Police Mental Health

Police PTSD, Stress & Suicide Documentary

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:49:54 PST

Looks like the group at Badge of Life (badgeoflife.com) is trying to get financial support for a documentary on the above topics. I think the completion of such a film would be a great way to educate administrators, er, I mean law enforcement professionals about the importance of proactive mental health.

Here's the trailer,

Code 9 Officer Needs Assistance

The Laugh Challenge

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:03:08 PST

I teach a police stress class. It's really easy to talk about all the ways police work destroys our health and happiness. That's the easy part. The more challenging aspect of the class is getting cops to practice the things that will make us healthier bipeds. More comfortable in our skin. Better partners, parents and friends. Case in point: laughter.

Laughter acts just like medicine. It changes the way our body works at the physiologic level. Think about how you feel after a really good laugh. You feel great, right? Your muscles are more relaxed, you've stimulated blood flow and just plain feel better.

It's no accident that cops laugh so much. We collect a lot of tension at work and naturally, albeit unconsciously look for things to laugh at. Co-workers, their recounting of a street contact or call they responded to, are usually a good source of laughter. "So, I roll up get out of my car and this guy runs up to me and [insert bizarre, goofy or stupid action here]." We also laugh AT our co-workers too, don't we? The point is, we intuitively know laughing is good for us so we do it a lot.

But "fake" laughter gives us the exact same benefits as real laughter. Enter the Laugh Challenge.

THE LAUGH CHALLENGE:
You're sitting at the dinner table with your family (or friends). Pick a random time when everyone's there, and start laughing. Don't wait for something funny, create something funny by fake laughing. And, yeah, it'll feel really fake and silly and a voice in your head will bellow, "This is STUPID, stop it!" If you head that voice you will fail the challenge. Keep on with the fake laughter. A lot of people can't get past their "comfort zone" here, but not you. You're going to push on and keep laughing.

If you've made it this far you'll see the good stuff. Okay, so you're laughing like a complete moron and your family is looking at you like you've finally fallen off the deep end. Right about here your real laugh will probably kick in. MAJOR PRINCIPLE OF LAUGH THERAPY: fake laughing produces real laughing. Your kids, wife, friends or whoever is around you will start laughing for real. Now, you're laughing for real, they're laughing for real and tears will start coming down your face.

When I've done this in the past, I find it becomes one of those truly crazy laugh episodes. The ones you where you can't STOP laughing. After the dust settles and people are wiping the tears from their eyes you can tell them about the challenge.

You've given yourself and everyone around you the gift of a good belly laugh. Let me know how it works out.

For more on this see,

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5165226

Another Good Video

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 21:39:40 PST

On exercise. I know, you've heard it all before, but give this a look.

Interview with former cop about PTSD

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 15:39:49 PST

Haven't read the book but I'm guessing it's pretty good. Couple things to note about this brief interview. First, it highlights one of the ways people become traumatized. Namely, when you feel you're life is in immediate danger. You don't have to kill someone or be seriously wounded to get PTSD. If you experience an event in which you BELIEVE you are about to die or be seriously injured, that could be enough to trigger a trauma response.

Secondly, notice the role of family in Jimmy Bremner's healing process. Research shows that police FAMILIES can either be an exacerbating or a healing force when confronted with PTSD. This is another reason working on our family relationships is so important throughout our police career.

Finally, he's not talking about the shit bird that's a waist of oxygen and should have died except of course he didn't die because shit birds never die, because only the good people do... He says, "The gentleman" when referring to...er, the guy. He clearly hasn't let his experience as a police officer steal his compassion, as it does for so many of us. We could all learn something from Mr. Bremner.

Happy Holidays!

Here's the link:

http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20111220/jimmy-bremner-crack-in-the-armor-post-traumatic-stress-111220/

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 18:58:28 PST

:) (click me)

Bureaucracy v.s. The Guy who First Starting Playing this Game

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:57:28 PDT

When I was in the academy they used to say, “10% of cops do the work for the other 90. Do you want to be part of the 10 or part of the 90?” Back then, this 10 and 90 thing was just a curious abstraction. Now, after working the street for a few years, I realize what they meant.

The typical trajectory for cops is that we start off our careers being proactive, but over time we become less so. In fact, most cops eventually become firefighters, answering calls on their beat but doing little else. Some of us spend more energy trying to get out of “taking paper” than it would take to just take a report.

During my first few years of patrol I felt indignant at the 90% Sometimes still do. What I’ve come to realize though is that there are good reasons cops reinvent themselves as firefighters. One of those reasons is that the bureaucracy in policing discourages proactivity. The more contact an officer has with the public, be it a consensual encounter or a detention, the more opportunity he gives bureaucrats to nitpick, micromanage, correct or even punish him. One of the old vets who trained me put it this way, “They want you to spin your wheels, so spin your wheels.”

Like you, I didn’t become a cop to spin my wheels. I became a cop to have an exciting, challenging career and to MAKE A DIFFERENCE. How does an officer who has lost this desire to make a difference get it back? In the film Jerry Maquire, Tom Cruise tries reconnect Rod Tidwell (played by Cuba Gooding Jr.) to the enthusiastic ballplayer he once was,

...back to the guy who first started playing this game. Remember, way back when you were a kid? It wasn’t just about the money, was it?

At some point in their careers the 90% come to realize that it really has become about the money. Part of what got them to that point is the bureaucracy.

Bureaucracy as Stress

We’re used to thinking of “stress” as feeling “stressed out.” Not so. The things that activate our fight, flight or freeze response are called “stressors.” For law enforcement personnel, part of what makes us sicker than others is the manifold nature of our stressors, including (but not limited to),

Critical incidents.

Public scrutiny.

The administration.

Shift work.

Bureaucracy.

It’s the bureaucracy part we’re looking at today. It’s made worse by another stressor: lack of leadership. If your boss partners with you in acknowledging the good work you do as part of the 10%, looks for real reasons to compliment you on your work ethic, and then - and ONLY then - tells you that you forgot to fill out the green form (Form G7.2 to be precise) it reduces the officer’s felt stress. But we know leaders are elusive, which is why the “leadership industry” is booming. If all we get is a curt e-mail “reminder” sent by a bureaucrat and cc’d to our boss, it can really dampen our desire to do anything more than a firefighter.

Becoming a firefighter is bad for our health. It signifies a learned helplessness response. That’s when shit goes bad and you just stop trying. The concept of learned helplessness was developed in the 1960’s. Here’s my interpretation of the groundbreaking research in this area by Seligman and Maire:

Put a dog over two metal grates with a small fence separating them. Give the dog a small electric shock and what does he do? Right, he bounces over the fence to the other grate. Shock him there and he jumps back over. If you keep shocking ol’ Buddy he’ll keep jumping over the fence to the side that’s not pissing him off. Eventually, guess what happens? Buddy just lies there and gets shocked. That’s learned helplessness and it should sound familiar.

Now that you’re good and depressed, let me tell you what to do about combating learned helplessness and the bureaucracy. Here are four ways to keep your love of the game alive.

1. Have at least two support people on your “team.” These are workmates who really get it and who will allow you to scream, “This place is sooooo fucked up!!” Use your teammates liberally. This moves toxic stress out of from under your sternum where it will make you sick, and into the air. Whew, that felt good. Don’t forget to thank your teammate for listening to your agitated tirade. It’s also good for your health to be on the support team of a few workmates. What goes around comes around type thing.

The next three are key components of the what behavioral scientists have dubbed the “stress hardy personality.” They are, challenge, control and commitment.

2. Challenge. This is where you make it a game. You want to win the game, right? Okay, so, given that by remaining or becoming proactive you expose yourself to the bureaucracy, how can you not give them a chance to get you?

That’s a question.

While they probably didn’t teach you this in the academy, make it your job to know more about the bureaucracy than the bureaucrats. Keep the forms in your beat bag or your desktop and complete all of them. Then, go 10-8 and do more work. Ha ha, I won.

