After Hurricane Katrina came another surge: news services
covering the disaster almost non-stop.
After Hurricane Katrina came another surge: news services covering the disaster almost non-stop.
But experts warn against spending too much time taking in all the information. Prolonged exposure to scenes of real-life violence and destruction can affect mental health, sometimes resulting in the development of stress disorders, said Melissa Casas, an associate clinical social worker with the San Benito County Department of Mental Health.
Though some sufferers may never be present at a disaster scene, repeated exposure – through television, Web sites and print – can induce a vicarious form of post-traumatic stress disorder, said Barry Goldman-Hall, clinical director for Community Solutions in Morgan Hill.
“You can watch news 24 hours a day, but it doesn’t mean you should,” said Goldman-Hall. “There’s a sense of powerlessness with people being that far away, and all the overwhelming media … it just heightens it.”
Hundreds or even thousands of miles from a disaster scene, this feeling of helplessness can be amplified by survivor’s guilt and inaction, said Goldman-Hall.
Dr. Stuart Fischoff, a professor at California State University, Los Angeles, and contributor to the Journal of Media Psychology, christened this specific phenomenon “media enabled trauma.” Anecdotal stories and self-reporting surveys have consistently linked the watching of terrible images over and over to stress-related clinical problems such as depression, he wrote. And today, research proves the tie.
As early as 1983, U.S. researchers found that the mind appeared to react more emotionally than intellectually when shown images of scenes known or believed to be reality, according to the book “Cross-Cultural Anxiety,” by Charles D. Spielberger. Later studies, published in the industry journal “Psychiatry,” would find that this was more likely to occur in people who had been directly exposed to a trauma, meaning they were personally involved or had friends or loved ones personally involved in the tragedy.
Indirect observers – people who witnessed the event solely on TV – were less likely to have a severe stress reaction such as PTSD, wrote Fischoff, but it doesn’t mean that they’re all OK, said Casas.
“It’s really the traumatic experiences in life that shake the foundation of our beliefs about safety and shatter our sense of trust,” she said. “The exposure to these stories makes you say, ‘It could have been me,’ so you have to take steps to protect yourself when you’re seeing this in the news.”
Casas recommended limiting television viewership and Internet surfing time, especially for children. Just how much time is enough, though, she couldn’t specify.
“It’s different for people,” Casas said. “When it’s really starting to impact you – when you’re starting to think about this and you’re feeling overwhelmed, like it’s affecting your ability to do things throughout the day or you find yourself unable to concentrate because of the disaster, that’s too much. If you’ve started to have dreams or nightmares of the events you’ve seen, or if you’ve begun having personal flashbacks to a disaster that you’ve had, that’s maybe time to seek professional assistance.”
At such times, it’s normal to feel depression and disbelief, especially if you haven’t heard from friends or loved ones in the Gulf Coast region, said Goldman-Hall. In these cases, you may actually be experiencing grief, he said.
“It’s hard not to think the worst,” said Goldman-Hall. “I think that’s just human nature. It’s anticipatory grief, but I think people really are grieving.”
If you are hurting, tell someone, said Goldman-Hall.
“There are hotlines you can call, or you can go to a therapist,” said Goldman-Hall. “You can go see a clergy member or even a good friend. Talk about how lousy this feels. In some ways, it’s most helpful just to get it out there.”
Even if you’re not grieving, it’s best to shy away from TV overexposure, said Gilroy psychologist Edna Dowell.
Our connection to replayed events, hardens us, Dowell said, robbing us of our natural instinct for compassion.
“There’s such a thing as learned helplessness, and when we are repeatedly exposed to something that horrifies us, it’s not a healthy way to live,” said Dowell. “I know it’s fascinating. There’s a side of us, our darker side, that’s drawn to it, but get up and do something. If we don’t act, we feel more helpless.”
A person’s ability to deal with major stressors may not just be affected by proximity to a disaster, though. It could also be linked to his or her biology, personality or state of mental health, wrote Fischoff.
Adults are more likely to have heightened emotional responses to real violence, but some people are wired to be overly empathetic, Fischoff wrote. Others, especially those who are already suffering chronic depression or who have a tendency to revisit the tragic events of their lives, may simply be pushed over their breaking point by televised disaster coverage, he wrote.
