorism in Las Vegas.

"You will always get people who chronically worry that bad things will happen," Kearney said. "But most people aren't walking around worrying about a terrorist attack."

Child psychologist Dale Forsythe of Las Vegas said children who fear terrorism are likely to have developed those anxieties from things they saw their parents say or do.

"The focus should be to work with the parents so they understand the importance of maintaining a positive outlook with the child," Forsythe said. "Any disturbance of a routine is disturbing to most children. Parents should express confidence to their children about their safety and well-being."

Individuals can conquer fear of a terrorist attack by replacing that fear with love, Metro Police chaplain Bonnie Polley said.

"That means we have to come together and share life with each other," Polley said. "What has happened in our country is that the family unit is not as important as it used to be. We now have an opportunity to come together as families. I don't think we were ever made to cope alone.

"People are really on edge, but what I'm hearing is that there's a lot of good that is coming out of this. People have come together, and I think we're focusing on what's really important."

Should Las Vegas be attacked, O'Rourke recommended that primary victims first be counseled on a one-to-one basis. The goal of the counselor should be to have the victim open up as much as possible.

"It's very healthy to ventilate," he said. "The person who has the opportunity to ventilate is less likely to suffer ongoing symptoms."

Bolin said he would also advise traumatized victims to call friends or relatives.

"I would work to get them to a place where they felt secure," he said.

But O'Rourke said dealing with child victims can be more challenging because they have short attention spans.

"With 4-year-olds, we will tell them that they are safe and will be taken care of and that there will be some changes," he said. "With 15-year-olds, you will talk about the deaths and that they will lose their sleep and their appetite. We would do a little more educating with the 15-year-old than with the 4-year-old."