New York – Lieutenant Brian Bonsignore of the New York Fire Department spent six months working on zero recovery 11-S. His GPS unit marked the exact location of the victims’ remains.
CBS
“At the end of the day, you would come home and smell death, shoes, skin pores and hair,” he said.
Bonsignore developed asthma and PTSD. 9/11 anniversaries trigger PTSD symptoms.
“You get very sharp with people,” he said. “You distance yourself a lot from people. I dealt with it by detaching myself from it, from TVs, newspapers, events, and if you relive it, it just builds up and builds up and builds up.”
Dr. Sandra Lowe directs mental health services for the World Trade Center Health Program in Mount Sinai.
“Some people really have what we call birthday reactions sooner than usual,” Lowe said. “For some people, it ‘s because this anniversary comes in the context of a pandemic … Some patients began to become more isolated during the pandemic and to have difficulty mobilizing. “
This twentieth anniversary that comes after the pandemic is even causing mental health problems for the first time.
“We had eight new patients coming in and they all needed psychiatric treatment,” Lowe said.
For Bonsignore, the memories are so vivid, but for some others he thinks the memories fade too quickly.
“I think we should talk about what they did,” he said. “They gave their lives, not me.”
And honoring that sacrifice could be another path to healing.