3. Control. Related to challenge, control is when you don’t give the bureaucracy a chance to ding you because you already filled out the green form. You took CONTROL of the things you could. It’s far less stressful to control those friggin forms by taking the initiative on them, than it is to let a bureaucrat send you a “reminder” e-mail. When you control your destiny you can just send two words back to the bureaucrat: “Already done.”

4. Commitment. Keep your eye on the ball, son. The ball isn’t just your retirement package, it’s “the guy who first started playing this game.” It’s arresting criminals, returning missing juveniles, making positive citizen contacts and looking good in your patrol car. Remind yourself about the reasons you got into police work. Commitment also relates to your religious views, your community, your family and friends. These are what you’re committed to...not form G7.2.

A story about depression from a cop.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 21:22:47 PDT

I came across this article and got permission from the author to post it here. it's pretty damn good.

--------------------------------------------

DEPRESSION; KNOW THE SIGNS

Published Date:

Saturday, October 01, 2011

By Ed Anzore
Retired SFPD

My name is Ed Anzore and I am a recently retired sergeant out of Central Station. I retired 5 months ago and am now able to discuss my departure. Ten years ago, I lost my brother, Charlie, to kidney cancer. Charlie worked at Richmond Station at the time he was diagnosed with this disease. To say my brother and I were close is an understatement. I never knew how much his loss affected me until this year. I could write a whole article just based on our relationship, but that’s for another day.

About five years ago, I started to keep people at a distance. This was everybody, wife, kids, friends, and co workers. I never wanted to be close to anyone so I would never feel the pain I felt with the loss of my brother. I was doing this sometimes subconsciously. It was my defense mechanism which I thought was keeping me safe, but it was not. In the last two years, I began to feel myself isolating from people and places. I started losing the desire to go to events. Irritability started to set in and I did not understand why. During the last five years, I was involved to two critical incidents, one on duty and one off, where three people lost their lives. Things started to go downhill and there was inner turmoil including anger in which I could not understand nor let go of. My mind started to really go sideways. When my brother passed, at the age of 52, all I could think about was I hope I make it to 52. I was also the last male member of my family not to have a form of cancer.

Fast forward to Sept of 2010. I was assigned to the 1800-0400 at Central. I really started to lose interest in the job. I rarely read reports completely unless it was very serious as my concentration was going. I stopped wearing my vest and didn’t care if something happened. I just didn’t care period! I figured I had led a very good life. I did not care about playing golf anymore and would tell my golfing buddies the very same. I would even joke how much I hated people. I would drive home at 4 am after work and on occasion go well over 100mph. This is risky behavior, a symptom I later learned which occurs in people who are depressed. It’s an action that makes you feel good for a brief moment, but cures nothing. Thanksgiving 2010, my wife told me she thinks it’s time to put our Husky Rascal down. He was with us for 16 years and a big part of our family. So now I take him to be put down and watch the vet administer the injection to calm him down. This was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do, losing another member of my family.

The following week, I’m in CPT for my dreaded week of updates. Sgt. Mary Dunnigan was teaching a class from the Behavioral Science Unit. Mary was talking about depression, and how we just sit on the couch and flip through the channels in our little safety zone, detaching from any emotion. While she was lecturing, I realized I was doing this every day. I would get up around noon and sit on the couch until 4pm. I would ignore everyone and just wanted to be left alone. Of course, I did nothing about it because, “I could handle it on my own.” Boy was I ever wrong. So I continued going to work with my miserable, irritable and grouchy self. Everyone else must be the “pain in the butt because it certainly couldn’t have been me.”

December 2011, and I am at a Sharks game when I get a text from my good friend Norm Rice. My wife and I are scheduled to go on a cruise with Norm and his wife on January 8th. On this day, Norm tells me he has been diagnosed with kidney cancer. I know Norm because of my brother Charlie, and I say to myself, here we go again. The one person whom I emotionally got close to is now diagnosed with the disease that took my brother; and the downward spiral began. We went on the cruise and needless to say it was not the good time I hoped for. There were nights on the ship when I would stand on the balcony thinking I could just throw myself overboard and nobody would know. I have no idea why this thought popped into my brain. Later I would learn about Suicidal Ideation, (these are described as fleeting thoughts of suicide but no plan or follow through). We came back from the cruise and things were the same, more couch sitting and channel surfing, not really paying attention to or caring about what I am watching. The desire to be at work is lessening daily.

Now it is a month away from my 52nd birthday, again I’m sitting on the couch, and everything seemed to be crashing down around me. I just broke down for no reason and started shaking. I told my wife I couldn’t do this anymore. My first melt down of my life. Thoughts of suicide came back very intense. I was so scared but I did not know why. I had so much to live for, why were these thoughts coming up? I was able to get a hold of Mary Dunnigan, who calmed me down and talked me through my crisis. She was able to get me into see a psychologist first thing in the morning and I was able to sleep that night.

Even after seeing the clinician I continued to have a series of panic and anxiety attacks. My blood pressure began to rise and my back and shoulders were always tight. I ended up in the ER one night and my wife told me that I should consider retirement. Well, here comes the dreaded 52nd birthday, and I have an appointment with my therapist and I tell her I’m ready to retire. She concurs. I walked outside of her office and another melt down of anxiety and panic occurred on the sidewalk. I immediately get on the phone with the shrink who prescribes me an anti-depressant. I barely made it home still not feeling well. I then drive to work and went about ten miles when the third melt down occurred. I somehow managed to make it to work and got through line up. I went outside and got on the phone to call for help. I made it through the work-day and as I’m driving across the Golden Gate Bridge, I started shaking again. My panic and anxiety was at its highest. I got home and called Kaiser Emergency and the on-call therapist calmed me down and then said, “Ed, you need to retire.” Now three people have told me to retire, two of whom I really don’t know. So I tell my wife, “I am done with work.” The next day I walked into the Lieutenants office and told him this was my last day and retired two days later. I received a lot of calls telling me how cool people thought it was that I just walked in and pulled the plug. I laugh now because nobody really knew what was going on, but I didn’t have the heart or courage to tell them why.I am now retired and go to my last therapist appointment. At the end, I ask the therapist what she thinks. She tells me she believes I am suffering from PTSD, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. She tells me there is a PTSD retreat for first responders out in Inverness. I again talk to Mary Dunnigan who gets me in touch with The West Coast Post Trauma Retreat. I went through an hour intake with a clinician, who told me that I have suffered cumulative stress with some PTSD. I am accepted into the retreat and off I go in May 2011.My wife drives me out there and here I am with 6 other first responders suffering just like me. The retreat is full of volunteer first responders and clinicians. Every one of them has had their own critical incidents. They have all walked in the same shoes. From the minute I walked in to the time I left, I was treated better than any resort I have ever been to. I went through six days of intense therapy and discussion. I learned tools to cope with my issues if and when they come back. I can only explain this place as the 8th Wonder of the World. You are surrounded by professionals who really do care. I walked out on Friday feeling a whole lot better and filled with a new sense of life. I learned there are so many first responders that are in the same situation, yet there are only two places like this retreat in the United States. I learned that it is okay to be prescribed anti-depressants for anxiety and depression as they are no different than any other medication for any other illness or injury. I learned that the brain has a filter and after you absorb so many traumatic events in your life, the filter breaks. My filter has now been repaired. I also learned that I know if I take care of myself, I will be okay.

It’s been four months now since I have left the retreat. I am in a much better place in my life. My relationship with my wife is so much better. My family life is so much better. Life is so much better. I have been asked by many why I retired so young and what will I do with my free time. I now volunteer at the WCPR retreat as a Peer. I was asked by the peer coordinator if I would like to volunteer and I was honored and humbled. To assist others in need who are first responders is priceless. This retreat is truly magical.

