PTSD; Recovery, Versus Prevention | The Pax Team Approach
There are subjective variables determining whether PTSD will develop and to what extent. They are; a person’s early emotional reaction during an incident and; their personal perception of the severity of the incident. These variables help identify individuals who are at high or low risk, of developing PTSD.*
Meet, John.
A 29-year-old security guard, working part-time for a large banking institution, located within a popular shopping centre in Victoria. John has just entered his last year of an engineering degree at university. His workdays days are mundane and uneventful; it had been years since his response training had been required. In fact, if it were necessary to recall it, he doubted he would even remember what to do.
At 11am, one usual Wednesday morning, John was standing at his post by the entrance of the bank when he heard screaming. He identified the sound as coming from the shopping centre’s food hall. Seconds later, empty-handed shoppers began to rush past, barely slowing to describe him the scene they had witnessed; two males brandishing knives and randomly stabbing shoppers.
John was instantly conflicted, either; leave his post to help the injured and possibly apprehend the perpetrators or; remain at his post and protect the customers inside.
Before he can decide, John notices the two men carrying large knives and running, as they stabbed shoppers. He watched their victims scream in pain and fall; their blood pooling around them. John froze with fear; his security response training completely forgotten.
He pulled himself together and began to respond to the situation he had found himself in; slamming the bank’s doorway security shutter behind him to place himself between the customers and the perpetrators. He had no further plans in mind; he was simply reacting. One of the men, tall and athletic, reached John and threatened him with his large knife. Unable to breath from fear, John backed himself against the security shutter and reached for his pistol, still in its holster.
The last John can recall before he became unconscious, were the screams of horror from customers watching from behind and; the intense pain from the man’s knife as it entered his stomach.
Thankfully, John survived though he required three months in hospital to recover from his physical injuries. The mental trauma however, the doctors said; would likely cause PTSD.
John assumed returning to work and university sooner rather than later, would assist him to recover quickly and naturally. John quickly realised however, that life was not going to be quite the same. He began experiencing psychological, physical and work performance issues. He noticed that his personal functioning was suffering; he had trouble sleeping and difficulty concentrating at university. He had developed a newly increased awareness of his surroundings and his reaction responses to them, felt disproportional; startled by what seemed like everything!
John felt angry, constantly stressed and to top it off, his headaches were becoming worse and more frequent.
Before returning to his post at the bank, John’s employer requested he refresh his security skills with some training. John did as he suggested and completed what was required but due to now struggling cognitively realised he had barely retained any of the content. John returned to work but became depressed after he lost confidence in his ability to perform his work.
Early emotional reaction to an incident, is key to subsequent perceptions of an incident.
John needed to select an option; to fight, to flight or to freeze and he chose to freeze. No-one would willingly choose to be in his position however, we can choose how to react to it and what our response is. This is why, all Pax Team course content begins with the training of the mind.
If John had completed PQ; he would have had a very different experience…
If he had understood how he should have first, mentally reacted and then, tactically responded; John would have had the response advantage.
PQ could have helped John by; increasing his physical and mental capability confidence; assisting him to react tactically rather than emotionally; preparing him with the legal restrictions that apply to a responder plus; given him self-defence skills by which to protect himself and, potentially others.
John’s emotional freeze reaction was the result of perceiving himself a helpless victim so, his response matched it. His subsequent perception of the incident, resulted in him developing PTSD. Had John instead learnt PQ skills and followed the Pax Team process, he would be in a different mental place today. He may have even saved lives.
Don’t be like John.
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TORQUAY
Get the Pax Team Victim Prevention Response Advantage
Learn about Law Enforcement Legislation
Understand Law Aligning Use-Of-Force guidelines
Realise your Powers-of-Arrest
Learn how to Give Evidence, Make Statements and Appear In Court
Develop your Physical and Mental Control
Build your Intentional-Reaction Skills
Understand your Legal Parameters as a Responder
Use your new law aligning knowledge to protect yourself and others.
