\u00a0<\/p>\n
Of course, they\u2019re driving around 24 hours a day, non-stop.\u00a0 The problem is there are other people on the road.\u00a0 The cops have lights on the car and fancy writing, but that just attracts people who have only partial attention to a mundane task like driving.\u00a0 Two cars hit, one of them is a cop car.\u00a0 A New York Times article in June of last year told a story about a physician that was analyzing a soldier\u2019s brain that had been in Iraq and Afghanistan, and had died of a drug overdose.\u00a0 He was complaining of sleep problems, cognitive problems, memory loss, balance problems and suicidal depression.\u00a0 The physician notices a buildup of a certain type of protein and some dust-like scarring between the gray matter and the white matter of the brain.\u00a0 Many other soldiers\u2019 brains seem to have the same scarring and complained of the same symptoms.\u00a0 The physicians felt it was from blast exposure, One problem is the fact that this pattern is below detection.\u00a0 In both the movie and the military, we find that this problem was discovered on autopsy, after the person was dead.\u00a0 See after death they can take the brain and do what is called a histology which are micro-slices of the brain.\u00a0 It was in the micro-slices that the tears were discovered.\u00a0 It was also where the scarring was found.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the CATs and the MRIs and other tests of the living brain cannot pick them up.\u00a0 They\u2019ve called this disorder Post-Concussive Syndrome (PCS) , which is common in football players and boxers, and yes, people in car accidents.\u00a0 It is the beating that the brain takes with repeated exposure to concussions.\u00a0 What is also hard to know is what number of these concussions will lead to post-concussive syndrome.\u00a0 It seems the younger brain is more pliable, but is it the tenth concussion, the fifth, the third that leads to post-concussive syndrome; we just don\u2019t know.<\/span><\/p>\n It is also hard to know what is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD) and what is Post-Concussive Syndrome.\u00a0 In Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is considered a psychological disorder, there is the same symptom group with some added stimuli specific fear and concerns.\u00a0 PCS seems a little more generalized, but the symptoms are often the same.\u00a0 With PTSD, generally you see some major improvement after six months of treatment, but often you don\u2019t.\u00a0 With Post-Concussive Syndrome or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) you may not see major improvement in the symptoms, only plateaus in the tolerance of the symptoms for amounts of time.\u00a0 But it seems the symptoms come roaring back full blown at times.\u00a0 All signals that we may be dealing with a brain injury cluster, not a PTSD cluster.<\/span><\/p>\n I have three patients on my therapy load right now who fit this diagnosis.\u00a0 All have had a couple of car accidents in addition to some roll arounds where they had gotten a little shaky afterwards.\u00a0 All are noticeably brain damaged.\u00a0 One couldn\u2019t drive for a year and the others all have a little trouble driving at night.\u00a0 All have had vestibular therapy, sleep problems, emotional vacillation problems, a little agoraphobia, fatigue, etc.\u00a0 All are affected by the florescent lighting in my office so I purchased indirect lighting and that made me feel better too.\u00a0\u00a0 I have to be honest, for a year and a half after my open-heart surgery, I had many of the same symptoms, but mine went away.\u00a0 There\u2019s seem to be somewhat permanent, and that is sad.\u00a0 I can\u2019t give permission to let these people go back to work, because another concussion is very likely and they would be lost, pulling out their teeth to let the bugs out of their body, like in the movie \u201cConcussion<\/u><\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 They are very susceptible to another concussion and it is not a matter of if <\/u>another situation will occur with a cop, it is when <\/u>will the next situation occurs.\u00a0 A simple roll around could set them off.\u00a0\u00a0 I want these guys out and disabled.\u00a0 But my opinion is as a union representative, not the department.<\/span><\/p>\n In Suffolk County, we have a Medical Evaluations Unit within the department with the imperative to get people back to work.\u00a0 They see people who have cheated the system and they want to make sure it does not happen anymore.\u00a0 They assume everyone wants to cheat the system.\u00a0 Raging headaches, lack of sleep, false sensation in the body, fatigue, light sensitivity, and balance problems in addition to an emotional reactivity make them not a candidate for full time duty.\u00a0 So, they put them on light duty at the front desk, which one officer described as the patrol car without the wheels, and the prestige.\u00a0 Supervisors in my area tend to take one look at the cops and say, \u201cyou really are different and messed up,\u201d and try to adapt the work environment for them.\u00a0 They try to help, but the battle becomes the cops v. medical evaluation.\u00a0 They are made to feel something is truly wrong with their desire to work.\u00a0 They are made to feel they are lazy and trying to take advantage of the county.\u00a0 It is disgusting to watch these men destroyed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n They go home exhausted from work.\u00a0 Domestic disputes are rampant in their families.\u00a0 They can\u2019t even get emotionally charged about their kids anymore.\u00a0 The bureaucracy eats them up.\u00a0 If the guys have enough time in, they consider retiring at this point, if not they use up their sick time to get away when they are not feeling good, and all sense of self starts to wither away.\u00a0 Then when they apply for disability, they are rejected because there is no bloody shirt or broken bones.\u00a0 Maybe the World War I military tradition of shooting them was more humane than putting them through the scrutiny of accusing them of not wanting to work, and being lazy.\u00a0 Certainly, it has been that way for my patients.<\/span><\/p>\n This practice has to stop and eventually it will.\u00a0 But during this period, those with Traumatic Brain Injury are lost to the system and the many cheaters who have caused the pendulum to swing in the direction of lacking empathy.\u00a0 Eventually medicine will invent a scanning process that will pick up the micro-tears in the brain.\u00a0 It happened in football and the military, it will happen in policing.\u00a0 For now, we need to recognize this is a problem and be a little more empathetic when a person comes from a car accident where he has lost consciousness or has symptoms of a brain injury.\u00a0 Look for this in your department, and try to help these men.\u00a0 When a cop tells you he can\u2019t sleep, he feels strange, his emotions are not right, or he has headaches and can\u2019t stand the lighting, see these as signs and symptoms of an injured cop, and help him or her out.