The JetBlue plane landed safely in California yesterday with 139 people on board-- yet you wouldn't know it given the media hype. Have you noticed that all of the emergencies that we used to hear about second hand are now a kind of human drama played out on tv with the worst case scenario at the forefront.

You would think that the commentators on these shows want the worst for the people involved given their bated breath and excited voices as they wait for a catastrophe. Or worst yet, when a trauma such as Katrina happens, the media make it worse by confirming people's worst fears. Coping mechanisms such as denial, repression, and sublimation are denied to the victims of trauma when it is consistedly beat into their psyche that they must be traumatized.

The old theory about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was that it was therapeutic to have the client relive the trauma over and over in order to get better (exposure). But it is the feeling of being able to control one's circumstances and that one can triumph over adversity that makes people feel better and adjust in the long run. The media catastrophizing every event and all of the hand wringing (i.e. Katrina) sends the wrong message and makes victims out of people who have just had a bad experience.