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Patrolling and PTSD

Carolinacub

Yes thats a Cubs hat I'm wearing
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Asheville NC
This is a great article about the issues some patrollers can have when working in the field.
 

Marker

Making fresh tracks
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Kennett Square, PA & Killington, VT
My hopefully maybe future son-in-law works as a para-medic in Pittsburgh and Army National Guard (two tours in Jordan). He seems to handle the horrible traumas he's described to us occasionally really well, but I wonder if it could be cumulative like the article discusses. He is a new skier thanks to my daughter and progressing well, but not ready for patrol.
 

Uncle-A

In the words of Paul Simon "You can call me Al"
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This is a great article about the issues some patrollers can have when working in the field.
Thanks for sharing the article, I never thought of ski patrol getting PTSD. Seems like something that you only thing happens to military and maybe police.
 

scott43

So much better than a pro
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Great White North
Ok, firefighters too, not to offend anyone by omission.
Sorry, wasn't being critical. I hear that subway drivers here have a big issue..someone jumps in front of a train and some of the drivers have a huge mental problem for some time. Has to affect people in some way.
 

François Pugh

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The interesting thing for me is how someone can have years of witnessing traumatic injuries and deaths, being involved in some, and even surviving various traumas, and be fine, but then one day their number is up and they suddenly have PTSD.

If true and not made up for the sake of writing an article for mental health week - and I have no reason to doubt its veracity, this person had previously treated plenty of similar injuries, apparently without any ill effects, but on that day she was already freaked out just answering the phone for the incident. That's apparently how it can happen according to our training.

Makes me wonder if my number will come up.
 
Thread Starter
TS
Carolinacub

Carolinacub

Yes thats a Cubs hat I'm wearing
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I've been lucky in that I've only had 2 serious situations arise in the time I've been patrolling. The vast majority of what I see are tweaked knees or wrists type of stuff. I can only say that the serious ones did affect me but not even close to the level that we read about in the article. I've worked with a group called "Project Healing Waters" for some time and many of the Veterans we work with are combatting PTSD. This disorder is a silent, serious condition that affects more people than we can ever imagine.
 

RiderRay

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Jul 23, 2019
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Brewster NY, Glendale AZ
If patrollers, EMTs, etc., suffer from PTSD, then I wonder how many ER personnel suffer from it. I was an EMT for years and took what I saw and treated as part of the job I volunteered to do.
 

oldschoolskier

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Ontario Canada
From personal experience, my feeling is the PTSD is caused how you deal with a stressful item (no matter the cause), bottle it up (we all do) and you have a problem, let the emotions flow (hard to do) when need and the PTSD solves it self (more or less) as there is no pressure build up to let it out of control.

Sounds very simple put this way, but even from personal experience it is way more complicated than that as letting the correct emotions flow when needed just isn't that simple.

All I can say from what I've experienced:

Bottling it up doesn't work (this definitely leads to a problem at some point),
You will need to have an emotional out burst (hopefully in a safe place to do it with support),
Time does heal, let it (at the least it dims the memory),
Don't deal with alone, friend, family, specialist, or stranger may be the sound board you need (remember safe place)
 

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