How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support

By Sylvio (Syd) A. Gravel, M.O.M.

In “How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support ” Sylvio Gravel has taken addressing Trauma and PTSD issues, along with building peer support to a recruiting / training / teaching / management level.

It features not only all the great information found in “56 Seconds” but now with excerpts by Dr. Anna B. Baranowsky and Teresa Lauer LMHC, from their work entitled “WHAT IS PTSD? 3 STEPS TO HEALING TRAUMA” who provide insight into:
• What is PTSD?
• 3 Essential Steps to Healing Trauma
• Types of Trauma
• And so much more….

There are also new sections, including expanded experiences from our Spouses, and sincere and heart-felt “Survivor’s Testimonials” on how to live with and move on in life with PTSD by :
• OPP Inspector (ret’d) Bruce Kruger,
• OPP Constable (ret’d) William Bromilow and
• Ottawa Police Service Constable (ret’d) Peter Platt
For emergency services trainers and recruiters, college and university professors, “How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support” Sylvio shares his 25 years of survivor experience and 10 years as officer-in-charge of recruiting and training to address has insight & training points to help building resilience to trauma such as:
• How misunderstanding the work’s competencies can leave people struggling to survive the job;
• How personality traits influence work relationships and peer support ability;
• And so much more….

For Chiefs, CEO’s and Managers, “How to Survive PTSD and Build Peer Support” also contains 5 key questions that should absolutely be considered to ensure the well-being of their employees, including retired members in relation to trauma and PTSD.

Certification and survivor experience – required or not? This edition also delves into the discussion, led by Mr. John Robertson of FORTLOG Service Inc, as to whether or not it is absolutely necessary for peers to have survivor experience and/or certification. And the touchy issue of trying to decide what training to get, once that decision has been made.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 19, 2013
• ISBN: 9780988131651

Book preview

us.

Introduction

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has no biases or timelines. It cares nothing about your job, your career, your lifestyle, your socioeconomic status, your education, religion or any other of the diverse dimensions that make us all different from each other. It can affect anyone at any time.

Though my experience is based on a singular event in a police environment, which set in motion an entire series of effects in me, there are many who suffer similar effects in reacting to trauma regardless of who they are. They can all relate to my experience whether their suffering is a result of a series of events or just the one that happened to me.

In addition to my story, which was originally published in 56 Seconds, this revised edition has new sections that address several areas that were not discussed in the first book.

First, Dr. Anna Baranowsky, a clinical psychologist and CEO of the Traumatology Institute in Toronto, and Teresa Lauer, LMHC, have provided information from their book entitled, What Is PTSD? 3 Steps to Healing Trauma. This additional information includes definitions, an understanding of what trauma is and what it does, and the body-mind link, along with how to find help when reacting poorly to trauma. After reading their material and then my story, you will learn how the body-mind link influenced my thoughts and behaviour, although I didn't know it at the time.

Dr. Baranowsky specializes in post-trauma care and has dedicated her work to assisting trauma survivors, communities, and organizations after critical events. She offers comprehensive Trauma Training and Compassion Fatigue Resiliency programs on-line and on-site, and this is why I sought her out and asked for her participation in this new book.l For information about the Traumatology Institute Training Curriculum E-learning visit www.ticlearn.com.For in-class professional training, visit www.psychink.com.² Teresa Lauer, the co-author,. . . has treated hundreds of clients suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. . . . [she] is the founder of www.RapeRecovery.com.³

I have also included new information from the training and recruitment perspective to prepare recruiters and trainers to help new employees in emergency services workplaces—or any other workplace for that matter— to become more aware of and resilient to the expected traumatic events that they will have to deal with.

New information in this edition also includes having a clearer understanding of the competencies required for the job, how personality traits can interfere with peer support work and how our perceptions can negate our ability to live with reality. This revised edition also includes everything that I shared in 56 Seconds because readers told me that they loved the book just the way it was—they just wanted more.

In my story of the traumatic event, it had only taken fifty-six seconds to go through the entire incident from the moment I received a description of the armed robbery suspects to the moment when I called for an ambulance because I had shot a man.

After those brief fifty-six seconds, I was no longer the man who had first joined the police service. I now had a different perspective, based on hard-earned experience that I never had before. I became a changed man and I lost who I had once been.

I had hit a solid wall that I could not go through or pretend did not exist. Although I tried to circle back to find my original path in life, I couldn't. I now needed to learn how to continue my journey through life differently than how I had started. I now had the added weight of those fifty-six seconds of experience and memories as part of whom I had now become.

Not everyone who is involved in a fatal or near-fatal incident suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. I have spoken to many officers who have had to shoot a suspect, and some were able to walk away unscathed, knowing that they had done the job expected of them. For there to be a trauma, there has to be a shock factor of some sort. There has to be an unexpected component that jars the involved person out of their capability to control their view of life—something that sets the brain in motion in a direction one doesn't expect. This can happen to anyone as a result of one traumatic event or from being involved in a series of events.

ENDNOTES

1. Dr. Anna Baranowsky & Teresa Lauer, LMHC, What Is PTSD? 3 Steps to Healing Trauma (Toronto: Traumatology Institute, 2012), p. ii.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid.

