Hwaida Hannoush knows better than to get home after her shift and turn on the news of bombs devastating her homeland, but “it?s too tempting.”
The resident doctor at Good Samaritan Hospital in Baltimore has been tracking her extended family near Beirut via cell phone for a week since Israel began bombing Lebanon. “All day and night I watch the news,” she said. “I thought it was the best policy to come to work. I felt coming to work would make me a little bit distracted.”
On Wednesday, her parents fled her hometown of Saida, just south of Beirut, through Syria, to Qatar. Hannoush, 36, sleeps a little better now, but still has many relatives in Lebanon.
“I?m still nervous,” she said. “I want this to be over. I want the war to be over.”
The medical student from American University, Beirut, is planning to stay in this country, “especially now.”
Maintaining a consistent daily rhythm and not isolating yourself are some of the best things people in Hannoush?s situation can do for their mental health, said Dr. Elias K. Shaya, chief psychiatrist with Good Samaritan.
He cautions against spending too much time watching news of the crisis. Get your news in measured, focused intervals, Shaya said.
“If someone is vulnerable, it won?t help them to sit mesmerized in front of the television watching every injured person,” Shaya said. “These news reports are filled with terrible images of death and suffering.”
It is better getting focused news summaries, he said, such as brief, periodic radio reports, rather than continuing television coverage.
Shaya came to the U.S. from Lebanon in 1985, but his aging parents still live in Beirut. Shaya worries about their safety and their ability to move out of harm’s way.
“No one is immune. All of us might be vulnerable,” Shaya said. Even with knowing tips to cope, “I still feel anxious. I still feel relieved, having talked to them.”