If this story helps one person, or gets people to look at themselves, then I will be happy. What you don’t realize when you are going through depression, is how it affects your family and loved ones. They in essences become victims too. If you wish to talk to me or ask questions, please feel free to email me at edanzore@gmail.com. I would also like to thank Sgt. Mary Dunnigan and Vince Catanzaro. They took the time to listen and help. For that, I am ever grateful. For those in the SFPD, you are truly blessed to have the BSU and people who care. Do not hesitate to use them

Helping future police retirees.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 03:41:31 PDT

Smith College in Mass. is doing some research aimed at helping future retirees. Specifically, they want to find out about risk factors for posttraumatic stress. One retired police officer says, ‘PTSD, is a lot of crap consisting of bloody horrors, sounds, sights and smells you never wanted to see in the first place and now you can't forget.’1 Yeah, that.

If you're a retiree - especially FEMALES - they could use your help. The lead researcher, Dr. Pole, said many participants in the survey felt a bit of healing just by reflecting back on their police career in this way. That makes sense to me. Anyway, they'll put some money in your pocket for participating, but the reward really comes from knowing you may be helping future retirees enjoy their lives more.

Please post where appropriate and pass on the following link to any retiree willing to help,

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BWVFPPR

Thanks!

1. Dupay. D. (2009). This is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. From the Salem News online. http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august052009/ptsd_dp_8-4-09.php

Not Today

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 14:54:38 PDT

‘Not today, not on this shift, not on this call, not on this stop — I will not be caught unaware!’
Dave Smith

There’s a picture of my 10-yr old daughter on the inside of my locker door. I had one of my son wearing a goofy hat, and another of our family vacationing in Mexico, but they fell off. My girl’s giving me one of those half feigned 4th grade picture day smiles. Every day after I flop my vest over my head, I will look at her and say, “Not today.”

Today won’t be the day I let my guard down. I won’t assume this so and so call will be like the others. I won’t assume the parolee I’ve always gotten along with will again agree to go lie down for three months on another violation. I’ll watch my six and that of my partners. I’ll be ready, willing and able to be more violent than the most violent person I’ll meet that day. You wanna kill me? Not today.

I don’t like violence. Never have. I never fought as a kid. The first time I was hit in the face it was as a cop. Violence is a necessary evil to maintain social order. Police officers, if we’re doing our job right, maintain order.

The philosopher Thomas Hobbes describes life without a “social contract” in his classic book Leviathan. He calls it the “state of nature.” Life in a state of nature, he says, is characterized by...

continual fear, and danger of violent death; and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Sounds a lot like the failed state of Somalia, where for decades various tribes, religious zealots and megalomaniacs have climbed over one another for power, or Mexico where narcoterrorists skin people alive and hang them in public places.

Most people don’t think this could ever happen here. Most cops know it could. We see people who have no sense of future and who place very little value on human life. We see them in the parts of our cities and towns most people don’t know exist. These children who live in violence, squalor and psychological deprivation grow up. They become asocial “focused aggressors.” They keep fighting after being pepper sprayed and keep shooting after being shot.

Focused aggressors have a few advantages over cops. First, they don’t give a fuck about life - yours, theirs or that of anyone else. It would be quite difficult for me to articulate in words to my wife or a non-police friend, exactly what it’s like to meet someone who just doesn’t give a fuck. It’s disturbing.

Another advantage asocial focused aggressors have is that they get to pick the time. The parolee who I’ve always gotten along with swimmingly gets to pick the very moment he’s going to try to get my gun and attempt to execute me.

Not today though. Today, I’m going to assume he’s going to try to kill me. This means I have to perform schizophrenic mental gymnastics, outwardly friendly and disarming but physically and emotionally ready to become more violent than he.

I’m going back to the gym again tomorrow. I’m going to look like something in my uniform because I know there exist a growing number of asocial, predatory human beings in my city who look for the weak. The victim who gets beaten and robbed never knows it, but he was likely picked. Most people don’t know that criminals often drive or walk around looking for prey.

But not today. Not me. I don’t get a kick out of beating someone’s ass but I’ll do it. Not if, but when I have to. As that great American poet Dr. Dre says in “The Watcher,”

if you really want to take it there we can,

Just remember that you fucking with a family man.

I got a lot more to lose than you, remember that,

Don’t tell your wife or your boyfriend or kids, but tell yourself, “Not today.” They don’t need to know the gory details of mans inhumanity to man, that’s what you signed up to know. But be very clear with yourself when you walk out of the locker room that today will not be the day.

We work in a cesspool of shit. It requires real dedication, commitment determination and help from others to wash the residue of the cesspool from our bodies, minds and hearts. It’s good work and we owe it to ourselves and our families. However, we cannot unsully ourselves if we don’t get out. Getting out starts with the simple and resolute oath whispered to ourselves and made to those who love us: Not today, not on this shift...

I Need a Book Name

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:47:46 PDT

If you had written a book on police mental health issues what would you call it? The book is based largely in research findings, personal anecdotes from my work as a street cop and mental health professional treating cops. The 'usual suspects" of divorce, alcoholism, suicide, health problems & traumatic stress each have their own chapter. The literature for each affliction is reviewed and specific suggestions are made which will allow the officer to live a more full, complete life. So what's this book called. The best known similar book is Kevin Gilmartin's Emotional Survival for Law Enforcement, so I can't steal that. Looking for that super sexy title. Any suggestions?

Lexipol, Gordon Graham and Critical Incident Stress: A Critique

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 21:31:45 PDT

Anybody subscribe to Lexipol’s “Tip of the Day?” I’m not sure exactly what Lexipol’s raison d’ etre is, but it’s pretty cool to see Gordon Graham pop out from the side of the screen and give us the straight talk on various police-related topics.

Now, I saw Mr. Graham speak at a conference once. The topic was “risk management in law enforcement,” and he’s quite plainly an expert in that area. Unfortunately, he’s not quite as informed about critical incident stress and I worry that his mini lecture on the topic may make people with cumulative critical incident stress worse.

Mr. Graham tells us there are 8 things we need to know to “cope with, withstand...prevail” over critical incident stress. Here’s my critique:

1. Superior training and skill development.

This, he tells us, is by far the most important factor in our coping with, withstanding and prevailing over critical incident stress. By “training” the only thing he could be referring to is stress inoculation training, which, though rarely used in LE, has much promise. If this is what he meant, I wish he would have just said it. As it is, it suggests if one struggles with the emotional aftermath of critical incident exposure, it somehow reflects a failure to train well, which simply is not the case.

Posttraumatic stress is a normal reaction to an abnormal event, not a sign of inadequate training on the part of the LEO. Unless he refers to stress inoculation, I am baffled by the inclusion here of “skill development.” What “skills” does an officer need to develop so that he doesn’t have insomnia after witnessing the death of a child?

2. A learning attitude toward the profession...a culture of knowledge.

This makes sense. As Dave Grossman writes in On Combat, “Forewarned is forearmed.” It behooves us a human beings who police, to know how critical incident stress may impact us, so that we can plan accordingly.

3. High intelligence and problem solving ability.

Smart people don’t get posttraumatic stress disorder? Never heard that. What do we say to the young officer who witnesses a child die? If he were smarter he’d be fine? Higher ‘intelligence’ (which we measure through controversial and value-laden tests) has been correlated with lots of good stuff, but not resistance to critical incident stress. If you’re having difficulty concentrating after exposure to a critical incident, it doesn’t mean you’re a dummy.

4. Good verbal and interpersonal skills.

Really? I’m pretty sure there’s no science behind this claim. If there is, I’d like to check it out. I know it sounds like I’m bagging pretty hard here on Mr. Graham...I just wish he would have told us where he got these from.

5. Adequate emotional control.

Okay, this is where we get into potentially damaging information. This is eerily similar to the long held cultural myth that posttraumatic stress only afflicts “weak” people. It’s cousin is the cultural myth that psychotherapy is for “crazy” people. I find this offensive. Can you imagine sitting in a room filled with cops as they debrief a horrible critical incident, and telling them if they simply control their emotions they’ll be better off? “Get ahold of yourself man!”

