Here's How You Can Deal with Crowd Anxiety in the Aftermath of Mass Tragedies
Martha Castro has wanted to see Céline Dion’s epic live show in Las Vegas for years. ("Her voice is so angelic. It still makes me feel everything," she says.) A 30-year-old tech assistant at a school in Reno, Nevada, Martha lives a quick one-hour flight from Vegas. So last May, she and her husband splurged on tickets for Valentine's Day 2018. But in November, Martha abruptly called it off.
She couldn't stop dwelling on the October shooting on the Strip that killed 58 people and the bombing at an Ariana Grande show in England that left 22 dead last spring. "Now, when I think concert," she says, "I just see bodies."
It's no wonder: A mass shooting-defined by the nonprofit Gun Violence Archive as four or more people being shot or killed in a single event-happens every day in this country (on average). The current news cycle is a nonstop procession of gruesome real-life tragedies, most going down in public places like stadiums, nightclubs, and churches. Unhinged men, for the most part, have unleashed religious or hate-fueled (and often, semiautomatic) fury on big cities and small towns alike. The not-so-subtle message? No place is safe.
Paris, France; Manchester, England; Orlando, Florida; Sutherland Springs, Texas…thanks to our phones and social media, these attacks stream into our brains 24/7 via shrieking news alerts and #PrayFor hashtags. The result: Roughly 40 percent of Americans are now worried that they or a family member will be a victim of terrorism or a mass shooting, according to 2017 Gallup polling. Even before the massacre in Vegas, a survey found that nearly 4 in 10 people were less willing to attend large public events because they were afraid of terrorism. The most plugged-in generation, 18- to 34-year-olds, is also the most fearful, according to Gallup. And women are twice as concerned about mass shootings as men are.
Experts say our brain's primitive fear responses-which evolved to deal with gnarly predators right in front of us, not a constant barrage of digital news notifications from around the globe-are not well-equipped to handle the current onslaught. "There is a thing called secondary trauma, and it's real," says Meghan Riordan, a trauma therapist in Washington, D.C. "Many people seeing or hearing about an awful event experience physiological stress responses to it." They end up living in a sort of mental code red that puts them at increased risk for anxiety and depression, in addition to robbing them of one of the signature pleasures of youth: seeing a favorite band or team play, caught up in excitement instead of scanning the crowd for snipers or suicide bombers. Says Riordan, "Your brain starts telling you, 'This is something I better not do.'"
A Posttraumatic Generation
Unfortunately, your brain is often wrong. But that’s little comfort to people like Meghan Kuebler, 23, for whom fear itself has become a kind of danger. Meghan is terrified of movie theaters (see Aurora, Colorado, 2012). "Just thinking about being in a theater makes my heart start pounding," says the Orlando-based television production associate. "It's hard to get air. If I do get dragged to a movie, I pick seats that we could get down under if someone started shooting. Then for two hours, I watch the exits more than I watch the film."
What Meghan is describing is a type of vicarious posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), says Pam Ramsden, PhD, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Bradford, in England. Her research has found that an average of 18 percent of people who viewed images of suicide bombings, mass shootings, and terrorism reported symptoms consistent with PTSD, including depression, substance abuse, and insomnia. Another study found that people exposed to six or more hours of media coverage about the Boston Marathon bombing right after the attack suffered more stress than people who were there or knew someone who was.
We may be hardwired to fixate on stressful events because doing so helped our ancestors avoid grisly fates themselves, says Eric G. Wilson, author of Everyone Loves a Good Train Wreck. But this fixation is exacting a toll on our minds: "Our amygdala, the reptilian part of the brain, has only two settings: threat or nonthreat," says Riordan. "When we watch traumatic news, it can switch to threat."
Having your brain on high alert may be good for avoiding predators, but it’s bad as a permanent state of existence. "We've found that women who read negative news produced more of the stress hormone cortisol when subjected to subsequent stressors," says researcher Sonia Lupien, PhD, director of the Center for Studies on Human Stress, in Montreal. This did not happen to men-"perhaps because women have a tendency to ruminate more," suggests Lupien.
Sustained high levels of cortisol are associated with depression and a host of other health issues. And depressed people may also be more prone to stay home on the couch-reinforcing the problem, since avoiding things you’re afraid of robs you of the chance to learn that they won't hurt you.
How to Keep Perspective
Of course, nowadays, more and more people are getting hurt. "Many of us know at least one person who knows someone who has been affected by one of these gun incidents," Riordan speculates. "And we all have a feeling that the danger is creeping closer and closer to us." That feeling may be worse for millennials, who were bombarded in their formative years by news and images of the Columbine High School shooting and 9/11.
