Hello Dr. Nagpal,
Last week, after the Boston Marathon bombings, I became complete engrossed
with the “who done it” aspect of the story. I followed along on Reddit.com’s “FindBostonBombers” forum, where users posted picture after picture of the scene, looking for people who came with backpacks and left without. Many pictures were post explosion, and showed the gruesome carnage. I listened to the Boston police scanner during the shootout and manhunt, while following updates on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet. This week, I feel like I’m in a fog. I don’t know why, but I feel certain it’s related to immersing myself into the tragedy in Boston. Recently, I was in a crowd, and for a brief second, I visualized the crowd as if I was studying the picture on the Internet. That’s when I knew I’d overdone it. So I have two questions: 1) What drives me (and others) to devote the better part of a week to trying to live inside a tragedy? And, 2) Can consumption of information over the Internet cause a mild form of PTSD?
Last week, after the Boston Marathon bombings, I became complete engrossed
with the “who done it” aspect of the story. I followed along on Reddit.com’s “FindBostonBombers” forum, where users posted picture after picture of the scene, looking for people who came with backpacks and left without. Many pictures were post explosion, and showed the gruesome carnage. I listened to the Boston police scanner during the shootout and manhunt, while following updates on Twitter and elsewhere on the internet. This week, I feel like I’m in a fog. I don’t know why, but I feel certain it’s related to immersing myself into the tragedy in Boston. Recently, I was in a crowd, and for a brief second, I visualized the crowd as if I was studying the picture on the Internet. That’s when I knew I’d overdone it. So I have two questions: 1) What drives me (and others) to devote the better part of a week to trying to live inside a tragedy? And, 2) Can consumption of information over the Internet cause a mild form of PTSD?
Dear Well-Intentioned but Foggy:
Thank you for sharing your story with us. You are right. Engaging
in the type of obsessive behavior that you did, following the Boston Marathon
bombings, is the likely reason for your “fog,” and most certainly the reason
you found yourself scanning an unrelated crowd. Many are driven to these types
of behaviors after a senseless tragedy, typically out of a desire to do
something to help. In this instance, there was a specific request by law
enforcement to have the general public assist in finding the “Boston Bombers.” You
fell prey to the urge to find these people who caused so much harm, and find
them fast! The mix of grief and anger that followed this tragedy, the desire
for justice to be done, and in this case, the possibility of being able to
contribute something to make this happen, are likely what drove you (and countless
others) to “live inside” this tragedy for “the better part of a week.”
However, as your hours and days in front of the screen might
testify, not many of us have the same talent at breaking code as mathematician,
John Nash, in A Beautiful Mind. John Nash did, indeed, “lose his mind” in his
quest to find the “hidden clues” in newspapers and magazines. The fact that
John Nash had a mental illness to begin with, is a different matter.
The truth is that many of us will develop signs
of Post Traumatic Stress disorder, or PTSD, when focusing on images of a
tragedy. It seems like Reddit.com’s forum not only showed pictures of people
during the race, but as you said, also of the “gruesome carnage” afterwards. I
am afraid that you did, in actuality, start suffering from a form of PTSD that can
affect those not directly impacted by the tragedy, but who are viewing images
of the experience. The most common recommendation to recover from this is to stop
or reduce exposure to media images of the event.
Fear can also be a common response to unexpected violence
and another reason why we might continue to watch internet or television
stories long after the event is past. Somehow, if we know more, or so we
reason, we can prevent this from happening. Not true, but it sure is a common
response when an event like the Marathon Bombing leaves us with a sense of
vulnerability, a possibility that “it could have been me,” or that a loved one might
have been hurt. I can tell you this was true for me, with my son being about 3
miles away from the bombings, and in residence at a University through which
the bombers later led the police in a chase. Although, fortunately, he took great
care to keep me informed of his safety, I did notice myself following the
various news stories and being at a greater than normal “alert” level, until
after the second bomber was safely in custody.
I know that some of you might have had loved ones who were
even closer, or you yourself were present at the Boston Marathon. The closer
you were, the greater the likelihood of trauma. However, sometimes an event
such as this one can simply serve as a trigger for a past traumatic memory. I
can only imagine what some of the victims and families of past bomb attacks are
going through. Whatever the reason for our trauma response being triggered, it
is important that we recognize when we are being affected. Here are some
additional recommendations for dealing with any post-traumatic responses we
might be experiencing:
- Try to continue with normal routines. There is something quite grounding about routines.
- Try to get enough sleep. Lack of sleep can be disorienting in itself.
- Talk to someone you trust about your feelings. Then try to reduce the “head time” you are giving to the event. In other words, try to move to another topic or distract yourself if you find yourself thinking about the event.
- Stay connected to loved ones and friends. Isolation can increase the sense of trauma and close off avenues for healing.