6. A sense of optimism.

This is related to one of the components (called ‘commitment’) of hardiness, which is a personality trait. This is accurate.

7. Seek help and support.

This is quite a true and valuable point, and one I make all the time to friends and co-workers. So many of the common maladies which befall our brothers and sisters in blue are treatable. But you can’t get better if you don’t ask for help.

8. Critical Incident Stress Debriefings.

Another rock solid suggestion.

At the end of his statements, Mr. Graham tells us he got a lot of his information from an article written by someone else. That’s fine, but when you say it, you own it. Some of Gordan Grahams’ information on critical incident stress is confusing. Some of it may be damaging.

The law enforcement industry has begun a paradigm shift regarding the psychological toll a police career can have on the officer, and how to manage it. We cannot afford to go backward. . .we’ve come too far.

Getting it Twisted: 4 Mental Mistakes Cops Make

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 18:03:35 PDT

When I see a new police officer client in my practice, I listen for the content of the officer’s problems.

This department is FUBAR

My supervisor is a jackhole

I can’t sleep

you get the point.

Yet, more important than the content of our problems is how we think about our problems. More often than not, our thinking is the problem, or at least makes it much worse.

You’re feelings are never wrong, but your thoughts can be. A few years of unchecked, incorrect thinking can get us pretty sick. That’s because our thoughts lead to feelings, and prolonged feelings (i.e. anxiety, depression) screws up our body by releasing potentially toxic levels of cortisol and the suppressing feel-good chemicals like serotonin. So, ground zero for your gastritis, insomnia, anxiety or depression is HOW YOU THINK about stuff.

Depression and anxiety meds fly off shelves faster than the busy bees at your HMO can stock ‘em. Pharmeceutical industry executives have huge houses and take expensive vacations because they sell us medicine that helps fix the results of our twisted thinking.

Cops aren’t especially prone to twisted thinking, we just gravitate toward certain types of what are technically called ‘cognitive distortions.’ These are the distortions I see the most in police officers,

[the names of these bad boys come from The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns]

1. All or nothing thinking. This happens when, instead of thinking of your police agency as running well in some areas and poorly in others, we conclude, “This place is totally fucked up!” TOTALLY. Nothing good here. Really? Very few things in life are all bad (or all good for that matter). When we consistently see things as all this or all that we are making a mental mistake.

2. Labeling. This happens when you label the totality of who you are based on one event. For example, I recently allowed a guy to look for his ID in a duffle bag he had at his feet, an officer safety mistake. A concerned fellow officer pointed this out to me. If I were to say to myself, “I’m a fuckin’ IDIOT!” that would be an example of labeling. Allowing the bad guy to access his duffle bag was a tactical error, not an indictment of my worth as a human being.

Cops tend to be perfectionists. Employers love perfectionists and we usually have successful professional lives. That is, until the pressure we put on ourselves blows up our body and we get panic attacks or ulcers.

3. “Should statements”: Related to perfectionism. Not sure why, but it seems like police officers ‘musterbate’ more than your average bear.

I need to be more careful.

I need to stop making this mistake.

I need to tell my Sgt. to find another punching bag.

I need to have a tougher skin.

No, you don’t. Believing that you must is bad for your health. How ‘bout,

I’d feel safer at work if I took my time more and called for cover more often.

I’d like to really focus up on my report writing.

I think I’d feel better about myself if I set limits with Sgt. Douche Bag.

I’m a sensitive person, a quality almost universally seen as desirable. I’m going to practice toughening up a bit for this cop job so I can feel less vulnerable at work.

4. Emotional Reasoning. Those who use emotional reasoning either forget or don’t know that emotions are, by definition, temporary. In this world, I feel angry = I’m being screwed over or feeling guilty means “I’m a bad person.” We cannot draw long term conclusion ― any long term conclusion ― from an emotion. Better is to (a) recognize it as a feeling and (b) know that it will pass. Even desirable feelings (i.e. that of being ‘in love’) won’t last forever.

In The Feeling Good Handbook, author David Burns offers up some practical advice for how to “untwist” your thinking. For now, if you’re able to identity your own cognitive distortions you’re well on your way. Peer support officers in particular would benefit from trying to identify not only their own twisted thinking, but that of their fellow officers who come to them for help.

Happy untwisting!

Building psychological resilience: An open letter to Field Training Officers

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 03 Apr 2011 21:38:38 PDT

Your place in the department is established. You’ve demonstrated that you’re a good cop and have been elevated to the position of Field Training Officer (FTO). It doesn’t matter if you’re a crusty old veteran who’s trained more officers than you can count, or a 26 year old right out of FTO school. Either way, you’re a bridge for the new boot, and you’re job is to help the recruit transition from academy life to real life.

As an FTO, you’re probably great at knowing which form to fill out for this and that situation. You’re officer safety skills and tactics are probably squared away. I’m guessing you’re a perfectionist. You're interested in more than just getting your recruit through FTO. You want to shape a good cop.

Now, let me ask you this: what are you doing to build your recruits psychological resilience? Psychological what?

Resilience. It’s not on a duty belt or in a beat bag, it’s in your mind and in your body. It’s what ensures that a 20 plus career in law enforcement won’t chew you up and spit you out a bloody mess onto the rocky shore of your retirement. Resilience is something you model. Your recruit isn’t just watching how you clear hard corners, they’re watching how you deal with work stress. Included in work stress is what researchers call “organizational hassles.” As an FTO, you know all about those too, don’t you?

Allow me to speak for your trainee. He or she probably won’t say this to you directly because (a) they’re shaking in their boots already at all the stuff they have to learn, and (b) they’re on probation and don’t want to get shit canned for telling you how to do your job. What your recruit is thinking, but probably won’t say is, “How do I stay sane...no scratch that...Ah, you see I want to be a cop, but I also want to be emotionally healthy. I want to be a good romantic partner, parent, friend. I want to be both a good cop and a psychologically well person. How do I do that?”

Since this probably wasn’t covered in FTO school, here are two behaviors you can model to build psychological resilience in your trainee. These two suggestions come both from my experience as a cop and as the son of a cop, and as a mental health professional. It also comes from recent research conducted by a some nerds in Australia. They wrote a piece for the Australian Psychologist, called, On being mindful, emotionally aware, and more resilient: A longitudinal pilot study of police recruits.

Here are the two behaviors,

Mindfulness. In the study just mentioned, the authors write, “Mindfulness is... an active state of consciousness, which involves being open to and engaging with all aspects of one’s moment to moment experience.” So, it means being aware of your thoughts, feelings and bodily experiences while doing your job. This behavior flies right smack in the face of police culture, which doesn’t much value introspection. Our allergy to introspection is one of the reasons so many cops lead miserable, abbreviated lives.

To read more on mindfulness, see “Mindfulness on Patrol.”

Secondly, FTO’s should know how to identify their own emotional experience, and be willing to legitimize the emotional aspect of policing. Frustration, sadness, helplessness and, yes, fear are all inexorably tied to police work. We just don’t usually talk about these feelings. We need to start. Don’t worry, neither you nor your recruit will become blubbering messes or incompetent by merely acknowledging basic human emotions.

By modeling mindfulness and emotion identification you’ll make your trainee more psychologically resilient. As a result, that trainee will be less likely to engage in “experiential avoidance.” That’s where we don’t handle stress on the front end (i.e. mindfulness) and end up managing the psychic fallout later. And how do cops engaging in experiential avoidance manage stress? Gambling, boozing, sexing, playing first person shooter video games until 2 AM every night. You get the point.

The Field Training Officer has perhaps the single most important job in a police agency. Building psychological resilience in new officers, along with tactical and administrative proficiencies, makes a rock solid officer. Such officers not only represent the agency in a more professional manner, they take less sick days, get fewer citizen complaints and make better people in the world.

Prevalence of Intimate Parter Abuse Among Police: A review

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 09:35:36 PST

Are cops a bunch of wife beaters who are above the law?

