Your brain is the best weapon you have, but it also needs care and attention.
In this earlier article, we started to explore the concept of vicarious trauma and looked at the steps we could take to help mitigate the effects of this exposure with regard to managing our own well-being. In today’s article, we’ll expand on this a little more by looking at some additional factors that can help gauge where your head is at and keep you grounded as things unfold.
You don’t have to be in active service to see some very unpleasant things. Source: pexels.com

Hobby Vs Professional

While open source intelligence can draw attention for being little more than “browsing social media” the reality is that carrying out an online investigation will take you to many different corners of the internet, each with its own dynamic. However, one of the most unique parts of the field is the large variety of hobbyist-level analysts that contribute data, tutorials and other useful resources to the field for nothing more than fun and skills development.
It’s worth focusing on these analysts for a minute though. Typically, if we’re working with a large organisation that carries out these types of inquiries, then we’ll more than likely see wellness resources freely available, encouraging employees and investigators to to advantage of them.
Solo fliers, individuals and budding analysts might well find that they have little in the way of these types of resources, despite being exposed to the same time of material that professional analysts will see. This is important to point out, as what it means is, that these people will have to be vigilant regarding their own well-being.
Translation? You are responsible for your own well-being in this scenario. So, to get the best from yourself, ensure that you’ve considered support strategies ahead of time.

Things To Consider

Like many things in life, to get the best out of things it helps to have a clear understanding of what you’ll face and what you can do to influence this. For the most part, this can be done ahead of time, meaning that you can press on with your tasks, safe in the knowledge that you have strategies there for when you need them.
This can be a pretty broad task though, so it’s worth narrowing this down a bit so we’re entirely clear on the direction we are heading. So, ideally, your preparation plan should have addressed the following issues ahead of time.
Personal Limitations:
In times of trauma, it’s sensible to manage your own exposure when you know you’re vulnerable. So, have a clear line ahead of time, for when it is appropriate to take time out to decompress or initiate support strategies like debriefs. Understanding and bringing these tools into play is much easier once you’ve done it once and knowing ahead of time minimizes your risk of overexposure.
Standard Operating Procedures:
Thought by many to be boring, unnecessary and outright annoying, the reality is that having clearly defined standard operating procedures is extremely beneficial to all involved. Investigators have a clear understanding of their scope, and in this scenario managing wellness levels becomes second nature rather than simply pushing through it. It also gives clearly defined actions at all points of the investigation, a distinct bonus when things start to get crazy.
Mental Preparedness:
While this sounds like needing to be prepared to see or do anything, in this context the inverse is true. While one good analyst has much to offer an ongoing investigation, like many other things in life the best OSINT results come from community-led collaboration. Taking on too much, too quickly is one of the quickest and easiest ways to burn yourself out. There are some seriously talented people of all levels within the OSINT community and leveraging some of that knowledge can help you own your own journey. The big thing to remember though, is that burnout can creep up on us at any point and good mental preparation can do much to mitigate this before it occurs.
Debrief or Therapy sessions can be useful if you’re regularly exposed to unpleasant things. Source: pexels.com

Community Support & Resources

At this point, it’s hard to deny that the world can be a pretty tense place. With a growing number of high-intensity conflicts across the globe most of these conflicts come with a strong open-source component, with social media posts and civilian intelligence playing a large part in helping to understand the constantly changing dynamic on the ground.
This means that every day, social media posts must be analysed, verified and processed. While this would be difficult enough to do on its own, on most social media platforms we’ll also have the problem of disinformation to deal with as well.
Despite this, the community recognises this for the problem that it is and as such, we’re seeing a steadily growing pool of resources and information that aim to help investigators deal with this issue. A collaborative project, this is a great community initiative that helps boost awareness of vicarious trauma, while providing resources for people to deal with this should they need to. To the people involved in this initiative, a big salute to you!

Start Today

Want to review some of these resources and start applying them to your situation? Here’s where to go to start finding some good resources to help you on your journey.
Manage your mental hygiene with Bellingcat
Review this wellness thread on Twitter / X
A great blog post on Vicarious Trauma
Another Post on Vicarious Trauma with Bellingcat
Watch this YouTube video on Vicarious Trauma

One Last Thing

It’s all well and good to talk about vicarious trauma and provide resources but at the same time, this article wouldn’t be particularly useful without encouraging people to monitor themselves as well. There are plenty of early signs to help you realise that you might be on your way to overdoing things.
Are you well rested, or do you suffer from disturbed sleep? Do you have a healthy support network that you’re engaged with? Has your relationship with alcohol changed? Are you feeling connected to the people around you or are you dealing with being isolated or feeling shut off? Any one or more of these things affecting you means that it could be time to reach out for some additional support.
Taking care of your state of mind and overall general well-being means you’ll be in the best shape possible when it’s time to do your job. And, your body will thank you for it as well.
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