Psychological Responses to Trauma: The Impact of Terrorism

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Psychological Responses to Trauma The Impact of
Terrorism

• Roxane Cohen Silver, Ph.D.
• Professor
• Department of Psychology and Social Behavior
• School of Social Ecology
• University of California, Irvine
• Presentation delivered at Western Knight Center
  for Specialized Journalisms Seminar Homeland
  Terrorism A Primer for First-Responder
  Journalists, sponsored by the University of
  Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, June 26,
  2003

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Characteristics of Traumatic Life Events

• Random
• Unpredictable
• Uncontrollable
• When a community-based event (e.g., natural
  disaster) shared experience among many victims

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The Unique Case of Terrorism

• Faceless enemy with malevolent intent
• Ongoing threat
• Political undertones and ramifications

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Common Responses Post-trauma

• Shock, Disbelief, and/or Emotional numbness
  (e.g., surprise and a feeling of unreality)
• Fear and Separation Anxiety
• Emotional distress (e.g., sadness, depression)
• Survivor guilt
• Somatic Symptoms (nausea, loss of appetite,
  headaches, nervousness, GI distress, chest pains)
• Ongoing memories, thoughts and mental pictures of
  the event (often intrusive, often avoided, often
  associated with anxiety)

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Common Responses Post-trauma (cont)

• Sleep disturbance (including nightmares)
• Difficulty concentrating, disorganized thought
• Desire to be close with friends, family, or
  similarly affected others
• Need to talk about one's experiences
• Relief and a focus on one's good fortune relative
  to worse-off others
• Altruistic behavior

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Possible Short and Long term Effects

• Psychopathological Disorders (e.g., Acute Stress
  Disorder, PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, other
  Anxiety Disorders)
• Generalized distress (sadness, fear, anxiety)
• Intrusive ruminations
• Physical symptoms (somatic complaints physical
  health effects of chronic stress)
• Increased health care utilization and cost
• Disruptions in functioning (e.g., work, school,
  domestic activities, relationships)

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Possible Short and Long term Effects (cont)

• Decreased positive affect
• Decreased psychological well-being
• Posttraumatic growth, meaning-making, construal
  of personal benefits (e.g., changes in personal
  values)
• Positive community effects (e.g., increased
  patriotism, altruism, volunteerism)

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The Myths of Coping with Traumatic Life Events

• Psychological responses are predictable that is,
  there are universal reactions to traumatic events
• Emotional responses to traumatic events will
  follow a pattern, or orderly sequence of stages
• Individuals will respond to traumatic events with
  early and intense emotional distress
• Psychological responses will be limited to those
  directly exposed to the traumatic event

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The Myths of Coping (Cont.)

• Degree of emotional response will be proportional
  to the degree of exposure, amount of loss, or
  proximity to the trauma (e.g., as objective
  loss increases, so will distress)
• Distress is necessary, and failure to confront
  the experience will lead to subsequent pathology
• Individuals soon recover from traumatic events

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Probable Moderators of Response

• Pre-existing mental health history
• Personality dispositions
• Family background (learned responses modeling)
• Religious orientation philosophical perspective
• Lifetime or recent trauma history
• Chronic stress
• Coping strategies/responses
• Social context, network responses over time
• Media exposure?

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Beneficial vs. Detrimental Impact of the Media

• Provide useful/critical information to those who
  need and want it
• Present repeated traumatic visual images
  reactivate traumatic experience and enlarge
  geographic range of direct victims
• Intrude on the privacy of victims
• Inaccurately portray range of responses to trauma
  vs. normalize variability
• Perpetuate the myths of coping vs. educate public
• Exacerbate distress and anxiety vs. assist in
  containing anxiety

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Helpful Social Responses to Victims of Trauma

• Provide opportunity to ventilate feelings
• Express concern
• Provide tangible support
• Presence ("Being there")
• Provide contact with similar other(s)

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Unhelpful Social Responses to Victims of Trauma

• Giving advice (unless one has special, needed
  expertise)
• Minimizing the trauma
• Forced cheerfulness
• Encouraging quick recovery
• Identification with feelings --"I know how you
  feel" (unless one has experienced a similar
  trauma)
• Providing a philosophical or religious
  perspective on the trauma
• Over-controlling behavior