Intimate partner violence (IPV), or “domestic violence” is often added to the list of psychological pitfalls associated with a career in law enforcement. Those in law enforcement, or those considering it as a career, may find themselves troubled by an internet search on this topic. Advocacy organizations such as The Purple Berets and the National Center for Women and Policing claim “research shows” police officers have a 40% rate of domestic violence, compared to 10% in the general population, or domestic violence is “2 to 4 times more common in police families.”(NCWP) Is this true?

The psychosocial dynamics of intimate partner abuse are complex. We can choose from a smorgasbord of theories when looking for reasons why people (mostly men) batter. Researchers, policy makers and advocacy groups also debate the most effective ways to prevent domestic violence from occurring or stopping it once it has begun. Leaving these issues aside, I’m going to address just one seemingly simple question: is the rate of domestic violence among police families higher than that of the general population? The key word here is “seemingly.” I’ll explain why the answer to this question can be found only tentatively, and only after untangling it from two enemies of science: politics and emotion.

CLEAR AS MUD

My father, a man not known for profundities, taught me “Opinions are like assholes.” I took that to heart. Therefore, I have been looking at what the science says on this issue. The science on this topic is about as clear as mud. Here’s why.

The first distorting factor we meet with when looking for the true rate of intimate partner abuse among police families is the passion surrounding this topic. Julius Caesar wrote, “Men in general are quick to believe that which they wish to be true.” This sure seems to be the case for much of the literature on domestic violence within law enforcement, on both sides of the issue.

The way around this obstacle is to avoid becoming personally invested in the outcome. If my raison d'être is ending violence against women I may be inclined to scour the internet looking for confirmation of “that which I wish to be true.” I’m in the fortunate position of not needing to find anything when reviewing the literature on this topic.

Clear as mud factor #2: Collecting data on a sensitive topic from folks as clannish and guarded as police officers. A group, by the way, that has a low opinion of “wife beaters.” When asked in a survey, police officers are unlikely to endorse acts of violence against their family members, especially after passage of the Lautenberg Amendment in 1996.

This law prohibits anyone convicted of domestic violence - including misdemeanor convictions - of owning a firearm. Moreover, the law was retroactive. This produced a small ripple of panic in the law enforcement industry as administrators frantically scoured their personnel files for officers with prior misdemeanor domestic violence convictions. As it turns out, “Research on the effects of the Lautenberg Amendment consistently shows that the use of the law has been rather limited and police officers have often been able to circumvent the ban and retain their weapons.” (Lonsway, 2006) However, as cops know all too well, perception is reality.

This brings us to the topic of survey research. The only viable way of studying the prevalence of domestic violence within police families is through surveys. While they’re a legitimate research method, surveys are vulnerable to a number of attacks, primarily along the lines that they’re unable to establish cause-effect relationships and that they rely on self-reported responses, which can be problematic. Imagine, for example, asking airline pilots in a survey, how often they consume alcohol while at work. “I NEVER drink on the job.” Right.

THE RESEARCH

Before the Lautenberg Amendment, there were three well known studies in the area of IPV within police families, two of which we’ll look at.

The first, by Neidig et. al., (1992) surveyed officers and their spouses. They were given a laundry list of types of violence (everything from “pushing” to using a gun and everything in between) and asked if they had experienced any of these. Approximately 40% of the respondents endorsed one or more types of violent incidents. A weakness here is the failure to discriminate between what type of violence couples experienced. We don’t know what percentage of them had a shoving incident versus one in which the husband choked or beat up the wife. Some in the world of domestic violence prevention believe it doesn’t really matter if you call your wife a “whore,” push her or give her two black eyes. It’s all domestic violence, so these distinctions are insignificant. That’s what I was trained to believe, and it’s what my clinical experience has shown. Others, like PoliceOne contributor Richard Davis, claim these distinctions are very important because “family conflict” is different from “battering behavior.” (Davis, 2004a)

The second (Johnson, 1991) involved 728 officers and 479 spouses. “40 percent of the officers stated that in the last six months prior to the survey they had gotten out of control and behaved violently against their spouse and children.” (p. 34) Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly what “getting out of control and behaving violently” means. Richard Davis (2004b) slams this study on this front. He writes, “The Johnson study is a survey not a scientific empirical study.” Hmm. Not a compelling argument there. I think we can surmise the behavior Johnson found very likely fit within the realm of domestic violence. But again, it depends on whether or not you adopt the “family conflict” model of domestic violence.

MORE RECENT RESEARCH

Gershon (2005), who by all accounts is a five star academic, surveyed 1,103 cops about, among other things, domestic violence. She writes,

Altogether, 9% of all respondents (76/857) who had a spouse/partner, reported that they had committed physical spouse/partner abuse...that these were completely anonymous questionnaires, and... the responses were validated with a well defined domestic violence attitudes scale, we are confident of the accuracy of these percentages.

So, there’s a bit of a monkey wrench in the numbers with this, at 9%. Gershon notes that the Lautenberg Amendment may have contributed to her finding of comparatively low rates of IPV in this population. The idea here is that, if officers believe (READ: perception is reality) that making an admission of domestic violence will cost them a career, that officer will opt to keep the career.

SO WHERE DOES THIS LEAVE US?

I think my dad (RIP) may be okay with the revised dictum, “Uninformed” opinions are like assholes. I have the following informed opinion: Domestic violence is probably at least as common in police families as in the general population. Further, as has been noted repeatedly in the literature, when it does occur, in police families it poses unique challenges to the victim.

Clearly, we need more (and better quality) research in this area. I say, “better quality” research but I have no good ideas about how to improve the quality of data outcomes here. That’s a job for the big brains.

Endnotes

NCWP: From the National Center for Women and

Policing web site:

http://www.womenandpolicing.org/violenceFS.asp

Davis, R. (2004b). Domestic Violence: On the front lines.

This article appears no longer available online. I have

a hard copy of it, which I got from

http://www.browardcrime.com.htm

Davis, R. (2004a). Domestic violence and police officers as abusers and victim. Retrieved January 24,

2011 from the PoliceOne web site: http://

www.policeone.com/standoff/articles/77224-

Domestic-violence-and-police-officers-

as-abuser-or-victim/

Gershon, R. (1999). Police stress and domestic violence in police families in Baltimore, Maryland.
National Institute of Justice, Data Resources Program.

Johnson. LB. (1991). On the front lines: Police stress and

family well-being. Hearing before the Select

Committee on Children, Youth and Families

House of Representatives: 102 Congress First Session

May 20 (pp. 32-48).

Washington D.C.: US Government Printing Office.

Lonsway, K.A. (2006). Policies on police officer domestic

violence: Prevalence and specific provisions within

large police agencies. Police Quarterly

V.9(4) 397-422.

Neidig, P.H., Russell, H.E., & Seng, A.F. (1992).

Interspousal aggression in law enforcement families:

A preliminary investigation. Police Studies: The

International Review of Police Development, 15(1),

30-38.

Nedig, P.H., Seng, A.F. & Russell, H.E. (1992).

Interspousal aggression in law enforcement personnel

attending the FOP biennial conference. National

FOP Journal Fall/Winter, pp. 25-28

Examining the Police Personality

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 10:40:01 PST

If you studied criminal justice in college, chances are that at some point you were forced to write a term paper on “the police personality.” I wasn’t a criminal justice major myself, but I know this because every time something new on the subject finds its way on to the internet I get a Google “alert.”

Researchers have been intrigued with the police personality for well over 30 years, beginning with criminology professor Jerome Skolnic’s work A Sketch of the Policeman’s Working Personality in 1977. Most cops, on the other hand, don’t really care about the topic.

It’s when we’ve made a commitment to ourselves to lead healthy, happy, productive lives that knowing something about the police personality becomes valuable. Most of the land mines police officers hit throughout our career (divorce, substance abuse, depression, coronary disease) have roots in our own personality. Simply put, cops are a “type,” and that type can lead to our own undoing.

Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Let’s be more specific and say that for cops, the unexamined life will likely lead to a shorter, sicklier and less happy life.

