By: Tehila Strulowitz
On July 13th of this year, a shot was witnessed around the world when a skinny, pale 20-year-old with an AR-15-style rifle climbed onto a roof facing former President Donald Trump’s rally and fired. After the crowd got up from the ground when police said it was safe, but before paramedics could arrive, millions of people already had photos and videos of the incident on their devices and were chasing the story for updates.
Research outlines how witnessing these events through such graphic and detailed media not only makes us afraid and panicked, but also leads us to doubt our society. We start to think that if we scoured the dark web enough, we’d be able to prevent shootings, or that our children’s classmates who are on the fringes of the social scene might just shoot them one day. We may even convince ourselves that we need a gun for our personal safety and survival.
Universally, we consider leaders to be among the most protected and secure people in our country. When we witness political violence firsthand or through videos and photos, we automatically begin to fear for our own safety and security. As psychologist Dr. Zachary Ginder points out, witnessing a violent attack on a government authority—whether in real-time or via video—leads us to question and doubt our “sense of social order, control, trust, safety, and security.”
One thing that the boom of social media has demonstrated, validated by numerous studies, is that we easily obtain extensive video and photo coverage of violent attacks, whether they involve shootings, terrorist attacks, assassination attempts, or others. The ability to see every single moment from every angle of a violent incident, due to continuous media coverage and the ease of sharing on social media, serves to sustain our trauma and panic, according to Roxanne Cohen Silver, a professor of psychological science, medicine, and public health at the University of California, Irvine.
Experts suggest several ways to relieve anxious feelings: avoid listening to and perpetuating conspiracy theories by ensuring that you’re getting your news from reliable sources; take time to establish and maintain regular habits that support your self-care; channel your energy into advocacy and “positive action,” which can help many feel more in control; focus on kindness and positivity; and seek help when needed to process trauma in a healthy way rather than remaining in a traumatic mindset.
If one’s reaction to trauma is intense, they may experience difficulties such as trouble sleeping, concentrating, irritability, anger, lashing out, or paranoia. Disorders related to traumatic reactions—whether the experience was direct or indirect—include acute stress disorder, depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and substance use disorder.
CounselingRx 