Of all people, it would have been most expected of me to have an attitude regarding authority and I kind of did for a while, however if MY perception can change, Everything is possible!

PTSD is usually thought of to be connected with combat/military related experiences and rightly so there has been an increasing understanding towards this in recent years.  Unfortunately I have learned that a large percentile of ALL our emergency forces and outlying services are also greatly affected by this.  

With the Police in particular, a lot of whom are ex-military, I got the impression it was almost to the point of being normal daily obstacle they were used to and then compounded over generations of serving family members often using alcohol to cope with the pain and stress.  

Imagine if you will, as I did, working as in a normal customer service job (waitress), one day a customer is rude to you, this can put you in a bad mood/lower self confidence and just be generally upsetting which can impact, if you allow it to the remainder of your day.  This example is probably the more micro end of the scale so now lets transfer that to a police officers day in general.

Firstly you can take that 'rudeness' and tenfold it into sheer hatred and abuse as a set standard from an alarming amount of people then add in danger, stress and unpredictability.  Not to get too visual on this but sometimes its necessary, next get a call to a road traffic accident where a young person has sadly died in perhaps quite a horrific circumstance, then have to look that persons parents in the eye and inform them that their child has gone, keeping composure and professionalism throughout at all times whilst providing compassionate support for them as much as possible.  After which, compartmentalize, clock off and go home to sit and have dinner with your own family and look into the eyes of your own child, all while not only not knowing how to try and articulate to your partner what your feeling or went through that day but also not being allowed to for confidential reasons.  Get back up the next day and do it all over again, for 22 years.

Yes, its a part of the job and yes these officers are more than well aware of what they are asked to face and take the challenge on admirabilly but no amount of training can prepare anyone for reality sometimes, and at the end of the day we are all human, we all feel and we ALL need some help sometimes.

I had the pleasure of meeting two officers in particular who were to go on to irrevocably alter my perception and bring light to a real problem area that is, I feel vastly underrecognized.  The first taught me about the value of respect and Integrity, the second, my good friend Andy taught me the power of selfless service and moral compassion towards all others, regardless.

At a certain degree the Us and Them mentality has to meet in the middle and balance itself out, going forward into the future I feel that we could all benefit from a lot less ignorance and would progress and prosper quicker and more efficiently if we were more compassionate and understanding of and towards each other.  

I hope you all join me in this, please donate whatever you can, sometimes the smallest ripple really can make the biggest splash, many thanks.

***UPDATE***

The organised boxing event for this was cancelled at the last minute so not one to give up, or relent on promises, I am now going to hike around the main part of the highlands and continue to raise awareness and as much funds as possible for PTSD in our Police Force.

Braemar - Aviemore - Inverness - Great Glen Way - Ben Nevis - West Highland Way - Ben Lomond - Pitlochry - Braemar

This is going to be an epic journey and I intend on posting video and picture updates as I go along, I have already been out for a training run and have to give a HUGE thank you to Police/Braemar Mountain Rescue for their incredible help.

Rebecca.xXx