Personalities - our well worn attitudes, beliefs and worldviews - mostly remain stable over time. Our moods are fickle. They change all day long. Personalities, not so much. We can change our personalities, it just requires time and effort.

WHAT IS THE POLICE PERSONALITY?

The first question is, “Is there a police personality?” Yes, there is. Okay, we’ve settled that, now let’s talk about two competing theories for how we “get” the police personality.

Importation Theory says that the police personality is created by picking out from the sea of humanity, a certain type of person to be police officers. Pick, pick, pick. Remember the psych. tests you took when applying for the job? The ones where you felt they were trying to set you up?

True or False

1. I’d like to be a librarian?

2. Sometimes I hear voices that no one else hears?

Or,

Fill in the blank.

1. When my mother ___________ I feel ashamed.

2. Sometimes I cry when _________.

Those tests were meant to weed out “undesirable” types. Risk managers have decided that psychotic, impulsive, or timid people don’t make good cops. When all the schizophrenic, loose canon, introverts have been weeded out, the police department is left with us. Thus, we’re an “imported” type. You may be interested to know that police psychologists are much better at weeding “out” people than weeding them “in.”

Then, there’s Socialization Theory, which states we’re not a type when we start the job but that the police culture shapes us into the police personality. I’ll leave it at that. A considerable amount of empirical support can be found for both theories.

SO WHAT “TYPE” ARE WE? [note: you’re probably going to think, “I’m not x or y!” Remember, there’s well over 900,000 cops in the U.S. alone. These traits are based on LARGE samples of law enforcement personnel].

Compared to the general population cops tend to be:

Pragmatic

Isolative

Prejudice

Conservative

Suspicious

Cynical

Assertive

Action oriented

Scientists have developed scales for every trait you see above. They can be measured and compared to others.

Okay, so now we know what that the police personality is a type and what that type is. How can knowing this make you a happier, healthier human being?

Let’s call the above traits, The Big Seven. If you “examine” your life as my man Socrates suggests, the first thing to do is commit the Big Seven to memory. Put ‘em on a flash card or something. Why? Because awareness is more than half the battle. That’s what I tell my therapy clients. Really. If you’re aware of a problem, symptom or in this case, a personality trait you can begin to see how it operates in your life. For some reason, simply being aware of it can lessen it’s harmful consequences.

Take one trait that and pay attention to how it creeps into your life, even when your not on duty. Suspiciousness, for example, is part of a cops hardwiring. It makes us better officers. However, our spouses, friends and children may find it trying when we’re constantly scanning for nefarious activity while at the movie theater or restaurant. Don’t completely let your guard down, just be AWARE of it. Awareness will give you more options. Maybe, just maybe, the weird dude two houses down isn’t a pedophile.

Awareness is an attitude. It’s not as easy as it sounds because it requires attention and some level of personal commitment. I hope you pay attention and have made a commitment to staying in shape physically. You better have your ass in the gym because you don’t get to pick the time some parolee wants to kill you. They get to pick the time.

Likewise, I encourage you to make a personal commitment to your mental health. Paying attention to how the police personality can detract from your wellness isn’t as concrete as doing push-ups, but the benefits are similar.

Tactical Police Psychology

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 19:40:21 PDT

Tactics are supposed to be the life blood of policing. Being 'tactical' not only applies to specific calls for service, but is extended to every aspect of our lives. Cops are forever vigilant about ‘officer safety’ and the safety of our families. The universal salutation of peace officers is, ‘be safe.’ Police tactics are based not in folklore, mysticism or intuition. They’re based in science and what’s termed the ‘scientific method of inquiry’. In fact, what Lt. Colonel Dave Grossman calls ‘Warrior Science’ has developed into its own industry within law enforcement.

The same science that informs our tactical practices has provided many insights into the psychological impact a career in law enforcement can have on individuals. The news isn’t good.

Police officers lead shorter and sicklier lives than the general population. We are prone to some types of cancer, heart disease, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, marital discord, alcoholism, early death and suicide. The list goes on.

For many, law enforcement was more of a calling than a career choice. We made a conscious decision to give up material wealth for the peace maker’s noble path. Unfortunately, we give up more than wealth or community recognition or fame. We also give up our bodies and our entire pre-law enforcement world view. We become pessimistic, cynical and jaded.

Modern science clearly points to a need for extending tactics beyond where we park during crimes in progress or how we clear a room. Those that study police psychology have articulated a need to apply to the same concern for the preservation of our physical integrity to the psychological realm. We’ve learned the hard way that officers are eaten up and spit out by ‘the job.’ The police personality, exacerbated by a ‘suck it up and drive on’ ethos within our well-defined culture has produced generations of officers suffering in silence.

Until recently, the stress-related diseases associated with a career in law enforcement were ignored. Officers suffering from cumulative traumatic stress, organizational hassles and years of seeing people at what Kevin Gilmartin calls ‘their maddest, baddest and saddest’ were left to their own devices. As an industry, we reaped inaction and sewed alcoholism, depression, suicide and disease. Such has been the historical lot of the police officer.

I’ve seen the infamous Officer Implosion from several angles. I watched my father, a proud California Patrol Officer, struggle with depression and alcoholism. He was injured on the job forcing his medical retirement and unceremoniously kicked out of the ‘police family’. I’ve seen well respected officers develop drug and alcohol problems. All too often they wait until their wheels are falling off before finally asking for help.

Now, the good news. A growing army of psychologically injured yet strong officers, retirees, researchers and police mental health professionals have been building bridges, connecting the science to the cop. Ivory tower social science research isn't worth the paper it's written on unless it's applied to real people.As the name suggests, ‘Tactical Police Psychology’ encompasses a set of practices and knowledge aimed at preserving officer's psychological integrity. A pre-requisite for utilizing Tactical Police Psychology is the capacity to be honest with one’s self. This is many times easier said than done. We ask questions like, ‘Do I drink too much?’ or ‘Could I be depressed?’ It also requires a willingness to take positive action to improve our mental health. It involves a sense of ‘not knowing,’ never easy for cops.

Using Tactical Police Psychology helps us ‘be safe.’ The spouses and children of officers benefit from our utilizing physical tactics because those tactics allow us to come home in one physical piece at the end of our shifts. They also benefit from our using psychological tactics because they allow us to come home in one piece mentally at the end of our shift. An emotionally broken, depressed, alcoholic warrior may still be able to push a patrol car around, but he's not much of a father or a husband.

Our mission is to bring primary mental health prevention to officers. Primary prevention is well known in community health initiatives. Until recently, it's been non-existent in law enforcement. We invite you to cross the bridge, free of charge. If you believe, as many do, that thoughts, feelings and attitudes are ‘touchy feely’ and therefore have no place in law enforcement, you’re wrong. You’re also in danger.

Policing is one of the helping professions. As such, it behooves us to treat our minds with the same great care we give to our bodies.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 22:20:25 PDT

Drove down beautiful Highway 101 last week to attend the 15th Annual California Peer Support Association conference in Ventura. I was particularly fired up to hear two of the scheduled speakers, both from the east coast: Dr. John Violanti and Janice McCarthy.

Violanti is a professor at the New York State University at Buffalo, a researcher and a leading expert in police psychology. He was also a New York State Trooper for 23 years.

Policing is strongly influenced and dependent upon science. Everything from collision investigations to crime scene processing to criminal profiling is based on the scientific method of inquiry. John Violanti is here to say that the same scientific method is giving us good information about the mental health of police officers. The news isn’t great, but it’s actionable. As individual officers, supervisors and administrators we CAN do some things to make things better.

Dr. Violanti noted the important role of supervisors in knowing their people and being able to recognize the signs and symptoms of suicidality. He said suicidal people almost always communicate their intention to kill themselves before they act.

When we read news articles about officers committing suicide we frequently hear something along the line of, “It was a complete shock...it came out of nowhere.” To that the SCIENCE says, “BS!” If departments provided quality training to line supervisors in this area we could prevent some officer suicides.

