A New World Disorder

Raising Stable Kids in an Unstable World: A Physician's Guide to Dealing With Childhood Stress
by David Ryan Marks, M.D.

Book Description

A book that couldn't have been written at a better time-children experience stresses from an overload of organized activities, excessive pressure to succeed, ongoing exposure to violence, and perhaps the most stressful event of all: the catastrophic day of September 11, 2001.

In his ten years of medical experience, including working on the front lines of Ground Zero during the weeks after the World Trade Center tragedy, Dr. David Marks has witnessed today's children having to cope with stresses that their parents never had. The statistics are disturbing - one out of three American children suffers from stress-related illnesses such as headaches, stomachaches, chest pains, dizziness, sleep and eating disorders and depression. In this groundbreaking book, Dr. David Marks shows how much of this suffering can be avoided, and treated without medication.

This practical and informative book explains how parents and care-givers can help children of all ages cope with different types of stresses that, if not released or resolved, will result in harmful behaviors and illnesses. It explores the mind/body connection offering an engaging look at what can be done to treat and prevent stress reactions and suggests practical ways for parents to ease the stress level of their children.

Chapter One - A New World Disorder

Casualties

“My belly hurts,” said Cindy, a four-year-old from New Jersey.

Her mom turned to the pediatrician and added, “She's also had diarrhea every few days or so, and she's been wetting the bed.”

“How long has she had the symptoms?” the doctor asked.

“I think it's been about a month now,” the mom answered.

The doctor visit took place in the middle of October, a little more than a month after the World Trade Center attacks.

Her story came to me as an example of a child who experienced physical effects from the insecurity and anxiety in the chaos around her. Cindy's mom did not link the terrorist attacks and her daughter's symptoms, and at four years old, Cindy was unable to verbalize her anxiety.

Ten-year-old William was able to talk about his fears, but like most ten-year-olds, he didn't. Instead, within weeks of the terrorist attacks, William developed an itchy, scaly rash on the back of his knees and on both of his forearms. The itching was so bad that it kept him up at night. The more he scratched, the more his skin itched. William had suffered from eczema when he was younger, but the rash had not appeared in the previous two years. Because of the timing of this outbreak, his parents suspected a tie to the World Trade Center attacks. They tried to talk to him about the attacks and about any concerns he might have, but William was tight-lipped and denied any worries.

The doctor agreed that William's eczema was probably anxiety related. In addition to treating the rash with prescription ointments, he encouraged William's parents to continue to talk to their son about the attacks and to reassure him, through their words and actions, that he is safe.

At the time of this writing, William, Cindy and their parents are still struggling with the consequences of the new world disorder. So are thousands of other families across the country, including my own. Jacob is no longer blinking, but he still occasionally draws morbid pictures. Becca woke up with terrible nightmares almost every night the first couple of weeks after September 11; the terrors have now decreased in frequency, but every once in a while she'll still wake up crying from a bad dream.

Children react differently to a disaster, depending upon their distance from it, their age, previous experience with disasters, emotional maturity, temperament and personality. However, disasters cause common feelings in almost all children and adults.5 They make us feel as though we're not in control of our lives. Indeed, disasters are, by their very nature, out of our control. They make our world seem unstable because they throw off our routines and destroy our sense of trust. They make us feel unsafe.

Terrorism is about making people afraid: afraid to fly, to go to work, to live a normal life. If you want to know how much our lives have changed since September 11, just look at the signs of fear pervading our society. Adults have become so scared to fly that some entertainers wouldn't even attend the Emmy Awards ceremony because they would have had to take a cross-country flight; some people now wear gloves to open their mail; some New Yorkers are moving out of the city; the National Guard patrols our airports; twenty-four-hour cable news channels fill their airtime with talk about the possibility that terrorists have suitcase-sized nuclear bombs. Other adults are less frightened about their safety than they are about whether they will still have jobs tomorrow.

Terrorism scares kids, too. Young children, including those in elementary or middle school, may worry that Mom or Dad is going to be taken away from them or that tall buildings aren't safe because an airplane is likely to hit them. Children may also worry about their family's financial situation if they hear parents voicing concerns. Teenagers may share some of these concerns, but with an added worry that they could be drafted into the military now that we are engaged in a war that may take years to win.

Fear, loss of control, instability and insecurity can cause a great deal of stress in children, especially when the adults around them are having trouble coming to terms with their own reactions.

Children who survived, witnessed, watched or found out about the World Trade Center disaster were probably as stressed out about it as you or I. They can show the effects of that stress in a variety of ways. Here's what you might expect.Children suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have similar symptoms, which should come as no surprise. According to the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, “The diagnosis of PTSD requires that an individual experience an event that involves a threat to one's own or another's life or physical integrity and that they respond with intense fear, helplessness or horror.”6 By that definition, we are all probably at risk for developing some PTSD symptoms. Although few studies of PTSD in children are available, existing research indicates that 77 percent of children and adolescents exposed to a school shooting and 35 percent of urban youth exposed to community violence develop PTSD.7

We don't want our children to become part of these statistics. We need to look out for the signs and symptoms of posttraumatic stress.

© 2002 Health Communications, Inc.

About the Author

David Ryan Marks, M.D., is an award-winning health reporter for the NBC television stations in Hartford (WVIT) and New York City (WNBC) and has appeared as a medical expert on Today, Good Morning America, MSNBC and the Fox News Channel. He has more than ten years of clinical experience, most recently as medical director of the renowned New England Center for Headache in Stamford, Connecticut. He received his M.D. from the Yale University School of Medicine and a Master of Public Administration degree from New York University.