10 Years and a Diagnosis Later, 9/11 Demons Haunt Thousands - PTSD

[groovedaddy]

In the safety of her therapist’s office in late 2001, Dr. Margaret Dessau made a tape reliving what it was like to look out her living room window after she heard the boom of a hijacked plane eight blocks away.

Running naked from her bath, she saw pigeons and paper flying through the air. “It’s kind of beautiful in a way,” she recalls on the recording she made and listened to over and over as part of her treatment. “There’s these silver pieces just floating in the air.”

Her gaze met the hole in the tower. “The flames get worse, and then I start seeing all these people hanging out there. The guy with this white towel, and he’s waving it.”

He jumps. Children at a nearby school scream.

“How are you feeling?” her therapist, David Bricker, is heard asking on the tape.

“I start crying,” she replies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/10/nyregion/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-from-911still-haunts.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2