A charity climb to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro
About Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a real illness. PSTD may result from exposure to a critical incident or a traumatic event. PTSD requires specific symptoms for a diagnosis to be made which include avoidance, re-experiencing, and arousal. There are many fine websites with information about PTSD such as the National Institute of Mental Health.
First responders include police officers, firefighters, dispatchers, medics, EMTs, nurses, armed forces, crime scene investigators, and other. As the name implies, first responders are often the first people to arrive at the site of emergency situations. These individuals may get PTSD after living through a disturbing, frightening critical incident. A critical incident has been defined in many ways but one commonly accepted definition is any event that overwhelms a person’s usual ability to cope (Everly/Mitchell 1993). For first responders, some of the familiar critical incidents are:
- Officer involved shooting
- Death or injury of a co-worker
- Suicide of a co-worker
- Prolonged/failed rescue
- Incidents involving children
- Mass casualty event
- Large media influence
- Victim known to responder
- Exposure to infectious diseases
- Responders own safety is in peril
- Administrative/Co-worker Betrayal
A critical incident often produces fear, terror, or helplessness (APA 1994). Responders may be involved in one incident to one hundred incidents throughout their career. The stress they experience may be cumulative due to number of years on the job or the number of incidents experienced. Not everyone reacts the same way to the same or similar incidents. Most first responders see, hear, taste, smell, and touch more trauma in a month than the average citizen does in a lifetime. Critical incident stress is a NORMAL REACTION to an ABNORMAL SITUATION, by a group or an individual. Some of the symptoms are:
- Elevated blood pressure
- Depression
- Over/under eating
- Withdrawal
- Nightmares
- Flashbacks
- Irritability
- Lack of concentration
- Increased alcohol consumption
These symptoms are normal, as long as they do not continue for an extended period of time, causing the first responders life to become unmanageable (relationship problems, work-related problems, addictive behavior, domestic violence, etc.).
For additional information about PTSD, please visit www.ncptsd.va.gov, or http://www.wcpr2001.org/index.html.