PART 1

How To Survive PTSD

What I Wish I Had Known

Up until I experienced those fifty-six seconds, I had thought of myself as a fairly stable guy, with some great street sense and a solid character, who was able to work through any trauma that I saw or experienced as a police officer and as I believed I was expected to.

I had been involved in other traumatic events during my police career and had escaped any major after effects for the most part. I occasionally indulged in a little overdrinking or some form of escapism. But, mainly, I maintained the macho image and simply rah-rahed my way through events as every tough guy was expected to do. However, for some reason, this time was different; it didn't feel the same. Something wasn't right for me. Why this time? And what made this event different compared to the many other times I was involved in traumatic events? My reaction to that particular event didn't make sense to me, to my family or to my friends.

But my reactions and behavioural changes did make sense to other officers who knew me and who had also reacted similarly to traumatic events they had lived through. They recognized my behaviour because they were going through the same thing with varying degrees of intensity. But they didn't know why—just that this was the way it was. PTSD had not yet been recognized as an injury within policing, so we simply didn't know anything about it.

Over time, I have started to learn things about what happened in the past and what continues to happen to me still. In understanding what happens when trauma affects you, ignorance is certainly not bliss. In fact, it can slow down the healing process substantially. I have subsequently found out that there was very little about those fifty-six seconds, that is, the event itself, that was the problem for me. It was more about the inner workings of my mind in reaction to the event that had become the problem.

When I met with my psychologist, PTSD wasn't even a recognized disorder. The doctor compared my behaviour to what research was revealing about soldiers' behaviour after returning from the Vietnam War. His constant advice to me and my fellow officers was that our reactions were normal reactions to abnormal situations. It was important to grasp that message first and foremost. However, the question for me remained that, if I was acting normally to this abnormal situation, why did it appear as though I was the only one reacting the way I was?

To simplify our understanding of what happens to many of us, we must assume, for a moment, that we are all born with a certain amount of money invested in our mind's mental bank account; each of us will have a different amount, with no two accounts the same. Every time a person gets hit with a traumatic event, an amount of money is withdrawn from that inner mental bank account to help us stay grounded. We never know what the remaining balance is after each withdrawal. Then, suddenly, something happens and the bank account is empty and we collapse. We didn't see it coming, we don't understand what is happening or why, we only know that we can't get back on our feet. There is no money left in the account to help us get grounded. We try to understand the event instead of focusing on the bankrupted body-mind link, which is where we need to go to understand what is happening.

Since the late 1990s psychiatrists and psychologists now know much more about what is happening to the body and the mind, and how to address them in relation to reactions to trauma.

Knowledge is power. In this case, knowledge about what is happening to you can help keep you healthy and alive. Having knowledge in advance about what can happen is absolutely precious. And I highly recommend that anyone working in emergency services educate themselves as to what could happen to them when reacting to trauma.

To add to that knowledge, Dr. Anna Baranowsky and her co-author, Teresa Lauer, granted permission for parts of the chapter titled Introduction to be reprinted from their book entitled What Is PTSD? 3 Steps to Healing Trauma. They have also allowed me to reproduce the trauma and scoring checklists from the book. Their chapter discusses, among other things, what PTSD is; identifies the various types of trauma, and how the brain and body work after someone experiences it; and provides advice on how to find a trauma therapist.

I wish I had known about the effects of trauma and PTSD, and its impact on the body and mind, and what can help to begin the healing process. By knowing all this and being able to address my reactions when they happened, I probably would never have become a victim of PTSD.

Understanding Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

This chapter has been reprinted with the permission of the authors, Dr. Anna Baranowsky & Teresa Lauer, LMHC, What Is PTSD? 3 Steps to Healing Trauma (Toronto: Traumatology Institute, 2012), pp. 3-5, 6-8, 12-13, 14-20, 24.

WHAT IS PTSD?

PTSD stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is an anxiety disorder that can occur following a traumatic event. A psychological trauma, as opposed to a physical trauma or injury, occurs when you experience an emotionally disturbing or distressing event. Although we commonly think of trauma as a reaction to a violent event or a terrible accident, we know that individuals can also experience emotional trauma after being physically injured or diagnosed with a serious illness.

During a traumatic event, you may have felt that your life, or the life of another, was in danger and that you had no control of the outcome. Even witnessing an event, in which someone died or was seriously injured, can cause PTSD symptoms and result in a diagnosis of it. It is not unusual for you to experience uncomfortable or upsetting memories of a traumatic event, as well as potentially strong physical reactions.

You may also experience uncomfortable or distressing emotions such as anger, fear, and helplessness. If these symptoms do not go away, or if they interfere with your daily activities or your enjoyment in life, it's time to seek help.

It is important to remember that only a qualified mental health professional can verify a diagnosis of PTSD through a series of clinical interviews and tests that inquire as to whether you have experienced specific symptom responses for at least one month.

3 ESSENTIAL STEPS TO HEALING TRAUMA

The following is an overview of the three essential steps to healing ... trauma ....

STEP 1: FINDING COMFORT

Finding comfort and ensuring your safety is an