HARTFORD, Conn. — The graphic content in the Tyre Nichols video released Friday night is raising concerns about how it might impact your mental health.
Dr. James O’Dea said if you haven’t watched the video, be aware of your limits and capacity to watch and process it. You don’t have to watch it, but if you have, there are some things to be aware of.
"It’s becoming too common to see Black men killed on film and it’s hard for me to watch things like that any longer," said one woman who wanted to remain anonymous. "I didn’t watch the video because it’s traumatizing for me."
Just days after the video of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols being brutally beaten by five Memphis police officers has been released, some people can’t bring themselves to watch it.
The video shows the sequence of events that ultimately led up to Tyre’s death three days later.
Mental health professionals said watching this video has the potential to unlock emotional ramifications.
"For certain communities, particularly persons of color, watching another Black American be brutalized by law enforcement has the potential to exacerbate feelings otherwise of not being in control, feeling at risk, feeling anxious, feeling irritable," said Dr. James O’Dea.
Dr. O'Dea also said it has the potential to cause the opposite effect.
“For certain audiences, it runs the risk of sort of annuitizing people to the risk to where you began to become numb to the experience,” said Dr. O’Dea.
That feeling is something common for Josephine Mitchell, who’s watched the video.
FOX61’s asked her did it impact her in any type of psychological way to see the video put out.
Mitchell responded saying she was not because I has seen it so many times.
Like Eric Garner in 2014, to George Floyd, both men’s deaths were caught on camera.
"In the video imagery in particular, kind of lodges in the brain in a different way than reading about it in the newspaper or in an article," said Dr. O’Dea.
Dr. James O’Dea also said that if you have watched the video to take care of yourself. Ask for help if needed, limit your screen time, and lean in on the community.
DeAndria Turner is a multi-media journalist at FOX61 News. She can be reached at dturner@fox61.com.
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