'No one feels safe': Cielo Vista Mall shooting triggers the trauma of Walmart tragedy

Andrés Arvizu headed for the family reunification center at Burges High School on Wednesday with his team of mental health specialists after news of the shooting at Cielo Vista Mall.

The director of Crisis Intervention Teams at Emergence Health Network, the local mental health authority, knew there would be people in need: those who witnessed violence at the mall, frantic family members searching for loved ones and people who could be reliving the trauma of the Aug. 3, 2019, Walmart shooting.

"The brain stores fragments of memories from the past," he said. "This one, because it was so close to the Walmart from 8/3, it triggered a lot of people. I wouldn’t be surprised that some people were at Walmart and now they experienced another shooting. We all probably know somebody that was at both."

The gun violence that left one dead and three people injured at Cielo Vista mall wasn't classified as a mass shooting. But the location near Walmart, the site of El Paso's deadliest mass tragedy, was enough to trigger traumatic memories and anxiety in a community still healing from the loss of 23 lives three years ago.

'It's the same trauma'

Olivia Troye received a four-word text from her best friend in El Paso: "There’s another shooting happening."

Troye, a former career intelligence officer whose portfolio during the Trump administration included domestic terrorism and mass shootings, knew her 79-year-old aunt would be taking a walk with friends at Cielo Vista Mall, an evening tradition.

Her aunt, who is from Mexico, had survived the Walmart shooting.

"That’s when I freaked out," Troye said by phone from Washington, D.C. "My aunt is there. My cousin told me, ‘She is hiding in the back of a kitchen right now. That is all we know.’"

Troye would soon learn that her aunt was safe: A worker at Taquería Chalia's inside the mall rushed her customers into the kitchen, closed the metal gate to the restaurant and turned off all the lights, Troye said.

"When this hit, it was so upsetting to me," she said. "How is it possible that this is happening again? That there is an active shooter? Whether it's gang violence or gun crimes, it’s the same trauma that everyone experiences."

Jeff Gorter, vice president of clinical crisis response at R3 Continuum, said that when singular events appear to become systemic or pervasive it can lead to a "cascading collective crisis."

R3 Continuum is working with some Cielo Vista Mall retailers to provide counseling through their employee assistance programs.

"COVID, civil unrest, natural disasters and the shootings ‒ they are all occurring in the same context," he said. "The single events might lead me to say, ‘I don’t feel safe,’ but the cascading events lead me to feel, ‘No one feels safe.’ There is no time process."

Uncertainty creates mental health challenges

El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego was at a gathering of about 90 El Pasoans in Austin for "El Paso Days" at the Legislature when he got word of the shooting. In the first minutes — when information was scarce and there were fears it could be a mass shooting — elected officials asked the live band at the party to stop playing.

"It was somber," said Samaniego, who has a background as a clinical therapist. "It reminds you of the uncertainty of our world. That creates a lot of challenges for mental health.

"Going into the fourth anniversary of Aug. 3, you are thinking you are leaving things behind," he said. "But the biggest factor in healing is the separation between what caused the pain and the healing process. But when you are reminded of it, it triggers again."

Strategies to support mental health

Experiencing mental health symptoms after a traumatic experience is normal, Arvizu said.

"When people experience trauma, and we lose sleep, people can experience irritability, anger, guilt, sadness and anxiety," he said. "Those are some of the things we all go through and the brain needs to process. If those symptoms last over a month, that’s when we should do something about it."

Mental health professionals offer strategies for supporting mental health after a crisis:

Take care of the basics. "Make sure you are eating right and staying hydrated and trying to maintain regular sleep patterns," Gorter said. "Those sound incredibly simplistic, but in the middle of a crisis we often skip a meal or forget to drink water. That’s physically exhausting as well as emotionally exhausting."

Seek support in community. "I use the term ‘cascading collective crisis,’ meaning it’s happening to a large group of us. But we can also leverage the support of the collective," Gorter said, by reaching out to friend and family groups, and church and other communities. "We recover quicker, together, rather than feeling ‘I am walking this journey alone.’"

Talk to a professional. Arvizu said anyone experiencing mental health challenges can call the National Suicide Prevention hotline by dialing 988 and crisis specialists will be available to listen and provide help or resources. People also can visit the Emergence Health Network's 24/7 walk-in clinic at 1601 E. Yandell Drive. "We don’t erase memories," he said, "but we can change how we feel about those memories."

This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Experts: Cielo Vista Mall shooting triggers trauma of Walmart tragedy