Focusing on officer me
"Focusing mental wellness is a growing trend and many departments tap into outside experts to help officers manage the stresses encountered during a law enforcement career."
1. Diversify, Don't Just Be Your Job
This is the same principle as never put all your eggs in one basket. When people are just their job, if something negative happens in the work environment you’re going to get way more bent out of shape because it's the only thing that makes you you. So, it's going to challenge your identity, it's going to challenge your sense of who you are in the world if you're only one thing and you have a bad day. If you have lots of things that make you you, you can get through those moments and not get so bent out of shape when something at work goes wrong.
2. Mind your Tribe
The tribe is the people that you collect around you intentionally, so this is the group-belonging thing. We have to be aware that when we are around others socially, they also can carry a certain type of energy about them that we can get sucked into. We're not immune to that. If our tribe is always talking about negative stuff and bringing us down when we're interacting with them, we're more likely to also join in and feel negative. You have to watch what kind of energy people bring to your circle, because it's going to rub off on you.
Create a positive environment.
Photo credit to Unsplash
3. Get Out of Your Own Head
When people are under extreme stress, they tend to get very self-centered. We naturally will do that. It's almost an evolutionary mechanism for resource acquisition. If we're really stressed out, we get really scared about losing resources. So, we start to become obsessed with just what's mine, “what do I need?” When that happens, people tend to get worse. They can get way more depressed too. When we start thinking about other people, we're more likely to expand our viewpoint and include some other things that don't make us feel as bad about ourselves.
4. Watch Your Mental Diet
When we talk about your mental diet, it's the things that you intake. What you are putting into your mind, just like what you put into your body, will directly affect how you physically feel. What you take in through your senses, your eyes and your ears, will directly affect your headspace. If you're always taking in negative content, it's going to be very hard to get out of the negative mood. Purposefully and intentionally take in more motivational content or things that make you feel a sense of pride or excitement about something. Taking in that kind of content will directly affect your mood in a positive way.
5. Become an Intentional Task Switcher
We have to be really aware that whatever task we're doing is going to also directly affect us or directly affect our mood. So, if there are times when you feel like you have low energy and all of a sudden you've got a task in front of you that requires high energy, you're going to start to feel really bad about yourself if you're underperforming. If you have the ability to say, “hey, look, I'm really tired right now, so I'm going to go ahead and take a task that's a little bit mindless but still needs to be done,” then do that. And then if you're noticing you have more energy right now, go do something that's a little bit harder because you're more likely to have success and therefore could have a better mood and manage your stress.
6. Upgrade to Better Fuel
What we put in our bodies matters regarding the actual food. The more processed food we eat, the more likely we are to feel poor. So, think about upgrading to healthier, more nutritious things in times where you know you're preparing for higher stress.
7. Novelty - Try Something New
When you force yourself out of a pattern, it will naturally make you look at situations differently, and you may see solutions to problems you didn’t see before just merely by activating that sense of newness or creativity.
8. Switch Work Out for Play
One of the things that can happen when people work in law enforcement is it's sometimes easier to just go to work because the little black box in the car tells you what to do. Sometimes people will take on too much overtime. But overtime doesn't give you any energy back, it just drains you more. So, when you switch out an off-duty shift or some extra work shift for something that's fun, something that gives you social connection, we know that people who have solid social connections tend to cope with stress better.
Photo credit to Phillip Bellena
Regardless of the time of day, an LEO friend hits the trails once off duty.
9. Time Block Your Day
It’s best to time block your day because you'll feel an increased sense of control. If you have the ability, even in your free time, to say, “from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. I'm going to do nothing but yardwork” it makes you feel like you can focus your time and not be spread out all over the place. Many people will say they feel an increased sense of control, which is related to being able to cope with stress better.
10. Communicate Stress
Put in the effort and communicate your current stress situation to your spouse or significant other clearly, and explicitly set reasonable "here's what I need to get through this tough time." Then negotiate what they may need in return to make that happen.
Dr. Jennifer Prohaska, clinical psychologist and founder of Insight Public Safety and Forensic Consulting.
These officers, portraying themselves, recognize their stressors and know their Tribe where they meet at the iconic The Horsemen.
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