A Police Captain Confronts Moral Injury And Stigma

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A Friday shift, a crowded Walmart, a woman advancing with a hatchet—then two shots that changed countless lives. Captain Adam Myers walks us through that moment with uncommon clarity, and then opens the door to what most people never see: the months and years of fallout, the moral injury that lingers even when policy is followed, and the stigma that punishes honesty more than failure. It’s a story about survival, but also about systems that make survival harder than it should be.

We talk about cumulative stress in policing and how it mirrors the tempo of military life: long stretches of routine spiking into chaos with no time to reset. Adam shares the raw aftermath—hate mail, social media judgment, and the quiet erosion that led to numbing with alcohol, casual sex, and drugs. He speaks candidly about faith: walking into a church the day after the shooting, drifting for years, and later rebuilding a spiritual life sturdy enough to hold the weight of grief and responsibility.

The conversation turns practical and urgent. We dig into peer support, therapy, EMDR, biofeedback, and medication as tools that keep first responders safe, grounded, and employable. We examine real institutional barriers—fitness-for-duty evaluations, privacy fears, and career consequences—that make many hide their pain. Adam’s own termination while improving in treatment becomes a case study and a call to rethink policy. There’s hope here too: a move to a new department, leaders who champion transparency, Mental Health Mondays that normalize care, and a mission—Stop the Threat, Stop the Stigma—that invites officers and civilians to speak openly and get help.

If you care about law enforcement wellness, moral injury, PTSD, or building systems that actually support recovery, this is a must-listen. Subscribe, share with someone who needs it, and leave a review with your takeaway so we can keep this conversation moving.

Adam is the Founder of Stop The Threat - Stop The Stigma. Adam says his overall goal for establishing Stop The Threat – Stop The Stigma and speaking about his critical incident is to promote Law Enforcement Wellness and inspire other Law Enforcement Professionals, and those who work in the law enforcement profession, to speak about their own mental health.

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