Bob Levoy’s success file
Coping with Current Events

People are reacting in a variety of ways to the events going on in our country right now, and the non-stop news coverage of those events. Some of the resulting feelings may include: loss of security; anger; sadness; disrupted sleep; irritability; perhaps even guilt that they were spared. Everyone, it seems, is affected in varying ways, from extreme terror to eerie calm.

What’s the best way to cope?
“The first thing to understand,” says Bernard Leibman, Ph.D, professor emeritus at Queens College, N.Y., and practicing psychologist in Manhasset, N.Y., “is that these symptoms are normal reactions to devastating events. Give yourself permission to feel the feelings. Others are experiencing the very same feelings. Try to clarify as objectively as possible, exactly what’s going on.”

For example, he says, there are 680,000,000 pieces of mail delivered every day in the United States. At press time, only a handful had tested positive for anthrax. “That helps to put things in perspective,” Leibman says.

It’s important to try to understand your reaction to what’s happening, Leibman says. “Are your symptoms due to the external event itself or to your internal processing of the event?” he asks “The goal is to bring yourself back to a position where you’re in control of your feelings. That’s what therapy teaches: Don’t deny your anxiety. It’s a normal reaction to traumatic events. Try instead to reach a point where you understand what’s happening and how it has affected you physically and emotionally. Then try to engage in behavior that feels more constructive than what you’re doing.”

The best advice is to take steps to recover from panic and get back to normal as quickly and effectively as possible. “Do something, anything to break your thought pattern,” Leibman says. “Resume your routine activities. Or try meditation, visualization, exercise, cooking, surfing the Internet - anything that’s meaningful to you. What’s important is to keep moving. It will speed the process of regaining control.”

The process that Leibman recommends - clarifying, understanding, and changing anxiety-prone thoughts and behavior - will help you in coping with your reactions to current events.

Mr. Levoy, a management consultant based in Roslyn, N.Y., has conducted more than 2,500 seminars for health-care professionals. Those seminars have included programs for the American and Canadian chiropractic associations and numerous state and provincial chiropractic associations.