Psychologist on What's Next for Movie Theater Shooting Survivors
By Alex Brown (alex@wibc.com)
7/21/2012
Following the shooting that killed 12 people at a movie theater in Colorado, survivors may be going through a range of emotions.
Listen:
Clinical Psychologist Dr. Greg Sipes says some of the survivors may still be in a state of shock as they try to process what really happened. Dr. Sipes says survivors will search for some sense of control from the situation. "The truth of the matter is this is so random. There was absolutely no way that anybody could've known this was going to happen or could've stopped it and yet, because we feel so out of control, we want somehow to get some sense that there was some sense that there was something that we could've done differently that might've prevented it."
Dr. Sipes says many of those who made it out may feel a sense of survivor's guilt. He adds that before any talk of post-traumatic stress disorder comes up, survivors may go through acute traumatic stress disorder which occurs earlier. Symptoms of ATSD include acute anxiety, hypersensitivity to noises, overreactions to everything, crying, disbelief and confusion.
Dr. Sipes says PTSD could come months after a traumatic event and just needs a trigger to set it off.
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