Chaplain Bill Wolfe
Llano County Sheriff’s Department
Hi, and welcome once again to the Chaplain’s Corner. "The Final Frontier". boy, it’s been a long, long time since I’ve visited the Star Trek theme for a message. But perhaps the Lord dropped this title into my mind for a reason. I wanted to share with you a bit about stress - Critical Incident Stress to be more specific - and just now as I thought about CIS a Star Trek illustration came to mind.
Beam aboard.I mean pull up a chair and sit down beside it and let’s see where this "voyage" will take us. I know that a lot of you may not be Trekkies, but hopefully most everyone at least has enough exposure to understand the Federation (good guys) vs. the Klingons (usually bad guys). Just in case you’re not all that familiar with Klingon starships, they have the ability to "cloak" and become invisible.
CIS is what happens when we’re unexpectedly subjected to an event (the level of participation in the event notwithstanding) that, basically, shakes us to the center of our being. Or to put it in Star Trek terminology - we’re on a steady course minding our own business, defensive shields down, when a Klingon Bird of Prey uncloaks dead ahead and fires a deadly salvo of photon torpedoes that hit our ship, and immediately recloaks and vanishes, leaving us to sit dead in space calling for a damage report on all decks. The event happens so fast, is so traumatic, that we may have to just sit for a minute and say, "What the heck just happened?"
Yeah, Sam said he saw that episode just last week on the SciFi channel. ☺ Seeing it on TV is one thing, experiencing it in real life is something else again, and in our business it happens all too often. And that’s why I bring it up this month.
Quite some time ago, I shared with you that I had "seen a sort of vision," for lack of a better term, during the night about two officers in a patrol car. Well, about a month ago I had a similar thing happen, but this time I saw an officer that I didn’t recognize in a blue uniform sitting on the curb crying. I know nothing of what or why, and I think his name was Jimmy. All I could do was to pray for God to comfort him. Last week we had a two-year-old boy drown in a pool here in town, and several of our first responders "took a direct photon torpedo hit." Then the other day, one of my friends from PoliceOne.com wrote about being first on the scene of a fatal vehicle-vs.-bicycle. You just don’t have time to "put the shields up" sometimes. I’ll bet there are a number of my readers that have taken a hit these last few weeks (especially some of our rookies). The cause of the stress doesn’t have to happen on the streets -- someone is having trouble coping with "being shot" in the simulator recently. That’s why I wanted to touch on the subject for a little bit this time out.
Critical Incident Stress is basically just a normal person having normal reactions to an abnormal event. Emergency services personnel deal with more than our fair share of tragedy, and we all have varying abilities to cope with it. Our ability to cope may or may not be directly impacted by our role in the event. Our reactions may set in almost immediately, or they may not surface for hours or even days later. My reaction to an event may not be the same as someone else involved in the same event, but an emotional reaction is normal and to be expected. Don't berate yourself for having these emotional times. They're part of the grieving process and part of the healing process.
Let me just quickly list some of the reactions that a person may experience following a traumatic event: fatigue, headaches, loss of appetite, trouble or fear of sleeping, recurring thoughts or flashbacks (reliving the event), trouble concentrating or paying attention, memory impairment, moodiness, feelings of guilt or depression, crying spells, withdrawal and wanting to be alone. These reactions will vary in intensity and duration for each person.
OK, what do we do to make it go away? That’s a question that I can’t fully answer. It mostly takes time. There are things that you can do or avoid that will help, such as: get appropriate physical exercise alternated with rest, eat well-balanced meals (I hear you LEOs laughing at that one) even if you don’t feel like it, and limit caffeine, maintain normal work and family routines, spend time with others. Don’t self-medicate and do talk, talk, talk to clergy/chaplains/people you trust. I don’t propose to understand why talking and sharing your feelings helps, but it does. One more "big don’t": don’t make any life changing decisions until emotions settle down. If the emotional reactions don’t seem to be settling down after a time, seek help.
Your department or another agency may offer CIS Debriefings or peer-support meetings, depending on what the traumatic event was and how many emergency services personnel were involved/affected. I encourage you to attend if they do. It helps to know others are going through what you are, and sometimes you may discover a "piece of the puzzle" that will put your mind at ease and give you some peace that you might not find otherwise.
One other thing that helps is talking with God about it. He was there when it happened. He knows your role and your pain, and He’s willing to help. In fact let me pray with you right now.
Precious Lord, I come before You right now on behalf of my readers who are hurting following a traumatic event. You know what they’ve been through and the hurt in their heart. You know how it replays in their mind. I pray, Dear Lord, that You'd come to them in a special way. I pray that they might be able to pour out their heart before You and that You, in turn, would pour forth Your Spirit into them, bringing healing to their spirit. Bring them through this gently, O Lord. For I ask it in Your Name. Amen.
My parting thought? Leave the "stiff upper lip" stuff to the British. ☺ It IS okay to say that YOU are not okay if you're not.
Talk with you next "shift."
Chaplain Bill
llanochaps@moment.net
