We all have always perceived police officers to be valiant and fearless, but do we know the struggles they go through due to their job? What struggle am I exactly addressing here? Well, I am talking about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD can be considered as a response to experiencing an extremely traumatic event. Before PTSD was even formalized as a disorder, it was unclear whether highly stressful or traumatic events even have an impact on our psychological functioning. As opposed to PTSD caused by exposure to a single traumatic event, police officers often suffer from cumulative PTSD ( cPTSD). There are many difficult and arduous days being a cop. A police officer with PTSD cannot think properly and take the right actions. He/she might not be sleeping well, might police in a very heedless manner, maybe hypervigilant and self-medicating.
PTSD can mainly be identified with the presence of three types of symptoms: re-experiencing occurrences or events in the form of flashbacks or dreams, constant thoughts about specific aspects of the event, and hyperarousal involving a constant sense of threat and fear.
Symptoms can also be identified in terms of physical and emotional reactions when experiencing the above symptoms, such as sweating, heart pounding, sleep difficulties, unwanted risk-taking, etc. Persistent occurrences of these symptoms along with a negative impact of work, home, or social life, implies the presence of PTSD.
What exactly causes PTSD among police officers?
Various factors incline an officer to develop the disorder, such as a serious line of duty injury, injuries or death of children, officer involved in shootings, etc. Shootings can be a very traumatizing and upsetting event in an officer’s life. When they are involved in a shooting, they experience physical, behavioral, and cognitive symptoms. The symptoms don’t just end here. They experience loss of memory, patience, and sleep, and increased levels of isolation. It becomes very perplexing for them to contain thoughts related to the event and engage in day-to-day activities. These reactions are involuntary and are caused by stress hormones and neurochemicals triggered by the response to threats against survival.
Why do we say that some cops are more prone to PTSD as compared to others?
This can be attributed to both the internal and external factors of the officer. Internal factors include the officer’s level of coping with stress, any concurrent condition such as depression or anxiety, previous exposure to traumas, and current happenings in life. External factors can involve a lack of support from agency, family, and friends, media slandering, betrayal, and community rejection.
The experience of PTSD doesn’t occur for police officer alone, even their families are prone to develop a secondary trauma called vicarious trauma or compassion fatigue. This type of trauma is an emotional response with symptoms very similar to that of PTSD. Although the families do not directly experience the traumatic event, there is an indirect exposure, through repeated listening of vivid descriptions of the event. In some cases, it may also occur that, police officers refrain from sharing their experience of the traumatic event, thereby damaging the closeness between relationships.
Many of us might feel that PTSD manifests itself only during an officer’s career. But even when an officer reaches their retirement stage or has retired, PTSD can show its effects. PTSD usually tends to have a delayed reaction on most of them. Why is that the case? During an officer’s career, as stress is a normal part of their job, they usually try to suppress it and refrain from addressing the problem. However, once you retire, there is no need to suppress the stress. This is usually the time when the symptoms of PTSD start manifesting. Hence, it is imperative to understand that, retirement is not a cure for PTSD, as many officers may think. It may rather be just the beginning of PTSD.
So, what can be some of the ways to reduce the impact of trauma on police officers?
The first step is to develop proactive skills to reduce the impact of the trauma. It is important for police officers to be more proactive and increase the awareness of their brains to adapt to the requirements of the job. Here, we have discussed two important proactive skills.
Firstly, it is important to get a perspective. As stressful it may sound, it is very imperious for police officers to find time to process the impact an incident has had on them before they engage in the next incident. Failure of doing this can further lead to a cumulative effect, burnout, and eventually PTSD. Various techniques can help to gain a perspective of the whole event, such as, shifting viewpoints, creating maps, and timelines of the incident. These techniques help the police officer to understand what has happened, why it happened and thereby aids to reduces the stress, and move on. A second important proactive skill is to share your experiences with others. Peer-support is a very important step in managing trauma exposure. Sharing the experiences of a traumatic incident with others and recognizing others’ perspectives and helps us reduce the effect of our stress response.
Next, it is of utmost importance to consult mental health care professionals who will be able to guide the patient in the right way with the right interventions. One of the most important techniques is empowering the individual through resilience building. This method is seen as the best way to support those who have experienced a traumatic event. This is done through a debriefing process that includes structures and supported conversation. One of the most commonly used debriefing tools is the ‘Critical Incident Stress Debriefing’. There are many other evidence-based therapies for treating PTSD, such as residential treatment, eye-movement desensitization, reprocessing, prolonged exposure therapy, and cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Lastly, it is highly crucial for organizations to be very supportive of their officers when it comes to dealing with and healing from Trauma. Supervisors and line managers can influence team attitudes in terms of dealing with trauma, breaking the stigma, and encouraging individuals to seek help.
Therefore, there is an imperious need for police officers and for the people surrounding them to recognize the symptoms of PTSD as early as possible, thereby taking the right precautions and interventions. Early diagnosis can prevent the disorder from worsening and taking a toll on the individual’s life. It is a sad but true reality that police officers are very reluctant to seek treatment for their disorder as they believe that it will portray a weaker side to their personality. Hence there is an increasing onus on the community and the agencies to break the stigma and support those that are affected both personally and professionally due to the disorder.
References
2018. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Policing, s.l.: College of Policing.
Kirschman, E., 2018. Cops and PTSD.
Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/cop-doc/201811/cops-and-ptsd
Anon., 2019. Why High Rates of PTSD in Police Officers?.
Available at: https://nationalpolicesupportfund.com/police-officers-experience-high-rates-of-ptsd/
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