MOORHEAD, MINN. (Valley News Live) – Videos from immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota have been spreading across social media for weeks, and mental health experts say just watching them can cause real harm.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we talk about secondary trauma or vicarious trauma, what\u2019s happening is that we\u2019re having a traumatic response, but with our bodies and our minds to something that we\u2019re not experiencing directly,\u201d said Jon Ulven, a licensed psychologist at Sanford.<\/p>\n
Social media has changed how people consume disturbing content, and doctors say the constant exposure is taking a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can watch violent videos for hours following reels, and that type of exposure is something that\u2019s actually really new to humans; it\u2019s come with this technology, and I think what we\u2019re understanding is that we\u2019re not prepared for it,\u201d Ulven said.<\/p>\n
Experts say this can lead to symptoms like anxiety, sleep disruption, and intrusive thoughts. The impact can be even worse when the events are happening in your own community.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you see someone on a video being harmed and it\u2019s close to you, that\u2019s another piece that\u2019s going to increase your reactivity to it,\u201d Ulven said.<\/p>\n
Mental health professionals recommend several strategies for those feeling overwhelmed by disturbing social media content.<\/p>\n
\u201cI often encourage people to make sure you\u2019re checking with loved ones so you can talk with them about what your experiences are. We process things much better when we\u2019re interacting with other people that we feel comforted by,\u201d Ulven said.<\/p>\n
Experts also say people should set limits on screen time, such as turning phones off at bedtime and during meals.<\/p>\n
Mental health resources are available through the National Alliance on Mental Illness <\/a>and the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline<\/a>, which is available 24\/7.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 KVLY. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MOORHEAD, MINN. (Valley News Live) – Videos from immigration enforcement operations in Minnesota have been spreading across social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[220,218,163,85,46,54542,57,54541,522,523,21457,54543,54540],"class_list":{"0":"post-263425","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mental-health","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breaking-news-video","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-live-speeches","14":"tag-live-updates","15":"tag-live-video","16":"tag-mental-health","17":"tag-mentalhealth","18":"tag-press-conference","19":"tag-real-time-coverage","20":"tag-video-updates"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}