Dealing with Fear

One of the biggest fears in being married to a law enforcement officer is injury or death.  For some police spouses, this fear can be debilitating.  Others learn how to compartmentalize this fear so that it doesn't overtake the non-scary portions of law enforcement relationships.

Here are a few thoughts to help ease your fear:

• Your husband or wife is superbly trained for the job that they are doing.  Being a police officer requires intense and lengthy learning, including role playing scenarios that have the potential to go badly.
• Your husband or wife, as a police officer, is probably hyper aware of the world around them.  If there are signs availble that something bad is going down, they probably already know and are working out their response in their head.
• Your husband or wife wants their job and in fact may feel called to that line of work as an avocation.
• Your husband or wife also wants their life; they aren't going to do anything stupid and when they do put themselves in harm's way, it's done so in a calculated fashion.
• Trust.  Trust, trust, trust.  Trust that you husband or wife will do what is necessary to stay safe.  Trust that whichever higher power you believe in will look out for him or her.  And trust that if something does go badly, you will have the strength to deal with it.

Hugs!