I read a depressing experience at the Avon & Somerset police website. I encourage you to visit that too here: https://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk
Police officers go through much – from horrendous crimes to their mental health, all goes hands in hands as it affects their mental health and causes stress.
It causes them depression sometimes. “Depression is certainly not a sign of weakness but absolutely is a sign of being too strong for far too long.”Handling stress in law enforcement is critical. There is no quicker way to achieve burnout and get fired or sued than by failing to manage stress.
Words of wisdom–The trick is to be as stable of an individual as doable. The thanks to do this is to possess some form of rock in your life that you just will use to counterbalance all the crap out there. Being a cop isn’t ok. The guy who chow, sleeps and breathes enforcement seldom lasts long. Cops ought to have one thing outside of enforcement that grounds them. Faith or family or some nonenforcement connected hobby. One thing to draw strength and purpose from outside of the task. You should work to live, not live to work.
Just because an incident bothers you or scared you, doesn’t mean you are going to cry yourself to sleep at night, start drinking heavily or sleep with your gun in your mouth. It just means you are HUMAN. Recognize it is human to be bothered by some of the horrors you see and make a game plan for dealing with the negative emotions.
Most departments these days have peer support officers who are trained to sit down and chat with coworkers who may need it. Don’t be afraid to talk with them. The officers who are part of the peer support teams tend to be the kind who actually care and believe talking helps. Usually spending a few minutes joking about how messed up your last call was can make all the difference in the long run.
Another aspect of this is to Always go to the Critical Incident Debrief! The second aspect of dealing with stress and traumatic situations is training. Stress inoculation does wonder for dealing with the real thing. Another powerful is to utilize visualization techniques on and off duty.
The last thing I feel is critical to handling stress on the job and maintaining a healthy psyche is humor. A good sense of humor keeps you intact and healthy.
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