Editor’s note:  At BFIA we try to not post Trump photos.  It would be nice if social media could find a way to share information about what is happening without an accompanying Trump photo. This article has excellent information about how images can affect us. For today’s post rather than Trump I used this photo of a peaceful Iowa sunset.  

I’m also going to add a trigger alert to this post just because we’re talking about trauma.

Submitted by Molly Regan

We are all bombarded with photos and videos of the rapist nazi. Viewing him is damaging our mental and physiological health. I know we all are at different stages of dealing with the current terrifying situations. It’s ok to still be in whatever level of grief you’re in.

Overexposure to Traumatic Images: How Visual Trauma Affects People

Visual trauma exists largely in the eye of the beholder, literally. To complicate matters further, how visual trauma affects people depends on four different criteria of measurement:

1. Severity. The greater the intensity and shock of the disturbing image, the harder it will be for a person’s brain to regain equilibrium after exposure to it.
2. Frequency. The more often a person is exposed to particular images, the deeper it’s impressed upon the mind. But even one exposure to an intense image may cause trauma. An extremely intense visual experience … may become deeply imbedded in the viewer’s brain after a single exposure, while a less intense experience (a violent scene in a war movie or video game) may need to be repeated over and over before it produces a traumatic effect.
3. Obvious versus not obvious. Sometimes the viewer knows immediately that he/she has been thrown off balance by what’s been seen, especially if it’s an intense image. But the wounding effects of a less severe visual image may not be felt until a person has been subjected to its influence many times.
4. Cumulative impact. These factors add up over time, eventually producing a damaged and unstable state of mind. At that point, a person will need outside help to return to a condition of healthy psychological stability.

How the Brain Responds to Traumatic Images

Visual input feels more real and immediate to the brain than a written or verbalized description of a scene or event. As a result, the central nervous system tends to respond to disturbing images as it might respond to a true-life threat. When confronted with real danger, our brains slip into the fight, flight, or freeze mode. The limbic system, which works much faster than the analytical prefrontal cortex portion of our brain, kicks into gear. Rational thought recedes into the background. Everything becomes part of a mindless reactive pattern.

Something similar happens when our brains are exposed to a disturbing or shocking visual image.

Distortion of Reality

So many images we see these days are edited or modified by electronic technology that it’s hard to know if what we’re looking at is actually real or not. Kids see the world through the lens of media rather than vice versa. As a result, they’re beginning to accept the idea that nothing is really real. That includes things like violent crime and suicide.

And that’s not all. There are other ways in which the incessant onslaught of digital media alters our sense of what real life is all about. The immediacy of disturbing visual images creates the impression that frightening events are always happening just outside the door. This becomes a special problem for children between the ages of two and seven, since at this stage, they tend to feel personally responsible for everything that happens around them. A constant barrage of negative news can be particularly unnerving for kids this age.

The Harmful Impact of Negative News

Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, and the twenty-four-hour news cycle, many of us nowadays live with a constant feeling that the world is crashing down around us. This isn’t precisely the case, of course. In fact, some studies have suggested that the world has seen an overall decrease in violence over the past few decades. In reality, our feelings of gloom and doom are largely the result of highly selective reporting. Unfortunately, that doesn’t make a great deal of difference in the world of digital media. In that world, perception becomes reality—even though it’s a false reality. And this false sense of reality is affecting the human mind for the worse in several ways. A Science article, “What Constant Exposure to Negative News Is Doing to Our Mental Health,” notes these effects: (1)

According to British psychologist Dr. Graham Davey, negative news can significantly change a person’s mood. It creates a state of mind that allows a person to see his/her own personal worries as more threatening and severe. This makes worry more difficult to control and more distressing than it would normally be.

• Davey, who specializes in the psychological effects of media violence, says that negative news can have a big effect on the way we interpret and interact with the world around us. Reports of disturbing events that make us anxious or sad may also make it easier for us to see ambiguous or neutral events as negative and threatening.
• Some research has even suggested that viewing traumatic images in the media can cause PTSD-like symptoms in certain individuals—generally those who are already prone to the condition. Researchers found that the more time people spent watching television, the more severe their symptoms were.
• Exposure to graphic violence can lead either to oversensitivity or desensitization. People who are oversensitive are more sensitive to emotional distress. People who are desensitized become numbed by the exposure and show less of an emotional response to disturbing stimuli. These effects have been observed in those who have been repeatedly exposed to violent video games.

• 1. Carolyn Gregoire, “Science: What Constant Exposure To Negative News Is Doing To Our Mental Health,” Huffpost, February 19, 2015, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/19/violent-media-anxiety_n_6671732.html.

Entire article can be found here:

Overexposure to Traumatic Images: How Visual Trauma Affects People