University of Iowa psychologist: Avoid helplessness in face of violence

Talk with a neighbor, call your mom, tweet a well-written editorial or post a Jon Stewart video - whatever you can do to process this week's violence is better than shutting down, a psychologist from the University of Iowa says.

Americans were reeling Friday after five police officers were killed and nine other people injured in an allegedly race-related sniper attack in Dallas. The ambush came at the end of a peaceful protest regarding police shootings of two black men earlier this week in St. Paul, Minnesota, and Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

'Right now everyone is grieving,” said Aspyn Johnson, a University of Iowa junior and president of the UI's NAACP chapter. 'I think the shootings highlighted the hopelessness that people feel.”

Repeated reports of violence - even if it's not in your city or state - can cause people to feel helpless, said Barry Schreier, director of the University Counseling Services at UI. The more you relate to a person or group that's been harmed, the harder the blow.

Bystanders may feel any action they take will do no good, so they do nothing, he said.

'If something is painful and inescapable, you give up,” Schreier said to describe the theory of learned helplessness, a condition in which a person feels powerless because of recurring trauma or inability to succeed.

A 1960s study by Martin Seligman showed dogs repeatedly shocked without an ability to stop the shock laid down and accepted their fate. Learned helplessness can cause depression and anxiety, Schreier said.

The way we feel after non-stop news about violence can also mirror post-traumatic stress disorder, he said. He describes PTSD as taking punches from 50 people. The first hits may not hurt, but by the 20th punch, we're in pain. We're also tensing up in anticipation of the blow, which makes us sore in other places.

'As it goes from unpleasant to sore, it begins to get traumatic,” Schreier said.

There are ways to reduce the long-term strain of helplessness, he said. One strategy is mindful isolation, which isn't hiding from the world, but learning what you need to know about events and then shutting out the repeated exposure.

Because bracing against bad news can be exhausting, Schreier recommends discharging energy through physical activity or a specific action, like sharing your grief on Facebook or talking with friends.

'The antidote to helplessness is holding on to one core belief, such as ‘I still think there are good people out there',” he said.

Dedric Doolin, Cedar Rapids branch president of the NAACP, said he is praying for all victims of the recent violence.

'We've got to get to a place where we as a country and community can reconcile that being different is not all bad,” Doolin said. 'Being different doesn't make you evil.”

That coming together is crucial to healing and to reckoning with the United States' persistent racism problem, Doolin said.

'It's not any one group of people who is going to resolve this problem,” he said. 'This violence is not going to stop if we don't all recognize we can be part of the solution.”

Johnson said people need to accept that racial oppression still happens today, and that she experienced a 'deafening silence” on social media from people who aren't black after the shootings on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Doolin said Iowans should reckon with a denial of the state of racism in the Cedar Rapids area.

'If you don't recognize there's a problem, if you stay in denial that there's a problem, you're not going to ever solve the problem,” he said. 'We still have people in our community who haven't really accepted the severity of this problem.”

Meanwhile, local law enforcement officials expressed shock and sadness in the wake of the deadliest attack on police since 9/11.

'It's pretty shocking,” said Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek. 'It's just unbelievable that our country has come to that.”

Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner expressed disdain Friday that outrage over the two recent officer-involved shootings has led to 'open season” on law enforcement.

'Social media appears to have turned into the new court of law and many in the public are quick to rush to judgment without knowing all of the facts,” he said. 'Somehow, this has now turned into open season on law enforcement officers, both literally and figuratively.”

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman said he felt 'anger and sadness” when he learned about the Dallas shootings.

'Sadness for the officers and their families,” he said. 'The anger because those officers died protecting the groups of protesters that were protesting against police. And when the shooting started, those officers went toward the danger, which is what police officers across the country do every day, multiple times a day.”

Iowa City Interim Police Chief Troy Kelsay said Thursday's shootings doesn't put local police at any more risk than they've grown to expect in the line of duty.

'I don't think it raises a threat level, at all,” Kelsay said. 'I think it's something to be aware of ... I think the majority of Iowa City residents, like the majority of the people in the country, appreciate what we do and most of the time, we get it right.”