Boulder Supermarket Shooter ID’d As 21-Year-Old Man

Speaker 1: 00:00 Colorado has a tragic history of mass shootings. And that history continued yesterday when 10 people were fatally shot in a Boulder supermarket. Last Tuesday, eight people were killed by a gunman at three spas in Atlanta, Georgia in the last week, there have been seven mass shootings as calls for legislative action reverberate around the country. So does our morning here's president Joe Biden. Speaker 2: 00:25 The consequences of all this are deeper than I said. I suspect we know by that. I mean the mental consequences, the feeling of anyway, just been through too many of these Speaker 1: 00:39 And here to talk about the psychological consequence of all. This is Shiva guide. She is a clinical psychologist at the Naval medical center here in San Diego, and she is also a survivor of the 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. Shiva. Welcome. Speaker 3: 00:55 Thank you so much for having me Speaker 1: 00:58 First. I want to ask what impact does back-to-back terror like this have on our collective psyche? Speaker 3: 01:06 Well, I think there's no question that we're, you know, we've been sort of, um, experiencing as a, as a world, as a globe. We've been experiencing, uh, a mass trauma and, um, unfortunately, you know, there is a cumulative effect and especially when all of the environmental stressors just don't let up and, you know, that's, that's been largely due to this sort of ongoing pandemic that we found ourselves in, then people don't ever get an opportunity to sort of bulk up on their resources. And, you know, I think we're also in the midst of, um, an experiencing a mental health crisis in this country. I think we have been actually even prior to 2017. Um, I think that at least in my mind, you know, 2017 sort of made it, um, painfully clear that we just don't have enough mental health resources for any kind of mass, you know, certainly an event that was at the level of the Las Vegas massacre. Speaker 3: 02:06 But now with the COVID, um, it's just, people are under a tremendous amount of stress and there's been some ongoing research, although I think it'll be a few years before we really see the impact in terms of things like suicidality suicides, um, you know, and that sort of thing. But we already have, you know, clearly seen increases in domestic violence and substance abuse and, you know, just, uh, worsening and exacerbation of mental health generally, especially for people that have preexisting mental illness, even prior to all of this, most of those people are specially at risk Speaker 1: 02:43 As a psychologist and someone who survived a mass shooting. What can you tell us about how mass shootings affect the mental health of those directly impacted? Speaker 3: 02:53 Well, I mean, they, they not only, uh, affect people who are directly, um, you know, were in India event themselves, but they can affect all of the people close to that person. You know, it's sort of a vicarious trauma. And so I would say the same thing to, to friends and family of those trauma survivors. Um, you know, I know in my own case, I didn't really have any symptoms in the first couple of weeks. I think I was in just such a state of shock. And then about two weeks in the triggers started rolling in and, and, you know, I was very triggered by things like light and sounds and, you know, um, thoughts about it and everything, but, um, the, the path of healing and recovery is different for everybody. One thing that's really important for the public to understand is that, uh, trauma is something that many, many people, and right now, in some sense, the whole world has been experiencing and natural recovery is the most common outcome. Speaker 3: 03:50 So the majority of people recover again, people with preexisting mental illness, you know, people who struggled with anxiety or depression diagnosed or not, um, maybe at higher risk after a traumatic event. And so that they would, I would recommend that they be very mindful and seek out professional help. Um, you know, people can start to have symptoms within a few days and within a few weeks and within a few months there's really no formula. But I think that in a, in a sort of very simplified way, um, what I can say is that PTSD, for example, which a very small percentage of people will develop after a trauma is really, um, a disorder in which we start to think differently. We tell a different story. So our worldview suddenly shifts. And because of that, we start to engage in a lot of avoidance behaviors. So my, my advice to people who have, you know, experienced this, first of all, I'm, I'm so sad. Speaker 3: 04:49 It's, it's just absolutely heartbreaking. Um, but the important thing is to talk about it with people close to you, and if you're having sleep problems to see a doctor get that addressed, you know, there are a lot of resources online. Um, after route 91, uh, we put a resource everything's free, it's called route 91 therapy.com. And there was a book that I had put out one year after the mass shooting that was really for people with any kind of trauma or mass shooting trauma. And the reason is trauma. Um, the mechanism of, of trauma is the same, regardless of what the trauma was, whether it was child abuse or domestic violence or natural disaster or combat, um, it functions in the same way to change the way we view the world. And then to lead us to behaviors that slowly start to just take the things that we value in love away from us because of that avoidance and ultimately that isolation, which then can lead to hopelessness and, you know, potentially at, at its far extreme to suicidal thoughts or behaviors. Right. Speaker 1: 05:59 And, you know, she, I want to pivot just a little bit, you know, uh, already people have started to link mental illness to yesterday's shooter in Colorado. The same was attempted with the shooter in Atlanta. What is the consequence of doing that, Speaker 3: 06:12 Of linking the events? You know, I think that, um, you know, it's, it's, unfortunately for people who've been through it and, you know, news of a new, uh, of a new mass shooting can be very, very triggering. It's also, you know, um, a very scary thing, but we have to take a step back and recognize that mass shootings are still in, in terms of things that can happen in life. They are very rare events. And, you know, the chances of experiencing two in a lifetime is very low. I can't say 0% because, you know, within that year of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, there was yet another, and there were some people that were in both and very sadly. Um, but you know, um, one thing is that, you know, we tend to place more value when an event is high stakes and, you know, it's sort of a, uh, processing that our brands go through. Speaker 3: 07:11 We try to sort of jump to the fastest, easiest conclusion, um, and because it's frightening and because it is potentially so fatal, we start to generalize and say, wow, this really is a more likely event. And I'm not by any means minimizing, um, this, this, this horrific type of event, but we have to sort of keep it in perspective. And that's important because in recovery, um, one of the things that helps people is to sort of stay on track with the story they tell. And if, if, for example, the people who are involved today in the mass shooting in the grocery store, if they start saying, I can't go to grocery stores, grocery stores are dangerous. Every time I see someone like that, I might get shot every time I'm in a crowd, I might get shot. We start to generalize that fear, which prevents us from ever going out and having repeated corrective experiences that would give us evidence should be alternatives. And that's really important in recovery. Speaker 1: 08:10 And for more resources on all the, all this you can visit our website, kpbs.org. I've been speaking with Shiva guide, a clinical psychologist at Naval medical center, San Diego. She is also one of more than 20,000 survivors of the mass shooting at the route 91 music festival in Las Vegas back in 2017. Shiva, thank you so much. Thank Speaker 3: 08:31 You so much.