How is gun violence impacting our psychological well being as a society? NPR’s Ari Shapiro asks psychologist Erika Felix how we ought to be taking good care of ourselves amid numerous tales of lethal mass shootings.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Gun violence has an influence on psychological well being, and that is true far past the communities the place a taking pictures occurs. This yr, the U.S. has already had greater than 30 mass shootings, together with the 2 in California during the last week.
Erika Felix teaches psychology on the University of California, Santa Barbara. Welcome to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED.
ERIKA FELIX: Thank you for having me.
SHAPIRO: How does this relentless toll of mass shootings have an effect on individuals who won’t be straight within the path of the gunfire and even anyplace close to it?
FELIX: Yeah. So I believe that you could liken this stuff to, like, a ripple in a pond, the place it reverberates out past the direct influence. You can see the concentric circles rippling out from that.
SHAPIRO: If we use your analogy of the ripples, let’s go nearer to the place that drop goes into the water. Some communities have way more gun violence than others, and the vast majority of gun violence shouldn’t be mass shootings.
FELIX: Yeah.
SHAPIRO: What influence does residing in that group have on individuals, even when their family members, pals or kin will not be straight within the path of the gun hearth?
FELIX: Well, they’re below fixed stress. For individuals who need to take care of it day-after-day as they go to work or stroll to high school, they’ve elevated ranges of hypervigilance. And that erodes our psychological well being and our bodily well being.
SHAPIRO: We’re speaking about psychological well being penalties broadly. Can you converse particularly about what the precise influence is on individuals?
FELIX: Yeah. So whether or not we witness it on the information or reside locally or we have been there on website, you may have a big elevation in feelings of hysteria, fear, issues with sleeping. All of that’s utterly comprehensible. And from…
SHAPIRO: Even should you’re not locally? Even if you do not know the individuals affected?
FELIX: Yes. When we’re watching the information, we really feel the misery. We have this empathy element of ourselves as human beings. But for some individuals, particularly who skilled probably the most losses, there’s an elevated potential for post-traumatic stress dysfunction or despair, issues and the comprehensible grief course of should you misplaced a liked one in a violent manner.
SHAPIRO: Obviously, the best answer can be to finish gun violence. But what particular steps are you able to counsel individuals take to scale back a few of these detrimental psychological penalties?
FELIX: Yes. In the fast aftermath, one of many vital issues is to get social help. We had a mass homicide tragedy have an effect on our group.
SHAPIRO: In Santa Barbara.
FELIX: In Santa Barbara in 2014. So what individuals discovered most useful was the actions the place they got here collectively as a group. It might even simply be a potluck and simply be round different people who find themselves experiencing comparable issues.
SHAPIRO: That’s so fascinating to me {that a} vigil, for instance, is not only a present of solidarity or an announcement of group. It’s really therapeutic.
FELIX: It is. And really, after I surveyed our college students at UCSB following the mass homicide tragedy, that was one of many issues they discovered most useful. And it was probably the most extensively attended. All of that stuff college students rated as actually useful of their coping within the fast aftermath.
SHAPIRO: As members of the media report on these shootings week after week, are there methods you would like information organizations would strategy these tales otherwise which may scale back the hurt?
FELIX: I respect the shift that I’ve seen in information media the place there’s deal with the group and survivors and there is restricted protection on the perpetrator. I believe that is been an excellent shift. I’ve additionally actually appreciated when the media has gone again to communities that skilled this years in the past and simply talked about how they’re coping within the long-term aftermath, I believe is useful as increasingly individuals take care of this.
SHAPIRO: That’s Erika Felix, professor of medical psychology on the University of California, Santa Barbara. Thank you very a lot.
FELIX: Thank you.
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