New York's Firefighters Fight Post 9/11 Stress with Yoga

February 7, 2003

.. New York's Firefighters Fight Post 9/11 Stress with Yoga

NEW YORK, U.S.A., February 6, 2003: Told to shut his eyes and shake his body

vigorously, Kevin Guy began to reconsider whether he should have signed up

for the workshop. "Is this guy for real?" the strapping Bronx-born

firefighter wondered as he began Dr. Jim Gordon's program of meditation,

yoga and alternative therapies to help firefighters deal with the emotional

stress of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. That one-time workshop was

offered last summer, not long after the end of a nine-month cleanup of human

remains and structural debris at the World Trade Center site. Now, Guy

meditates and shakes stress away nearly every day and helped Gordon launch a

regular program for city firefighters. The sessions began a week after Mount

Sinai Medical Center released preliminary findings from a federal program

that screened workers who responded to the terrorist attack and aided in its

cleanup. Ten months after the attacks, 52 percent reported mental health

problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, doctors said. The findings

were based on a random sample of 250 people from the first 500 workers

examined; 3,500 people have been screened in six months. Basic techniques

include relaxation, meditation, yoga, visual imagery, self-hypnosis and

group support. The center also works with cancer patients and people

suffering from other chronic illnesses. The challenge was getting a

firefighter to stretch out on a mat in a yoga pose, meditate to soft music

or learn to do focused breathing -- practices initially deemed "ridiculous

and crazy" by most first-timers, Gordon said. However, more than 40 people

attended the new class. Guy wants to recruit more by convincing his

tough-minded brethren that Gordon's program is a take-charge, independent

type of therapy. "You're not on a psychiatrist's couch -- it's just basic

things that you can do to help yourself. It really calms you down," Guy

said.

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