Remember, suicide is the final act of a human being who has endured immense suffering. Alcoholism, depression, traumatic stress (the list goes on) are all correlated to suicidality, and they’re all treatable conditions. To paraphrase Violanti, suicide is “completely preventable.”

Janice McCarthy lost her husband, Capt. Paul McCarthy to suicide in 2006. A powerful speaker and a strong, determined woman, Janice gives a face to all those survivors of police suicide. Survivors everyone it seems would rather forget. She holds a mirror up to a law enforcement industry that generally hates introspection and says, “Here I am, this is real.”

Capt. McCarthy didn’t end his life because of “family problems,” as we so frequently hear. He died of an untreated psychological injury. Believe it. He was psychologically injured on the job, tried but was denied appropriate treatment, went back to work and repeatedly re-injured himself. Each time trying and each time being denied treatment. Risk managers know the importance of fixing broken tibias. They are at a loss about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In 2010 this is unacceptable.

Untreated PTSD can take your life. If you don’t believe me, talk to Janice. She’ll explain it to you in a way you won’t soon forget.

Serving as an emcee of sorts for the conference was Andrew O’Hara from Badge of Life. This organization emphasizes what in public health is called “primary prevention.” Let’s not wait until our officers are suffering, pushing their patrol cars around our neighborhoods while suffering quietly. Let’s do preventative mental health. Badge of Life is chomping at the bit to send you educational materials, or come out to your department to train you. Their website is chalk full of useful written material and videos. Badge of Life also directs their attention to retirees, another group that we seem to disown from the police “family.” All their material is free.

The conference was quite heavy at times. I don’t think I’m alone, however, in returning to my department with a renewed sense of how vital peer support is.

"If I am not for myself, who will be for me? And if not now, when?"

-Hillel

A break in the action.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:23:25 PDT

Haven't been posting anything new lately because I've been working on the book. Can't do weekly posts right now, but stand by.

What Cops Should Know about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 09:08:30 PDT

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a formal psychiatric diagnosis. At the risk of stating the obvious, a key component to PTSD is exposure to traumatic stress. I bring this up because virtually all police officers are exposed to traumatic stress but not all develop PTSD. Traumatic stress is an occupational inevitability for cops. PTSD on the other hand is an occupational risk. Some research suggests police officers have an increased risk for developing PTSD at some point during their career.

There are a number of complicated variables that affect how we respond to traumatic incidents, some of which are dimly understood. For example, if an officer experienced childhood abuse which he or she successfully suppressed from memory, those memories may re-emerge upon exposure to a traumatic incident later in life. I’ve had clients painfully describe how previous traumatic memories have resurfaced after the incident that brought them in, like candy spilling out of a piñata.

Some of us are more vulnerable to post traumatic symptoms than others. Importantly, our increased vulnerability is not the result of mental weakness. They include constructs such as temperament, early childhood experience, social learning and coping styles.

Don’t try and diagnose yourself with PTSD. Leave that to the professionals. When is it time to seek professional help? If you’ve been exposed to a traumatic stressor and after several weeks,

1. You continue to have sleep problems (e.g., difficulty falling or staying asleep, sleeping too much).

2. You over eat or have difficulty keeping food down.

3. You continue having trouble with your mood (e.g., irritability/anger, sadness/crying,

panic response like your heart’s going to jump out of your skin).

4. Co-workers, friends or family members are expressing concern about you.

I shudder to think of how many police officers who know something is wrong with them try to white knuckle their way through PTSD. A recent study by the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center found veterans with PTSD were twenty five percent more likely to die within a year after surgery than non-PTSD veterans. This, despite the fact that the veterans were younger in age at the time of surgery and even after they had long separated from military service. The point? It ain’t goin’ away.

PTSD has an impact on entire families. It’s been described as ‘the gift that keeps giving’.

PTSD isn’t like the West Nile Virus or Yellow Fever. It’s a treatable condition. You cannot be treated for PTSD (or any other serious medical problem for that matter) unless you seek help.

As cops we pride ourselves in having common sense. We use reason instead of blind emotion, voodoo or tea leaves to arrive at the best ‘thing to do’ in any given situation. The greek philosopher Epicurus wrote,

Chance seldom interferes with the wise man; his greatest and highest interests have been, are, and will be, directed by reason throughout his whole life.

If you think you may have PTSD what do you think the wise thing to do is?

Next week I’ll end “The Body Keeps the Score” series with a discussion of how to strengthen our emotional kevlar for future exposure to traumatic stress.

"The Body Keeps the Score:" An introduction to psychological trauma for cops. Part Two

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:02:28 PDT

Stress and Traumatic Stress

Imagine your neighbor knocking on your front door. He’s irritated. The neighbor says your son, who’s been playing football with his friends in the street, hit his car with the ball. In this case you would likely experience stress.

Now, imagine your neighbor pounding on your door. He’s panicked. The neighbor says your son has been hit by a car and is badly injured. In this case you would likely experience traumatic stress.

It’s the experience of helplessness and horror that define traumatic stress. Exposure to traumatic stress is an occupational inevitability for police officers. Think of a horrifying event. Any event. Now, ask yourself, “would there be cops there?” Probably, right? We’re always at the horror shows, and all too frequently we experience as sense of helplessness about our ability to make it right.

The fact that police officers aren’t allowed a normal human reaction to traumatic stressors makes things worse. Let me tell you about an experiment done by Robert Sapolsky, a stress physiology professor at Stanford University.

He showed two groups of people a gruesome video (a leg amputation) and then measured their stress response after seeing it. He showed the video to the first group and measured them. As expected, their bodies were pretty jacked up. Then he showed it to the second group. However, before they saw it, the researchers instructed the group that they were to have no reaction whatsoever while watching the video. The stress reaction in this second group was significantly higher. Makes sense.

Chronic exposure to traumatic stress, if not actively managed can very bad for us. It resides in the body and will stay there if not worked through in some way. Trauma guru Bessel van der Kolk writes, “the body keeps the score.”

Some of us believe getting good and drunk after “one of those days” will help us deal with traumatic incidents. This is a dangerous and wrong path. I’d recommend participating in a Critical Incident Stress Debriefing or other means of emotional/social support. Talking it out usually doesn’t, as some suggest, make people worse or symptomatic. The vast majority of cops need to talk more, not less, about the emotional piece of this job.

Next week we’ll cover the best known and least desirable outcome of traumatic exposure: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

New Facebook Page

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 20:06:01 PDT

The good news: Police Mental Health now has a Facebook page. I'd like to encourage you - yeah YOU - to share what works and what doesn't work to improve police officers' lot in this world. So don't be a frickin' lurker.

The bad news: At present, the URL for the page is ridiculous: http://www.facebook.com/pages/PoliceMentalHealth/138185609550421?ref=ts

Apparently, if x number of people go to the page and hit "like" I can

abbreviate the web address to something more normal. So, can you

go there and, even if you think it's the dumbest thing you've seen in

awhile, hit "like."

Thanks.

“The Body Keeps the Score”: An introduction to psychological trauma for cops.

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:11:17 PDT

Can you imagine being a police officer and having no real knowledge of or interest in how to use a hand gun? Can you imagine a colleague saying, ‘I’ll figure out how to deploy my firearm if or when the time comes’?

Either can I.

We better know how to use our firearms because our life or the life of another may depend on it. Now, let’s introduce a talking point from Lt. Col. Dave Grossman. In On Combat he writes,

The stress of combat debilitates far more warriors than are killed in direct hostile action.

Hmm. By ‘stress’ Grossman here refers to cumulative stress, posttraumatic stress and critical incident stress, all of which I’ll define momentarily. For now let me ask, what do you know about these? If you’re like most cops the answer is ‘not much’. Either you’ve never given them much thought or you figured you’d learn about them if you got bit. Or, you’ve already been bit and you’ve learned all about one or more of these the hard way.

