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Re: ARTICLE: Fallout likely caused 15,000 deaths



In a message dated 3/7/02 4:12:10 PM Mountain Standard Time, jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov writes:


While there were no deaths following the accident phase, people may have
been traumatized by fear.  Post traumatic stress needs to be recognized as
an illness and treated.


Here is a real question, especially for any medical doctors out there:

What differentiates fear from post-traumatic stress?  When does fear become "trauma?"  Some scary things I have done: mountain climbing, my Ph. D. oral prelim (don't laugh.  I was so scared I had real immediate physical symptoms), my first hip replacement, my daughter's eye surgery, sailing in a storm.  I was scared enough to be physically ill, but I certainly didn't suffer   POST-traumatic stress.  Soldiers on a battlefield cope with fear all the time, but all of them do not suffer post-traumatic stress.  Women in labor are frightened.  Anyone who has been mugged has known fear.

   
Ruth Weiner, Ph. D.
ruthweiner@aol.com