SPRINGFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) – Mental Health challenges can follow traumatic events like the mass shootings in Lewiston, Maine, which also marked another mass shooting in the United States. With this type of news often comes numbness, sadness, and fear, but Dr. Diedre Hussey, the behavioral health clinical supervisor at the Baystate Family Advocacy Center in Springfield, MA, warned of other reactions.
“Some people may have grief reactions. Some may have physical symptoms, like really bad headaches, stomach aches, or you maybe see people with more depressive or almost developing what we call post-traumatic stress symptoms. Maybe, a lot of intrusive thoughts or images trying to imagine what happened, especially with how we can be inundated with pictures and images in the news or people maybe be more on edge or hyper alert,” Hussey said.
Hussey told Western Mass News that all of those reactions are normal, especially when dealing with the aftermath of such tragedies. She recommended that everyone, whether directly impacted by the shooting or not, should reach out to a mental health therapist for resources to help, especially when kids and teenagers are involved.
“I think really validating the fear of going to a bowling alley or other areas, you know, where kids would typically go, that can be scary right?” Hussey added.
“I think is really scary. I think these can be really scary conversations because it’s affecting us, either as caregivers, professionals, educators, those who work with children, but knowing that these things could be impacting us as well, I think that makes the conversation really hard.”
Hussey added that, through the recovery process following a mass shooting, mental health and gun violence are often linked together. It’s a common thought, she said, that could lead to discrimination and stigma around mental illness.
“When there is an event like this, it is so distressing and we are experiencing these kind of post-trauma reactions and everyone is really heightened, those become linked very quickly when they shouldn’t be, right?” Hussey noted. “When we’re talking about these issues, we really wanna think about policies and data as it relates to gun violence and how when we think about policies and data when related to mental health and then have conversations about them together, rather than just immediately linking that these are always the case.”
Hussey also recommended limiting social media exposure, establishing a healthy routine, and connecting with people who make you feel safe to protect your mental health.
Copyright 2023. Western Mass News (WGGB/WSHM). All rights reserved.