Stress management is key after traumatic event, experts say

The stress of surviving the April 16 shooting rampage will give students enough distractions, mental health experts say.

“The students will have difficulty with learning when they get back into the classrooms,” Frank Kros, president of Transformation Education, an organization that focuses on the teenage brain. “Students may feel like it’s really hard to get back into the swing of school, and that’s to be expected.”

“Stress is a physiological reaction to trauma.”

When a person goes through a stressful situation, the brain releases a large amount of the chemical cortisol, which interrupts the memory system and causes learning difficulties.

But returning to a predictable routine will help students regain a sense of control, Kros said.

“I think that Virginia Tech is moving very progressively and very clearly back to normal,” he said. “They’re also providing outlets for frustration, anger, sadness and grief, which are very important.”

Virginia Tech administration has posted a list of guidelines on its Web site on how to identify distressed students and refer them to counseling, and some tips for how students can handle their stress.

At University of Maryland, College Park, where the waiting list for seeing a counselor can get quite long, special circumstances will be taken into account following the shootings.

“If someone is truly in need of help on an immediate basis, we will make the room for that,” said Dr. Jonathan Kandell, head of counseling services at the university’s counseling center. “We do have a waiting list, but that’s for people who are less distressed.”

In the next few weeks, Kros said students will feel a wave of anger. Some of that has shown itself in bomb threats and threats against international students at Virginia Tech.

“The leadership needs to prepare for the next step, which will be anger and hostility,” he said. “Where those emotions are directed and how they’re managed is important.”

dulman@baltimoreexaminer.com