Or for people who've already seen horror happen right next door. Take Meghan Kuebler: "I've lived in four states, and all four have had mass shootings," she says. "I grew up in Colorado. In 1999, there was Columbine. Then we moved to Arizona, and there was the 2011 shooting at Gabrielle Giffords' Tucson event. Then I moved to Los Angeles, and in 2015, there was one in San Bernardino. And just before I came to Orlando, there was the Pulse nightclub shooting."
Still, experts point to 9/11 in particular as an example of how our ancient fear brains can mislead us. After the World Trade Center attacks, many Americans swore off air travel and drove, notes Elana Newman, PhD, research director for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. That may have been a deadly decision. Your chances of dying in a motor-vehicle crash are 1 in 114, per the National Safety Council; your chances of dying in an airplane, 1 in 9,821. In the year after 9/11, U.S. traffic fatalities increased: 43,005 Americans died on roadways in 2002, 30 died in global terrorist attacks, and 0 died on U.S. commercial airlines.
"Most young people know that the chance of being hurt in one of these incidents is low," says Riordan, "but it doesn’t feel that way when you wake up and check Facebook and Instagram and see all these messages from people who were impacted." Our minds struggle to compute that the stuff we do every day may be more dangerous than the theatrical events we see online (your current chances of dying in a mass shooting: 1 in 15,325, according to one analysis).
Sociologist Barry Glassner, author of The Culture of Fear, worries that the shock of mass tragedies is conditioning a generation of Americans to misperceive the biggest dangers they face. Gun violence is epidemic in the United States (death by firearm is the second leading cause of fatalities among Americans ages 15 to 34). But the vast majority of young victims are not murdered by a stranger at a concert. About 40 percent are suicides. And in about 80 percent of homicides in which the killer is ID’d, the victims knew their attackers personally. In other words, "it isn't some crazed loner who is most likely to hurt you," says Glassner. "It's a partner, acquaintance, or family member."
Getting Cozy With Fear
It is possible to live with what scares us without being ruled by it. The first step, says Riordan, is caring for ourselves after we experience secondary trauma. "We tell ourselves that nothing bad happened to us, so we better power through," she explains. :But when we don't stop to soothe ourselves, our brains never get the chance to reset to 'not under threat.'" If you find that you’re feeling anxious about an upcoming event, Riordan suggests doing something calming: "Call a friend or your mom. Watch a movie you loved as a kid."
Glassner suggests tweaking the media you consume. Instead of reading every detail about a shooting, immerse yourself in news about your personal risk. "Google statistical profiles of gunshot victims or Should I fear going to concerts?" he suggests. Knowledge will help you feel more in control, which research shows makes people feel safer. Taking action against your fear can also help. "Join an activist group, work with people affected by mass shootings, or just write a check," says -Riordan. Anxious people who get involved in preventing the thing they are afraid of or help people affected by it grow calmer and feel stronger, says Glassner.
But ultimately, the best way out is through. "Since avoidance increases anxiety, it can really limit your life," says Newman, whereas if you can figure out a way to attend an event and have a safe experience, your fear will decrease. Try building up your courage with the help of a friend or therapist. Use anti-anxiety meds if your doc thinks you need them. And prepare sensibly.
Afterward, if necessary, watch The Little Mermaid. "There are terrible things happening out there," says Riordan. "And because we’re so connected now, they touch us all. But even if it’s a scary world, you don't have to always be afraid."
What to Know Before the Show
by Caitlin Carlson
Safety expert-approved ways to prep for a crowded event:
Decide on a meeting place. In a crowd scare, technology may not function. “Agree on a meet-up point with your friends outside the venue,” says J. Pete Blair, PhD, executive -director of Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Train-ing at Texas State Uni-ver-sity, whose -active-shooter -response training has been -adopted by the FBI.
Mentally rehearse your exit plan. At most concerts and sporting events, you’ll walk through a main entrance. But venues have to have other ways to get out too. Look for these as soon as you get there, says Neil Strauss, author of Emergency. If there is a panic, everyone else will head out the way they came in.
Trust your gut. We have subconscious threat-detection -machinery built into our brains, says Blair, and it often gives us warning notices. When the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, don't question them-just head for the door.
If the Worst Happens
Don’t Fight the Crowd
"A mass of people is like an ocean riptide," says Neil Strauss. "If you're stuck in it, go with the flow and work your way to the outside, where the crowd will be moving slower. Then duck into a door, alley, or side street."
Forget About Video
Live-streaming is a total no when your safety is at risk. "Don't stop to see or find out what happened," says Strauss. Instead, get as far away as possible, as there could be secondary shooters or -devices in the area.
Wait Until You’re Out of Harm’s Way, Then Text Your Friends
Text messages are more likely to go through in an emergency than actual phone calls are.
Drop to the Ground
"In a live-shooter situation, people who drop to the ground with their feet pointed at the shooter tend to survive because vital organs are less likely to be hit," says Strauss. "But this should be a last resort."
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