Do Police Wives Experience Vicarious Trauma?

(Edited, originally written as a column for
The Police Chief Magazine, an IACP Publication:  
Focus on Officer Wellness, Educating the Police Spouse)


"Fatigue roughens up the
edges of your nerves;
 it exposes your fears
and your weakness.
-June Havoc

---

Imagine my surprise one evening while walking down a seedy street in Portland, Oregon with my family, when without control my entire body froze and I began to shudder with fear.  “Linda, let’s keep walking” my husband replied.  I couldn’t move.  I had just passed an alleyway that looked identical to the scene that I had created in my imagination, when hearing of my husband’s shooting many years prior. 

My body was stiff as the words my husband used to describe the entanglement that happened between he and a suspect replayed in my mind and, also seemingly replayed right before my eyes.   The sun was setting and the darkness was brewing,  I could imagine the fight, the bodies rolling around on the ground,  his fellow officer in training and her apprehension regarding getting involved and the eventual horror of the outcome. I was simply paralyzed. 

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