Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a particular set of symptoms that occur as a result of exposure to a traumatic event that equates to the physical integrity or life of a person and generates intense fear. The individual reacts by reliving the traumatic experience, evading the cause of the trauma or psychic numbing, and hyperarousal and physiological reactivity to events resembling the trauma (Violanti, 2004). Tragic catastrophes and natural disasters are not the only way PTSD develops in an individual; it can evolve from the compounded trauma that police officers experience over some time (Cuadro, 2019 & Gibson, 2020). Stress has been linked to mental health issues, and experts have identified depression and PTSD as the most concerning conditions (Cuadro, 2019). There has been significant researcher looking into the relationship between PTSD and policing. Researchers estimate between 7% and 19% of police officers have PTSD, and as many as 34% of officers experience symptoms of PTSD that are debilitating and disturbing but do not meet the full PTSD diagnostic criteria (Fucigna, 2019 & Violanti et al., 2018).
Symptoms of PTSD include quick temper, angry outbursts, aggressive verbal and physical behavior, reckless and self-destructive behavior, increased startle response, dangerous driving, excessive alcohol or drug use, and difficulty concentrating (Cuadro, 2019 & Gibson, 2020). Police officers affected by PTSD have difficulty in tasks essential to their job function. This may create an enormous liability, including assessing risk, planning multi-step responses to a critical situation, or paying attention to multiple stimuli (Gibson, 2020). Officers are continually exposed to trauma, which may result in PTSD, and there is a growing amount of evidence documenting the association between PTSD and suicide (Ramchand et al., 2019). Officers who do not have a support system or adequate coping skills to handle stressful job situations may be more vulnerable to stress, which increases their risk for PTSD, depression, and somatization, which causes anxiety into physical symptoms (Tessieri-Hochuli, 2018). If officers do not seek professional assistance for PTSD, the long-term effects include behavioral dysfunction, relationship difficulties, aggressive behaviors, and suicide (Violanti et al., 2006). Fucigna (2019) documents “an association between PTSD symptoms and salivary cortisol response patterns in police officers. The findings suggested possible hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) dysregulation, which may include over-reactivity, exaggerated startle response, sleep disruption, and nightmares under conditions of chronic, acute stress” (p. 31).
PTSD can’t be cured, but it can be managed (Heyman et al., 2018). Studies have found certain elements have been found to reduce the risk of PTSD, such as social support following the traumatic event, individual resiliency, and post-trauma growth (Violanti et al., 2018). Price (2017) defines post-traumatic growth as “positive psychological growth following a stressful, challenging, or traumatic event; a process in which individuals not only recover from trauma but are able to function at a higher level than they would have prior to the challenging event” (p. 116). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a psychotherapy technique that has been proven in more than 30 studies validating its usefulness to reduce the effects of PTSD. The EMDR Institute has shown that after only three 90-minute therapy sessions, between 84% and 90% of single trauma victims no longer show signs of PTSD (Gibson, 2020).