About The times. (Gainesville, Ga.) 1972-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 11, 2018)
NATION The Times, Gainesville, Georgia | gainesvilletimes.com Sunday, November 11,2018 7A Q&A:Tlie role of PTSD in mass shootings DAMIAN DOVARGANES I Associated Press People hug as they arrive to recover their vehicles parked in the parking lot the Borderline Bar & Grill bar in Thousand Oaks, Calif., Friday, Nov. 9, after a gunman killed 12 people at the country music bar in Southern California the night before. BY DEBORAH NETBURN Los Angeles Times Just hours after former Marine Ian David Long killed himself and 12 other people at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks Wednesday night, observers specu lated that post-traumatic stress dis order played a role in the attack. The Ventura County sheriff alluded to it. One of Long’s former roommates mentioned it. Even the President Donald Trump said it. But psychology experts say it is premature to suggest that Long suf fered from PTSD — or that it could have prompted him to open fire in a bar packed with young adults. “Unless someone comes for ward and says this man was expe riencing PTSD or being treated for PTSD, there is no reason to think he had PTSD,” said Lisa Jaycox, a behavioral scientist and clinical psychologist at the Rand Corp. in Washington who studies how peo ple to react to violence. Jaycox’s previous work has shown that even among veterans who have seen combat, fewer than 1 in 5 have PTSD. She also said violent behavior is not a common symptom of the disorder. Jaycox spoke with the Los Ange les Times about myths and facts about PTSD. Q: Do we know for certain that the Thousand Oaks shooter had post-traumatic stress disorder? A: No. We know he did see com bat in Afghanistan, but it’s a small portion of people who develop post- traumatic stress disorder after an experience like that. In my own work, when we looked at people who had recently been deployed to Iraq and Afghani stan, about 14 percent of them suf fered from PTSD. It’s not the norm. Q: Whenever a mass shooter has a military background, peo ple are quick to blame it on PTSD. Does that make sense? A: No. There are about 20 symp toms associated with the disorder. One of them is anger and irritabil ity, but that is not the predominant picture of post-traumatic stress dis order. Most people who have PTSD are not violent. What might be more pertinent here is that military personnel who have violent outbursts may be more likely than other people to own a gun privately and to be highly trained with firearms. Q: What exactly is post-trau matic stress disorder? A: I think of it as a very human reaction to a traumatic event, and then an inability to recover. In the wake of a mass shooting I’m sure everyone who was there will be thinking about it constantly in the days and weeks afterwards — dreaming about it, having dif ficulty focusing on work or rela tionships. But if those symptoms persist for more than a month, then that is classified as PTSD. Q: What are other symptoms? A: They cluster in four areas. Re-experiencing the trauma, so flashbacks, nightmares, recurrent thoughts. Then there is arousal, which includes irritability, diffi culty concentrating and difficulty sleeping. Another set of symptoms have to do with withdrawal and numbing — feeling disconnected from peo ple and emotionally blunted. And finally, avoiding things that might remind you of the trauma — not wanting to talk about it and avoid ing certain people and places. Q: Do most people with PTSD develop it from military service? A: No. It’s much more common to be exposed to it through commu nity violence, sexual violence or sexual assault. We’ve done work in the Los Angeles County school system that shows one-third of kids who have been exposed to community vio lence suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome. Most of these kids are flying completely under the radar. It’s the seventh-grade girl sitting quietly at her desk or the eighth-grade boy playing basket ball. They are not shooting people. Q: Are people with PTSD more likely to commit mass shootings? A: I would say no, but I don’t think there is great data on that because these events are so rare. But again, there is not a high likelihood of being violent when you have PTSD. Q: When we think of PTSD, we think of military men. Why? A: Probably because they are more frequently depicted in the media and in movies. Women are actually more at risk of developing post-traumatic stress disorder than men. Men are exposed to more accidents and injuries; they are more likely to be on the front lines of war, or be mugged at gunpoint. But women are more likely to develop PTSD after an interpersonal trauma. Getting attacked by a co-worker is a different thing than a stranger mugging you. That carries the meaning of not knowing who can you trust, whereas being attacked by a stranger is usually a one-off. complete orthopedic <Sc sports medicine (for better drives) Northeast Georgia Medical Center ORTHOPEDIC SERVICES Find your orthopedic expert today at nghs.com/ortho I 770-219-8244 Don’t let the worries of pain keep you from your best game. Give yourself the gift of a healthy, pain-free body so you can perfect those long drives on the course, and not in the car. With hospitals in Gainesville, Braselton and Barrow, Northeast Georgia Medical Center offers leading orthopedic and sports medicine care, without the hassle of Atlanta traffic.
