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Guides to Psychological Wellbeing

While evidence for the interventions and mitigations that practitioners can put in place is limited, there are some initial studies and frameworks that have been developed to enable researchers and practitioners to protect themselves and develop effective risk management approaches and we can draw on parallel fields such as the TRAUMA & JOURNALISM Guide For Journalists, Editors & Managers provides details in the appendices about how to manage the psychological impacts of researching and covering war and conflict. This section details these initial frameworks and highlights in-progress work in this area.

Overviews

While the impacts of researching terrorism and violent extremism have not been extensively studied we can draw on other fields to understand the risk and potential ways to improve our wellbeing as we carry out our work..

Understand what you are dealing with

By understanding the material we are exposing ourselves to, the impacts that it has, and how to manage those impacts we can be more prepared to deal with the challenges it presents and maintain our wellbeing.

Structure Your Work

By structuring our work we both prepare mentally for the exposure or potential exposure and put in place mechanisms to make sure we recognize and interrupt stress as it builds.

Plan your work

So that you can set aside work, not consume extremist material/propaganda after early evening (in particular, avoid working with distressing images just before going to sleep.) and keep to normal working hours wherever possible.

Take frequent screen breaks

Look at something pleasing, walk around, stretch, or seek out contact with nature (such as greenery and fresh air, etc.). All of these can help dampen the body’s distress responses. Try setting a Pomodoro timer to remind you to step away from your screen.

  • DailyBot has a Pomodoro timer built in.

Pattern Interrupts

If you find you’ve adopted unhealthy behavior patterns with your work  ​​the first step to identify what the pattern is. The second step is to observe yourself while you’re running the pattern closely enough that you can pinpoint the precise moment where you derail. This is a critical piece because it’s at that moment when you need to now install a new behavior. Then, you need to practice it diligently—over and over again—until it becomes a new habit”

Eliminate needless repeat exposure

By managing how we are exposed to TVEC and minimizing that exposure we can manage the impact on our wellbeing.

Be organized

Review your sorting and tagging procedures, and how you organize digital files and folders, among other procedures, to reduce unnecessary viewing. When verifying footage by cross-referencing images from a wide variety of sources, taking written notes of distinctive features may help to minimize how often you need to recheck against an original image. For larger collections use indexing and hashing to identify similar files automatically rather than having to review multiple variants. (And never pass the material onto a co-worker without some warning as to what the files contain.)

Data Organization Best Practices | Research Data Management @Harvard

Build distance into how you view images

Researchers report benefits from the use of tools such as CleanView by ActiveFence to avoid looking at images it is not essential. If you have to view material some people find concentrating on certain details, for instance, clothes, and avoiding others (such as faces) helps. Reducing the size of the window or adjusting the screen’s brightness or resolution is also reported to lessen the perceived impact. Try turning the sound off when you can as researchers report that it is often the most affecting part.  Develop workarounds that help you and work for you.

Destress with other activities

Activities that take you away from a traumatic experience and produce serotonin can help disengage from traumatic experiences.

Go for a walk, watch bad TV, play with pets, read non-work related material like fiction, engage in gardening, go to the beach, swim, play games, and do puzzles. Whatever the activity is that you can engage in that centers you in a positive feeling physically and emotionally.

Seek out Social Interactions

How can you have a social interaction today that doesn’t focus on traumatic content?

  • Meet friends
  • Have a water cooler chat with colleagues
  • Spend time with family
  • Say “Hi” to a neighbor

When we are experiencing secondary or vicarious trauma, researchers report that interacting with others can help reduce feelings of isolation, intrusive thoughts, and spiraling thought patterns.

Have a Self Care Plan

If we don‘t have a plan for how we build the above into our lives we get busy and overwhelmed and self-care gets squeezed out.