s; fear; the loss of friends in what seems often to be meaningless conflict; the need to dehumanize the enemy in order to function; anxiety; anger, which often turns to rage.
Given the occurrence of a traumatic event and/or process, which is defined as being outside the range of experiences police officers can deal with in a normal manner, the trauma responses can entail agitation, impatience, irritability, frustration, and rage, all of which reflect the surge of intrusive memory and emotional reaction to post-trauma combined with attempts at repression of memory and denial of the impact of the trauma. There are several forces that occur subsequent to PTSD, including completion compulsion (i.e., need to heal causing re-enactments of the event, intrusive feelings, memories, outbursts of rage); "numbing out" (i.e., repression of the event and the emotions experienced with its occurrence); life impairment (i.e., phobic avoidance of events or persons that trigger memory of the trauma); anxiety state; personality collapse; loss of interests; withdrawal; sexual inhibitions or acting out; activity swings; loss of meaning in life; startle responses; and, physical ailment (Kellogg & Harrison, 1991, p. 12). In addition to these, depression, suicidal tendencies, eating disorders and other addictive behaviors that are common in law enforcement officers are further effects of trauma (p. 16).
While there are on going trauma treatment facilities and support groups for police victims of PTSD to help resolve core issues as well as symptoms, these entities generally prove to be inadequate due to limited access, attendance being voluntary rather than mandatory, and/or services being offered too late to be of benefit to the given officers. As examples of such facilities are the Seafield program in Florida and Baywood Hospital in Texas. In addition, several cities have in-house psychologists and counselors who provide PTSD counseling. These ser...