Psychological reactions to a crisis vary from one person to the next, based on factors such as age, trauma history, and proximity to an incident.

While some people report panic and distress, others feel numb.

Comer, PhD, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Florida International University. “The more catastrophic events we’re exposed to as a nation, the more impacted we’re going to be on a psychological level,” said Jonathan S. Experts say the frequency of mass shootings, amplified by our near-constant access to media coverage of such events, amounts to an accumulation of exposure that is harming everyone’s mental health. “Our reserves are depleted as a nation and our young people are suffering.”įear of mass shootings has left a large majority of Americans feeling stressed, including a third of adults who say they now avoid certain places and events as a result ( Stress in America: Fear of mass shootings, APA, 2019). “We’re not starting at a place where everybody is healthy and thriving,” said Rinad Beidas, PhD, a professor of psychiatry, medical ethics and health policy, and medicine at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. That stress is, of course, embedded within the context of the pandemic, economic challenges, political polarization, climate-related disasters, and other factors, which combine to create what psychologist Roxane Cohen Silver, PhD, of the University of California, Irvine, calls a “cascade of collective traumas” that the nation is facing together. “These tragedies are happening far too often, and the result is that many young people are feeling this constant back-of-the-mind stress,” Felix said. Meanwhile, clinical psychologists, including Erika Felix, PhD, of the University of California, Santa Barbara, say the young people they treat are on high alert, constantly planning their escape route if violence breaks out in public. Those concerns have been linked with elevated anxiety levels and fear among students (O’Brien, C., & Taku, K., Personality and Individual Differences, Vol.

On top of recent surges in depression, anxiety, and suicides, a majority of teens now say they worry about a shooting happening at their school ( Pew Research Center, 2018). For children and teens, whose mental health is already in crisis, the ongoing backdrop of violence is steadily eroding the sense of well-being, safety, and efficacy known to be essential for healthy development. As mass shootings repeatedly erupt in schools, grocery stores, and other establishments we visit every week, Americans are living in fear.

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