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When the American Psychological Association surveyed more than 2,000 people about their stress levels just days after a series of mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, in 2019, the findings set out the causes of seemingly constant, arbitrary violence.
One-third of respondents said they would no longer go to certain public places for fear of falling victim to mass shootings. Almost as many said they could not go anywhere without worrying about being shot. Twenty-four percent said they had made changes in their lives for fear of mass shootings.
Sixty-two percent of parents say they have lived in fear of their children being the victims of mass shootings, and 71 percent say the possibility of mass violence adds stress to their lives.
Attacks on the psyche of Americans are only intensifying since then, with more than two years of a pandemic that has claimed 1 million lives in the United States; street battles in the struggle for racial justice; a war in Ukraine that renewed fears of a nuclear conflict; amusement train economy; a rebellion in the US Capitol; visibly deteriorating effects of climate change and many more mass shootings. They culminated in Tuesday’s massacre of 19 children and two adults at an elementary school in Uwalde, Texas, just 10 days after the massacre of 10 African Americans at a Buffalo supermarket.
Experts say that relentless development affects our mental and physical health and how we interact as a society. Turning to churches and schools is of particular concern to many who have long considered it a safe haven from the hustle and bustle of the world.
“People are emotionally drained,” said Roxan Cohen Silver, a psychologist at the University of California, Irvine who has studied trauma for decades. “We cannot see any of these events in isolation. We see a cascade of collective traumas. “I don’t think many people can imagine this degree of loss.”
The impact is felt most deeply by communities that are already under stress. “This affects the country as a whole, and even more so the people of color, who are largely victims of these last two incidents,” said Rev. Ray Hammond, pastor at Bethel AME Church in Boston, who is working on anti-corruption initiatives. violence for decades.
“Although you know intellectually that this is a rare thing, the feeling of insecurity is cumulative and I think it is extremely disturbing for many people.”
The new American norm: “Why are we ready to live with this carnage?”
The idea that colored people feel more vulnerable is supported by the APA study, which was included in the organization’s annual report on stress in America. Spaniards, blacks, Asians and Indians report more stress from mass shootings than whites.
A study from Quinnipiac University and a Pew Research Center study conducted in 2018 after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, showed the same results, with blacks and Spaniards fearing more mass violence than whites and -younger people are more worried than older respondents.
At a vigil for victims of the shooting at Rob Elementary School in Uwalde, Texas, residents and families gathered to seek solace in their community. (Video: Alice Lee, Jorge Ribas / Washington Post)
Tuesday’s riot brought an additional measure of grief to a nation that saw the faces of children like 10-year-old Ameri Joe Garza, smiling proudly with her certificate of honor just hours before she was killed by a gunman.
The studies, experts said, confirm their belief that repeated exposure to shocking acts of violence, which occur with appalling regularity in this country, alone among its peers, affects human health.
“It’s obviously having a significant negative impact, especially on our mental and physical health,” said Vale Wright, senior director of health innovation at APA, who has been working on stress studies in America that have been conducted every year since. 2007
“When acts of mass violence are repeated in this way, they begin to feel more and more devastating and a sense of hopelessness begins to emerge,” she said.
Human bodies are not expected to be aroused so often, she said. The result is over-vigilance, anxiety and the inability to “be in the moment”. Some people may become insensitive to violence as a defense, she said.
“People feel so overwhelmed by stress and anxiety that they have to share it to some degree,” Wright said.
Joshua Morganstein, a psychiatrist and chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster, noted that schools are considered safe places, as are temples of worship – both of which have been attacked in mass shootings in recent years.
When these places are hit by violence, it is particularly worrying, he said. And the death of children in violence adds another layer of horror: “It also challenges our perception and belief in the natural order of life in the world, which is that parents should be ahead of their children in death, not the other way around,” he said. .
Morganstein suggested that people follow their consumption of news of horrific events such as the Uwalde shooting. It is not insensitive to rule out the news, he said – it may be necessary for mental health.
“The media is such an important source of information for us, but we know that exposure to disaster-related media is constantly linked to feelings of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, sleep problems, increased alcohol and tobacco use.” he said.
Silver, a California psychologist, is studying the health consequences of reporting on the 9/11 attacks and the Iraq war and has found evidence that some people have developed new cardiovascular diseases as a result. She is now studying the psychological and physical consequences of this “constant attack” of bad news on our sense of security.
Previous research on collective trauma has shown that some people may develop conditions that include short-term anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental health problems.
And these exposed to multiple tragedies tend to have “greater distress, functional impairment, and lower life satisfaction,” according to Silver’s 2020 commentary published in Nature Human Behavior, based on numerous studies. The bad news is exacerbated by its rapid spread on social media and its recurrence over the 24-hour news cycle.
“We not only see or hear the news of these tragedies, but we see it in graphic color,” she said.
In addition to reducing the consumption of news, experts advise you to focus on what you can control, instead of worrying about what might happen and post embarrassing information in a broader context.
According to Gillian Peterson, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at Hamline University in St. Paul’s, Min. . Firearms suicides account for about 60 percent of all gun deaths each year.
“The most dangerous thing you’re going to do today is drive a car,” said Joel Dvoskin, a clinical assistant in psychiatry at the University of Arizona Medical College. “And we actually made it safer.”
But Beverly Kingston, director of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence at the University of Colorado, said society was only now beginning to wonder, “How do we treat collective trauma?” How do we recognize that our society is built on layers of trauma?
“I am concerned that our collective trauma has hampered what we can do to create a better society,” she said.
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