In the days following the World Trade Center disaster, workers in New York's midtown of-fice towers rushed for the elevators at the slightest rumor of a fire or bomb. Victims of Oklahoma City's 1995 disaster returned to their old psychiatrists. Across the U. S., peo-ple passed fitful nights as televised scenes of fiery jet crashes replayed in their heads.rnCertainly, the deadly attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington will inflict their greatest psychic pain on those who lost loved ones or experi-enced the horror firsthand. Millions of others across the country, however, are also experienc-ing emotional trauma. "An event like this af-fects everyone's mental health," says Dr. Stuart Yudofsky, chair-man of the psychiatry depart-ment at Houston's Baylor Col-lege of Medicine. Watching such dramatic and violent events, even on TV, and knowing that thousands of Americans have likely died can produce acute stress. "We'll probably all have some of the symptoms," says Dr. Arthur Rousseau, an Oklahoma City psychiatrist who worked with victims after the bombing that killed 168 there.
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