By: Cheryl Sharp, MSW
On October 9th , while President Obama was attempting to console the victims of the October 1st mass shooting at Umpqua Community College (UCC) in Oregon, two more students were killed, and five people were wounded at colleges in Arizona and Texas.
In Flagstaff, Arizona, a gunman opened fire at Northern Arizona University. Hours later, Texas Southern University (TSU) classes were canceled at the Houston school as the campus was locked down in the fourth shooting near TSU since August. Counseling services were offered to students and faculty at both schools.
On October 1, Christopher Harper-Mercer opened fire on a classroom full of students and teachers at UCC in Roseburg, Oregon. Reports state that Mercer killed 10 and injured seven in the attack. What the reports fail to count are the hundreds, maybe thousands, who endured psychological wounds as a result of the trauma they experienced that day — wounds so severe that the invisible scars might never heal. Unfortunately, this is a normal and natural response to mass violence.
Each mother, sibling or child who loses a loved one to senseless violence or survives a life-threatening situation experiences individual trauma: what the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration defines as “lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual well-being.” And each person responds to trauma differently.
Many survivors of the Roseburg shooting, as well as those in Houston and Flagstaff, will rebuild their lives, though the process may be difficult. Others will relive the horrific day over and over again, with many developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — a form of severe, prolonged emotional trauma. For these victims, symptoms will not fade with time and can be easily triggered by sounds, sights, smells or visual cues, sending the body into a full state of panic.
Whether symptoms of full-blown PTSD develop or not, every person on that Oregon college campus that morning will have a response to the events. They will ask, “Am I guilty for surviving? Could I have been more heroic? Would my teacher still be alive if I didn’t play dead?”
But the impact of the shootings can’t be confined to individual experience — it was a collective experience with far-reaching implications.
The vicarious traumatization that the entire Roseburg, Flagstaff, and Houston communities withstood is akin to what our country went through on 9/11, or any other in the pantheon of places permanently marked by violent tragedy, like Littleton, Aurora, Newtown and Fort Hood. For survivors, the world no longer feels safe. Mass violence once confined to action movies and war zones became a reality in their own backyard. In a moment, their sense of safety and trust in the world around them shattered.
The people of Roseburg, Houston and Flagstaff have a long and arduous road to recovery. But, with the right supports in place, there is hope.
Whether the survivors find ways to derive meaning from the tragedy depends, in large part, on the availability of supports, and on the power of human resilience.
In order for all of us to overcome such tragedies, we must:
1. Build trauma-informed communities. There is so much trauma already in communities; we have to raise the floor of understanding around trauma’s impact and how to mitigate it.
2. Foster resilient communities. Disaster will strike again, but are we building communities that have enough resilience to respond healthily? Whether it is a natural disaster, an economic crisis or a fatal shooting, systems and resources must be put in place to ensure that all communities stay on their feet.
3. Create communities that engage in non-violent communication and open dialog. Many communities exemplify ideal community dialogue and include all community partners. Communities such as Stark and Hancock Counties in Ohio and Tarpon Springs, Florida bring community partners together to respond to trauma and open up dialogue to start to heal. We must create these dialogs in communities nationwide.
It may take six months or longer to fully grasp the emotional effect on that Roseburg community. Recovery will take time, and it won’t be easy.
Unless we become better informed as a society about how to care for trauma victims, Flagstaff, Houston and Roseburg and cities like it will not progress towards recovery.
What we know is that healing occurs. People do experience post-traumatic growth. That positive psychological change resulting from a struggle with challenging — even daunting — life circumstances is deeply profound.
Perhaps Holocaust survivor and philosopher Viktor Frankl put it best: “That which is to give light must endure burning.” The victims and witnesses of Umpqua, Northern Arizona, and Texas Southern endured the burning.
It is my hope that each and every one of them will find something in their journey that will allow them to find the light again in their lives.
Cheryl Sharp is senior advisor, trauma informed services. National Council for Behavioral Health.
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