Traumatic stress is an occupational hazard for cops. You really need to get this. Moreover, traumatic stress in its various forms can be deadly. You wouldn’t wish the bad shit associated with trauma (co-morbidities) on your worst enemy.

Because trauma is located in the shadowy realm of human psychology, law enforcement has kept away from it. While this may sound unfairly harsh, police officers (who later become police executives) know about stuff we can put our teeth into, like how to clear a hard corner in a room search or how to safely approach the occupants of a vehicle during a car stop. We know all about the hazards associated with these because,

We talk with each other about them.
We consult tactical experts and utilize our own in-house experts.
We regularly pose scenarios to ourselves and our partners...‘what if...?’
We mentally attend to these potential hazards which gives us two extremely powerful tools for managing risk: prediction and control.

When we begin talking about psychological risk, cops start fidgeting in their seats. Why? Most police officers don’t know a ton about psychology so we feel vulnerable; never a good thing for cops. We want to avoid feeling vulnerable so we avoid the topic.

By avoiding (minimizing, de-valuing, ignoring) the impact psychological trauma has on individual officers, their families, the police agency and the community, we have unwittingly allowed our brothers and sisters in blue to suffer in silence. We need to stop doing this.

Okay, you don’t know much about trauma. You don’t feel comfortable talking about it. I don’t feel comfortable talking to my pre-teen son about safe sex and drugs, but I do it anyway. I balance the discomfort I feel on the one hand, against the potential destruction that may happen on the other. Fuck it, I guess I’m gonna feel a little awkward.

In this series of posts, I will attempt to get you to appreciate how important an understanding of police trauma is to you.

Some mental health problems are easy to diagnose and treat. Trauma isn’t one of them. In order to give you the best, most up-to-date and accurate information available on police trauma I’m going to break this down into bite sized morsels. Don’t ask me how many bite sized morsels there’s gonna be because I haven’t written them yet.

I hope to answer the following questions (among others):

Why does one person need to drink himself to sleep every night after a critical incident, while another sleeps like a baby?

What’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and how can I avoid getting it?

How does traumatic stress manifest in the body?

What does it do to the brain?

How does a traumatized cop impact the family?

What are the co-morbid conditions associated with untreated trauma?

How do you fix or treat traumatic stress?

Stand by.

Watch me

Schadenfreude and Encouragement (part two of a two part series)

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 22:11:58 PDT

Nice job

Good stop

Wow, you did a great investigation

Great arrest...good work

Not much rocket surgery in there.

It’s a curious phenomenon, this idea that we could probably dramatically improve officer’s wellness by the simplest of habits, like verbal encouragement. But when we consider the fact that the ‘work environment’ (especially ‘the administration’) usually tops officer’s Gripe List, it’s clear we’re not doing such a good job.

We blast our supervisors and administrators for their lack of support, but those lower on the food chain aren’t exempt from their roles as encouragers. So what’s the significance of ‘encouragement’ for police officers?

This is not an area I need to reference research studies or my clinical experience. I want to talk about providing encouragement here because it’s very easy to do, it makes you (the encourager) feel good, and it improves the morale and overall wellness of those you encourage.

In child rearing, a basic principle is that you should seize any opportunity to encourage your child. “Wow, Tommy, your such a good [fill in the blank]!” As parents, we offer these words not randomly or disingenuously, but in response to a job well done. Encouragement is like watering a plant, or emotionally feeding a child.

In the same way, encouragement just plain makes people feel good about themselves. Cops have enough nitpickers, paper shufflers and ass kissers to deal with. By providing encouragement to others you neutralize the toxic air that seems to pervade police buildings.

You don’t need to be a supervisor to tell a fellow officer “good job!” And when you tell them “good job” tell them what about it was so good. Be specific. Management 101 tells us that folks are way more likely to continue doing a good job or even want to do a better job, after being complimented. Conversely, negative feedback, while intended to change behavior, doesn’t seem to work so well. Weird that so many supervisors and administrators haven’t figured this one out.

Since you’ve read this week’s blog you now know you have the power to think globally and act locally. Go ahead and tell someone they did a kick ass job, it won’t kill you.

Schadenfreude and Encouragement

thrivinginpublicsafety@gmail.com — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:57:56 PDT

Schadenfreude and Encouragement

(part one of a two part series)

I walk around my department like an undercover social scientist, taking mental notes about what works to improve wellness and what...well, doesn’t. Having grown up in an alcoholic family, I’m pretty good at reading people. For example, when my dad came home I knew there were three options: 1) sober and morose, 2) drunk and violent or 3) drunk and maudlin. Back then, I had to read him real quick and take immediate action, otherwise bad things could happen. So, I’ve learned to trust my observations.

I’ve noticed cops (including myself) have an almost insatiable appetite for hearing and talking about our co-workers’ fuck ups. We love it.

Cop 1: You heard about Joe Blow, right?

Cop 2: No! What?

Cop 1: He got three days at the beach for a negligent discharge in the locker room.

Cop 2: That Joe is such an idiot, ha ha ha!

I love the word for this phenomenon: schadenfreude. It means taking pleasure from the misfortune of others. And don’t we do that? I always feel a twinge of guilt after I get done thrashing one of my colleagues. Somehow my personal wellness quotient dips just a touch.

When I worked narcotics we had a ‘team approach’. Our unit of about ten meat eaters conducted dope operations, each one offering multiple chances to fuck it up. The first thing that went through my mind after blowing something would be, “Oh shit, here it comes.” My Nextel would start blowing up. “Shannon, did you get the dope?” No, he got it down. “You’re a fuckin’ IDIOT...have you ever got dope off anyone? Ha ha ha ha!”

When an NFL QB throws a particularly poorly timed interception, have you noticed what happens? The guy trots off the field with his tail between his legs, finds an private spot on the pine and sits....alone. People leave him alone ‘cause they know he just pooched one.

Not so in law enforcement. When we screw up we get creative cartoons on the white board, new nicknames and a full round of “good job!” dripping with sarcasm. It’s a rough crowd.

An old family therapist and hero of mine, Murray Bowen, described schadenfreude as a way to reduce anxiety in groups. He calls it ‘triangulation’. For Bowen, any time two or more people are in the same place a certain amount of intimacy is floating in the space. This creates anxiety. Even if you don’t feel it, it’s there.

A very common method, albeit unconscious, people use to decrease the anxiety is to focus attention on someone not in the room. That should sound familiar. Inexplicably, when the group begins talking about the poor bastard that’s not there to defend himself, the tone is almost always critical. It seems to put everyone more at ease to join together in beating the shit out of Joe Blow.

To get a sense of how pervasive triangulation is, try an experiment. For one day, see if you can avoid disparaging a co-worker who isn’t in the room. Yeah, that includes administrators. If you’re Buddha Jr. and are able to do this without a problem, then notice it in others. Oh yeah, and share with me how you’re able to do it. I could use some help.

Next week we’ll discuss schadenfreudes’ opposite: encouragement.

Police Mental Health

Police PTSD, Stress & Suicide Documentary

The Laugh Challenge

Another Good Video

Interview with former cop about PTSD

Bureaucracy v.s. The Guy who First Starting Playing this Game

A story about depression from a cop.

I came across this article and got permission from the author to post it here. it's pretty damn good.

DEPRESSION; KNOW THE SIGNS

Helping future police retirees.

Not Today

I Need a Book Name

Lexipol, Gordon Graham and Critical Incident Stress: A Critique

Getting it Twisted: 4 Mental Mistakes Cops Make

Recommended Reading

Building psychological resilience: An open letter to Field Training Officers

Prevalence of Intimate Parter Abuse Among Police: A review

Examining the Police Personality

Tactical Police Psychology

A break in the action.

What Cops Should Know about Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

"The Body Keeps the Score:" An introduction to psychological trauma for cops. Part Two

New Facebook Page

“The Body Keeps the Score”: An introduction to psychological trauma for cops.

Schadenfreude and Encouragement (part two of a two part series)

Schadenfreude and Encouragement