Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I suffer from it, though in my case it's transgenerational stress. Same thing as PTSD except passed on from parents.
It"s common among residential school survivors and their children, and police officers, fire-fighters, paramedics, soldiers and other such people and their children too.
You're right. It messes with the brain. In specific environments I have no control over my emotions, sudden adrenalin rush, fight or flight, increased heart rate and breathing, uncomfortable, panic attack. The worse I've ever done in such a state was break things like CD's. Oh, I forgot, and a couple self-harms that had landed me in hospital.
I can easily imagine how, under the right conditions, a police officer could kill a person while in such a state and have a very legitimate defence.
It's not like he could see it coming.
When it happens, it happens.
Thanks for mentioning this. Now that I think about it from a cop's point of view, there is no telling his state if mind at the time.
I'm just happy that in my case, such panick attacks are now few and far between and far less intense than they used to be. But some situations will still cause me to tense up and freeze emotionally.
That has certainly made me more sympathetic to addicts of sll kinds. Compulsive behaviour is an effective psychological escape mechanism from the sudden panick attack, but it's also a recipe for easy addiction if you're not careful. In my case for example, I can't deven drink alcohol.
