Police Get PTSD Years After 9/11

Feb. 24, 2009 - PRLog -- “I can’t eat. I can’t sleep. I can’t think. I feel sick. I can’t do this anymore.”
—Jonathan Figueroa, NYPD

  For 98 hellish days, NYPD officer Jonathan Figueroa worked on the pile retrieving body parts and searched for the remains of his brother-in-law, an EMT killed in the collapse of the World Trade Center towers in New York City.

  But it wasn’t until 5 years after the 2001 terrorist attack that he got Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and tried to kill himself. Developing PTSD years after a traumatic experience is not unusual. There are cases of World War II veterans not showing symptoms of PTSD until 30 years after the war.

  Jimmy Brown was another New York City cop who worked on the pile. A few weeks before 9/11, he became a firefighter, and found himself climbing the stairs to the top of the north tower to save civilians. Seconds before the tower collapsed, he escaped, but was nearly buried alive. Shortly after the attack, he developed trauma related symptoms, but managed to prevent getting PTSD.

  A volunteer for a police peer support group called Police Organization Providing Peer Assistance or POPPA (www.poppainc.com), Brown knew who to go to for help. With immediate and proper counseling, those exposed to traumatic situations can avoid getting PTSD in the future.

  The stories of Jonathan Figueroa and Jimmy Brown appear in the new edition of CopShock, Second Edition: Surviving Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), by trauma expert Allen R. Kates. (http://www.copshock.com)

  The second edition of this much praised book on police trauma survival has been expanded with 5 new chapters, more than 200 updated resources and new self-tests for PTSD, Anxiety, Stress, Panic Disorder, Depression, and Resiliency, as well as information on treatment centers.

  The new chapters include stories about police officers and firefighters on 9/11 trying to save survivors from the burning World Trade Center; and stories about police dispatchers and police wives who suffer from vicarious trauma, but are often ignored because they did not witness the critical incident firsthand. In another new chapter, the second edition investigates how police officers can develop resiliency to horrific events to help prevent PTSD.

  Also included are stories from the first edition of CopShock about police officers trying to cope with PTSD as a result of brutal assaults, shootings, death investigations, military combat, bomb explosions, and even PTSD as a result of not shooting.

  Nightmares, flashbacks, anger, concentration problems, emotional detachment, avoidance of people and places... These are some of the signs of PTSD. As many as one in three cops may suffer from PTSD, a condition that may lead to depression, suicidal thoughts, addictions, eating disorders as well as job and family conflict.

   Lt. James F. Devine (Ret.) states that “The book can be as meaningful as a bulletproof vest, because PTSD is a greater cop killer than all the guns ever fired at police officers.”

  “The second edition… is without a doubt one of the most valuable books available for police officers, families, suicide prevention…” says Andrew F. O’Hara, Badge of Life, an organization that collects police suicide data and focuses on prevention (wwww.badgeoflife.com).

  Firefighter Senior Chief Shannon Pennington says, “We strongly recommend this book for all wounded warriors who want to know how to prevent PTSD before it begins.” (www.firefighterveteran.com)

  Author Allen R. Kates, BCECR, MFAW, is a trauma expert and journalist who has reported on law enforcement activities for more than twenty-five years. He is Board Certified in Emergency Crisis Response (BCECR) by the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress (AAETS), and is trained in stress debriefing, suicide intervention, PTSD therapy, resiliency, crisis intervention and victimology.

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Holbrook Street Press specializes in books about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Psychological Trauma, Resiliency and Recovery.