Nothing says welcome back to work like...

[Creeker]

.... Or do some sporting after duty (running in the woods helped me in earlier years).

Hey Patch, in these parts, "sporting" is something you do with a woman that could cause you to have to run in the woods... :D

[Cat_Doc]

Jake,

In reference to these deaths, that you will be seeing much more of as a street cop. I actually have no idea as to how many times I have been present when the spirit left a body.

I am going to make the suggestion that if you have not yet found "it"...find something to "latch on to" when facing these scenarios.

I wish we would have had the critical incident debriefings when I first started, but back then you were told to just suck it up and get your **** together.

If I ever suffer from PTSD, I absolutely know part of it is going to be the little 2 year old girl that was accidently pushed into her pool and drowned by the enthusiastic pet dog the family had.

I was the on-call detective at the time and when I entered the ER treatment room and pulled the wrap-around curtain away, I was shocked that the girl could have been a twin of my oldest daughter at the time.

It hit me like a ton of bricks and I started crying, like a baby.

A senior patrol sergeant suddenly pulled the drape back and entered the area. The way he treated me was absolutely disgusting, in retrospect. This still bothers me, at times, to this very day.

While assigned to homicide, there were times when I struggled, internally, with the fact all I was seeing was death and evil, but I was able to recognize it and defeat it through my faith.

Whether it is faith, working out, punching a heavy bag, drawing, writing in a journal or speaking with a trusted associate or professional...find something to "latch on to" that purges any discomfort you have. Just stay away from the bottle, my friend, it will suck your life force from you.

I apologize if this seems overly melodramatic, but I have seen too many good people suffer from failure to find their healing “latch on.”