Given the theater shootings, is this a normal reaction?

Yeah.

I suspect that, yes, this is a common reaction. The closer a person can relate to tragedy, be it by location or personal connection, it is human nature that it will generate a greater emotional connection.

Try to not allow this to make you do irrational things like becoming consumed by it to the point of fearing life. You by extension become one of the victims. There are enough of them from this already.

Yes, it’s called vicarious trauma, and it’s totally normal.

Generally if any big news story breaks out, it consumes half my day at work… I will try to find some Live Stream of the story and keep up to date with it… I feel really bad for those affected by this, and will be continuing to follow the story.

I just read an article about this girl who wanted to be a news caster – apparently avoided a mall shooting not but a month ago, just to get caught up in this shooting. There was a pretty graphic story as described by a guy who attended the showing with her. Pretty sad. I think anyone who reads this should have some sort of reaction, whether it directly affected them or not.

Yes, it’s normal. It’s the reason people still often react with horror to seeing “white powder” in places where it’s not expected (since the anthrax scare that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks). White powder is nearly always benign, but now “white powder” has the power to evacuate buildings.

So glad I don’t watch the news and am just hearing about this here. While I think your reaction is totally normally, I feel I am in a precarious state in my personal life and don’t want to expose myself to shock and fear. The media thrives on horror; you can limit your exposure to it if you need to.

It is well within the normal range of reactions.

We are all endangered by the fact that guns are so accessible. I can understand why some decent people want a gun. However we need to find away to prevent unstable people from obtaining guns. I think being upset about the incident in a movie theater is very normal.

Yes, it is. I heard a news report yesterday morning that had me crying for two days.

Of course, I’m 4,000 miles away and I was the last person to hear the news, and I’ve been totally off all day. It happened on my birthday, so I’ll remember it in future years as well.

You mentioned in another posting that this happened in your neighborhood. So, I think it would be somewhat abnormal if you were totally unfazed. It’s quite close to you even tho you don’t know anyone involved.

The degree to which something affects people in the immediate vicinity varies greatly from one person to another but it’s all within the range of “normal” whatever that means.

Everybody processes death and tragedy in their own unique way.

Plus add in the fact that ALL the details are being broadcasted 24/7 by the local news media and there’s hardly any way to escape it.

I imagine that they’re breaking into regular programming constantly as each new bit of information comes to light.

If they’re doing it here in Michigan, a fair distance away, I can just imagine what the intensity is like where you are.