Last week's mass shooting in San Bernardino,CA is the latest in what seems to be a never ending stream of massacres. In his primetime address on Sunday, President Obama warned of an "evolving terrorism threat, and " while Republican presidential candidates speak of a terrorist danger that threatens the American way of life. Even Pope Francis has warned of a "piecemeal" World War III unfolding across the globe.
But in the midst of the media hysteria,New York Times contributing opinion writer and clinical psychiatry professor Richard A. Friedman said it's time for people to take a deep breath and aloof down.
In his piece, "Cognitive Therapy for the Country, and " Friedman wrote renewed terrorism fears "[don't] mean we should check our brain at the door once we've been traumatized and let ourselves be ruled by our emotions."Dr. Friedman told WNYC's Jami Floyd that while it's natural to be frightened,Americans need to "rationally assess" the actual threat the country faces."[It's] natural to feel anxiety and alarm, especially because these attacks are unpredictable and horrifying, and " said Friedman. "We can't allow the alarm to flee our lives. We contain to be able to put it into perspective and say,'It's not going to be an everyday occurrence....
It's not going to slay our way of life. We're not going to let it.'"
Source: wnyc.org