Steve Buscemi struggled with his mental health after volunteering in the aftermath of 9/11.
The actor, who worked as a firefighter in the 1980s, volunteered for search and recovery efforts after the terrorist attacks in 2001 and although two decades have passed, the memories still haunt him today. Buscemi opened up about how the tragic incident took a toll on his mental health during an interview with Marc Maron for his "WTF" podcast.
"I haven’t experienced any health issues, and I get myself checked out, but definitely ... Post traumatic stress? Absolutely," Buscemi said, according to Fox News. "I was only there for like five days, but when I stopped going and tried to just live my life again, it was really, really hard," he added. "I was depressed, I was anxious, I couldn’t make a simple decision. All those things. It’s still with me. There are times when I talk about 9/11 and I’m right back there. I start to get choked up and I realize, 'Ah, this is still a big part of me.'"
During the interview, Buscemi also shared memories of helping out at Ground Zero in New York.
"I kept calling the fire house the day before and of course there was no answer. Because I knew that they would be there," he said. "And then I eventually learned that five of them were missing. One of them was a good friend of mine I used to work with."
Buscemi recalled being driven to the site that day, where he "walked around for hours and then found my company, found Engine 55 working there."
"I asked if I could join them. I could tell they were a little suspicious at first, but I worked with them that day," he said.
Writing in a column for Time, Buscemi recounted how he was able to detach from his emotions while assisting on the site but it all caught up with him later.
"It actually felt good to be there. I was on the site for less than a week, but it wasn’t until I got home that the magnitude of it all caught up with me," he said. "I was already seeing a therapist, and though it was almost impossible to process the enormity of what had happened, just having someone with whom to sit with all the feelings was a consolation."
Related Stories:
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.