More effective is to watch and wait a few weeks, allowing those who saw loved ones die, or played dead to avoid being killed themselves, to go through a natural process of recovery.
Flashbacks, fear, guilt and anger will torment the minds of survivors of the shooting and bomb attacks in Norway, but mental health experts say doctors should resist the temptation to rush in and flood them with trauma counseling. Norway and its people will recover, experts say, and they’ll do so quite swiftly if a careful and targeted treatment strategy is deployed.
Monica Thompson, a clinical psychologist who co-coordinated the trauma response to the 2007 London suicide bombings, said much has been learned from previous mass killings like the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.
“It’s quite understandable and natural for people to be traumatized, shocked and take a while to adjust, but on the whole the majority of people come out of it relatively unscathed,” Thompson, from London’s Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, said in a telephone interview.
Lawyers, psychiatrists and police were discussing the mental health of Anders Behring Breivik after the anti-Islam radical admitted to a bombing and shooting spree that killed 76 people. More than 100,000 Norwegians attended a rally in Oslo on Monday, many carrying white and red roses in mourning.
Women lay Norwegian flags as they pay their respects for the victims in last Fridays killing spree and bomb attack, on the shore in front of Utoeya island northwest of Oslo, July 26, 2011. Anders Behring Breivik is in all likelihood insane, his lawyer said on Tuesday after the anti-Islam radical admitted to the bombing and shooting spree in Norway that killed 76 people.
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