\u00a0 You may save a suicide, or a drug problem from developing.\u00a0 Eventually, disability and departments will recognize this problem.\u00a0 The military and the NFL fought recognizing it, but they came around.\u00a0 Cops have this problem too, and the numbers of car accidents in this profession will make it come to light.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Site Administrator:\u00a0 Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please share this article from down below.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Please join the email list on the top of the sidebar and you can get these sent to your email.\u00a0 Also follow me on Twitter (https:\/\/twitter.com\/ThinBlueMind<\/a>) for other articles and ideas, and YouTube at\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/channel\/UCfjNw0510ipr3bX587IvAHg<\/a> .<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Police Psychology | PTSD 3:\u00a0 Car Accidents by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP \u00a0 Of course, they\u2019re driving around 24 hours a day, non-stop.\u00a0 The problem is there are other people on the road.\u00a0 The cops have lights on the car and fancy writing, but that just attracts people who have only partial attention to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168885],"tags":[17168975,17168797,17168831],"class_list":["post-5317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stress","tag-car-accidents","tag-police-psychology","tag-police-stress"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3148,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=3148","url_meta":{"origin":5317,"position":0},"title":"Police Psychology | PTSD 2: Crash and Burn","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"June 28, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | PTSD 2:\u00a0 Crash and Burn by Gary S. Aumiller, PH.D.\u00a0 ABPP Have you ever had the chance to be in a drunk driving simulation or even play a game on a drunk driving simulator?\u00a0 You try to keep the car on a straight path, but it keeps\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Police Stress"","block_context":{"text":"Police Stress","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168885"},"img":{"alt_text":"gears in head","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/gears-in-head-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1865,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=1865","url_meta":{"origin":5317,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | PTSD Part 1: What You Hear is What You Get","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"April 27, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | PTSD Part 1:\u00a0 What You Hear is What You Get Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP I have seven PTSD cases in my office right now at different stages.\u00a0 Being hit by a car while working highway, a car accident with the leg shattered, a car accident during\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Police Stress"","block_context":{"text":"Police Stress","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168885"},"img":{"alt_text":"Police PSychology ear","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/Untitled-300x216.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":630,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=630","url_meta":{"origin":5317,"position":2},"title":"Police Psychology | What You Can Learn from a 2-Year Old","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"August 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | What You Can Learn from a 2-Year Old \u00a0 In police psychology, I find a lot of officers who just can\u2019t do it. There are very few things that toddlers know how to do better than adults. For instance, although sometimes when I\u2019m driving I encounter cars\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mastering Effort"","block_context":{"text":"Mastering Effort","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168880"},"img":{"alt_text":"Police Stress, women saying no","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/woman-no-300x200.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5895,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=5895","url_meta":{"origin":5317,"position":3},"title":"Police Psychology | PTSD 4: Flashbacks","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"May 10, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | PTSD 4:\u00a0 Flashbacks Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP \u00a0 Of course, you are going to think I\u2019ve lost it on this one, but it shows some merit.\u00a0 And it makes some sense logically.\u00a0 Researchers in England\u00a0 say that flashbacks from traumatic events can be moderated through playing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Police Stress"","block_context":{"text":"Police Stress","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168885"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/05\/tetris-md.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":842,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=842","url_meta":{"origin":5317,"position":4},"title":"Police Psychology | Apples to Orangutans: Life\u2019s Comparisons","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"November 12, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | Apples to Orangutans: Life\u2019s Comparisons \u00a0 Police psychology has to constantly deal with comparisons cops make. 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From helping cop to a victim, from a person in charge to helpless man lying on the ground in pain or even unconscious.\u00a0\u00a0 At an accident scene, we are worried about everything from keeping the traffic moving to making sure everyone gets the help that is needed.\u00a0 But the help the cop needs may not be as obvious as a broken bone, or some blood-stained clothes.\u00a0 And that becomes a major problem for policing.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/over_the_cliff.png?resize=249%2C299\")
or all the loud sounds a soldier was exposed to.\u00a0 Up to 20 percent of soldiers seem to have these symptoms at different levels of severity.\u00a0 Problem was soldiers didn\u2019t want to report it for fear they would be seen as going crazy.\u00a0 The article opines that in World War I, thousands of soldiers were shot for desertion or cowardice that may well of had a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).\u00a0 In the 2015 movie \u201cConcussion,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>Will Smith play Dr. Bennett Amalu who fights against the NFL when he discovers microtears in the brains cells of football players and the NFL won\u2019t recognize it.\u00a0 Players complained of headaches, problems sleeping \u2026(you know the rest).\u00a0\u00a0 The NFL and the American Military recognize it as a disorder, when will our police departments become aware of it and recognize it?<\/span><\/p>\n