The world is an increasingly scary
place.
Political assassinations, mass
shootings at schools, churches,
and on the street.
Even though some of the violence is
close to home, the sense is
it won't happen to me.
But that's what survivors often say.
And how are people to make their way
in the face of it?
We asked Sydney Timmer-Murillo,
Assistant Professor at the Medical
College of Wisconsin, and
psychologists treating trauma and
traumatic injury.
And thanks for being here.
So is there such a thing as
collective trauma, where people
generally feel a sense of foreboding
in the current climate?
Yeah, absolutely.
I think especially with the
frequency that we're seeing violence
and such
highly broadcasted events
of violence, we can
absolutely, as humans, feel
the weight of so
much profound trauma.
So watching the
deadly mayhem of
the fire and church shooting
in Michigan was
so much.
And then it's an endless loop
in social media.
How much does that endless loop
wear on people?
Yeah, we know that the frequency
of how much you see trauma
or experience trauma matters.
So that repetition of violence
really can impact somebody
quite significantly.
And it's normal for
them to then start to experience
anxiety or fear
or really a threat to
their sense of safety, even if
it wasn't you who experienced the
violence per se.
How injurious is this
exposure in people's
day-to-day lives, perhaps especially
children and young adults, things
they see on screens?
Yeah, so, you know, everybody
is different.
We can see a range of different
reactions from an
understandable spike in your emotion
when you first see that violent
event, but it can grow
and really build a cascade into
mental health concerns or mental
health diagnoses.
And so an individual, you,
know, especially kids and
children and adults when they're
trying to make sense of it.
It can really start to shape your
worldview and whether or
not you feel safe operating in
the world. So maybe you start to
avoid certain things that used to
be normal for you.
It might be difficult for you to go
to work or go to school.
And so the shock of
assassinations and school shootings
is obviously so
deeply disturbing.
Should people not directly involved
sit with that or
move along?
Yeah, we would encourage that,
you know, you can't necessarily
always escape the bad things
happening in life or media
and you want to be informed, but
it's definitely important to take
breaks. I would argue that,
taking those social media breaks and
really making sure you're engaged
with your day-to-day life,
your loved ones and family can
really keep you grounded when
navigating so much tension in
this world. How does
trauma affect people who have
experience? How does trauma affect people
who have experienced it?
What we know from the research is
that if you have a history
of trauma that puts you
at greater risk of developing
psychopathology after any subsequent
types of trauma.
And so if you, let's say, even
were in like a motor vehicle
collision and then now you're
dealing with new exposures to
violence, it does tend to
put you at a greater risk or it's
something that I would be looking
out for when I'm trying to
help treat somebody for,
let's say, post-traumatic stress
disorder or depression.
In what feels like
a violent world and is,
is the practice of trauma treatment
a growing field?
Absolutely.
Yeah, I think, you
know, a majority of people will
experience at least one trauma in
their lifetime, but we know that a
lot of people are at
risk for more than just one
traumatic experience or they live in
communities with high rates of
violence.
And so because of that,
you now, I think mental health
providers really do need to be
prepared for addressing trauma
in whatever they're doing with their
patients.
But we are definitely growing in
terms of specializations as well,
that we need these providers
to really be able to hone
in on the root of
somebody's trauma reactions.
And that tends to
need some pretty specialized
treatment to be able do that
effectively.
What makes someone resilient
to trauma?
Yeah, what a great question.
You know, I think it is important to
remember that there is resilience in
the face of trauma.
And there are so many
things that can contribute to that.
There can be individual factors, so
how you regulate your emotions in
the face of fear and
threat to your safety.
But I also think social support
is such a profoundly important
resilience factor,
really connecting to your loved ones
when you have been exposed to
violence.
It's so critical for trying to
move forward and cope with
the reactions.
All right. Well, thank you so much.
For more on this and
other issues facing Wisconsin, visit
our website at pbswisconsin.org
and then click on the news tab.
That's our program for tonight.
I'm Frederica Freyberg.
Have a good weekend.
Yeah.
All right. It's important.
Well, thank you, because your voice
allows other people to say, yeah,
okay, I'm not alone.