JFCS offers counseling, workshops to cope with tragedy

Moses said the agency has been fielding many phone calls since the Sept. 11 tragedy. JFCS counselors have already begun seeing individuals and conducting workshops in offices to help people cope with the anxiety they are experiencing.

While some people began to have symptoms right away, others may not exhibit them until a month later, Moses said.

Common reactions to heightened stress range from the physical: fatigue, nausea, difficulty breathing and headaches; to the cognitive: confusion, poor concentration and memory failure; the emotional: guilt, denial, panic, depression; and the behavioral: emotional outbursts, withdrawal, drug and alcohol abuse.

Given that thousands of people have been killed or lost a loved one, a common reaction is for people to wonder what right they have to lament their own personal problems. "They need permission to attend to their own lives," Moses said, "and not feel that their individual issues and agendas are devalued because of the big tragedy that's happened in New York."

Things that can help, Moses said, are keeping busy, talking to people about your feelings, maintain as routine a schedule as possible, keep a journal, get plenty of rest, eat well-balanced, regular meals, and any other things that make you feel you have control over your life.

For more information, call JFCS: San Francisco, (415) 449-1200; Peninsula (650) 688-3030; Marin (415) 491-7960; Sonoma (707) 571-8131; or East Bay JFCS (510) 704-7494.

-- Alexandra J. Wall