Preventing Stress in Law Enforcement Officers

Preventing Stress in Law Enforcement Officers

Introduction

The working environment of officers of the law is extremely psychologically unbearable. At some point, every law enforcement officer struggle with depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or burnout. While some of these officers understand their problem, there are others who never realize that they need help. Getting psychological help for officers of the law is difficult as these officers are trained to be tough. Therefore, when faced with trauma and stress due to the difficulties of the working environment, they fail to seek the necessary assistance. Law enforcement officers are discouraged from seeing psychological help from civilian psychiatrists because of the sensitivity of their job. In this regard, most of them turn to alcohol as a way out of work-related stress. However, society can assist officers of the law in dealing with depression, as all it takes is listening, loving, and caring for them. There is a way out of stress for the officers of the law by their relatives and society.

Prevalence of PTSD in the forces

The profession of enforcing the law is faced with stress, where everyone at the workplace is a chance for a person to face the worst in humanity. Police officers are faced with severe conditions where they view dead bodies, fight for their lives, see abused children, and first-hand crime daily. As a result of the continued exposure to traumatic situations, officers of the law have reported cases of intensified incidents of suicidal thoughts. In addition, officers of the law are more likely to commit suicide than civilians (Violanti et al., 2016). Male officers are nine times more likely to commit suicide when compared to their female colleagues (Violanti et al., 2016).

Most people run to families and friends when faced by stressing issues. Most police officers have little to no control of their time. While work can be stressing, there are few chances that a law enforcement officer can get an off per request. Therefore, an officer may be stressful even when going for work. The fact that most law enforcement officers are physically separated from their families for long periods makes them vulnerable to depression (Soares & Pinto da Costa, 2019). As these officers spend more time away from their families, they become detached to the people who can offer the most basic help. In turn, some officers turn to alcohol and drug abuse, while others suppress their feelings. Unfortunately, both of these actions are extremely dangerous and unhealthy. A problem that could have been solved by talking to a family member becomes significant to the extent that the officer can opt for suicide.

While police officers face traumatic situations every day, another group of law enforcement agencies is exposed to challenging conditions. The armed forces deal with life-threatening tasks every time they go for missions. The armed forces are composed of small groups of people who train and live together. Because of the many months they spend away from home, and these groups become like a family to the troops. When going to war, many soldiers die in their line of work. The ones who are left are not given enough support to grieving their fallen comrades. The left soldiers have a challenging time dealing with the death of their fellow soldiers as they have little psychological help before being sent back to war (Violanti et al., 2017). As a result, some of them are affected to the point that they do not find any problem with death. It is at this moment that they start having suicidal thoughts.

In the war zones, soldiers are faced with a battle between life and death in its literal meaning. Some situations are very traumatizing as they witness their friends and colleagues lose their lives. Some soldiers have near-death experiences where they or their friends become crippled. These events are very traumatizing, given that the soldiers do not have time to process the events of the war. After coming back from war, most soldiers are haunted by the events of the war, while others suffer from PTSD (Violanti et al., 2017). While this psychological condition is treatable and manageable, some soldiers think what they go through is acceptable. Consequently, they fail to seek the necessary psychological help. Given that soldiers and officers of the law are trained to be tough mentally and psychologically, they fail to seek help. The most unfortunate thing is that at some point in their lives, the trauma and depression catches up to them as those feelings cannot remain suppressed forever. The amount of stress experienced by law enforcement officers is much intense and frequent compared to that of civilians.

Causes of Trauma

Officers of the law know the mental requirement for the job even before applying or undergoing training. Their training prepares them for some common stressful situations like lack of sleep and overworking (Basinska & Dåderman, 2019). Also, the isolation during training creates a character in them so that they can manage the requirements of the job. The badge for a law enforcement officer means that the person has been prepared to deal with situations that are uncommon for ordinary people. Seeking help for an officer may be viewed as an easy way out, which is a bad image for police. While most of the work-related-stress can be handled within the confines of the workplace regulations, other factors affect the performance of our officers. Each officer has a family and people who depend on them directly or indirectly. Therefore, there are personal factors that alleviate stress levels for officers besides work.

Most people struggle with financial setbacks at some point in life. If a person has many dependents, then they have increased financial needs. Financial problems can affect the mental welfare of officers of the law, given that they do a demanding job but cannot meet their financial needs. The social class accorded to officers of the law demand that they maintain a particular lifestyle. Some officers will run to bank loans to meet their financial obligations. Consequently, they become stresses by interpersonal issues (Magnavita, Capitanelli, Garbarino & Pira, 2018). Police officers have relationships to keep. Universally, relationships come with their challenges. It does not matter how tough an officer is on their job; relationship-related stress cannot be suppressed like the work-related stress. Some officers seek second jobs to make an extra income; there is stress that comes with managing the additional workload. Many interpersonal factors encourage stress for the officers in uniform.

Officers of the law fall under disciplined forces, and therefore, they are highly managed. Work-related stress comes from poor management of the individual departments. Some superiors deliberately frustrate some officers by exposing them to long hours of duty. Some stations lack enough manpower, and therefore officers are forced to work overtime (Corbett, 2018). These work-related incidences are highly stressful as most people may want a lenient working environment. Since the officers cannot abscond their duty, they are forced to work at high-stress levels. Similarly, unlike common professions where people specialize with one line of duty, law enforcement officers are often rotated from office to the field. All these work-related factors cause a high amount of stress to officers of the law.

Law enforcement comes with responsibility towards the public. However, bad things always happen as officers struggle to stop them. Law enforcement officers are faced with miserable people in their daily duties. It can be a person who has been abused, raped, physically assaulted, or a road accident. After some time, these horrific events may catch up with them making them struggle with post-traumatic stress. If a child molester is released due to a lack of evidence and later commits the same crime, the officer in charge may blame themselves for failing to create a safe environment. Other officers arrest the wrong people who are convicted, when the truth comes out, the burden of guilt and responsibility may be immense to bear. Therefore, the responsibility of a law enforcement officer makes them prone to stress and PTSD.

Self-Medication and Their Effects

Most officers view stress as an everyday thing. Some tasks are highly sensitive, and therefore law enforcement officers cannot seek psychiatrist help from a civilian or an officer from a different department. Some police departments do not have psychiatrists who can handle issues with law enforcement officers. Most officers view psychiatrists’ help as a sign of weakness. Therefore, they will seek alternatives to visiting the psychiatrist, even if they have one in their department. Other officers think that the amount of stress they experience is acceptable, without knowing that it is eating them away. Therefore, these stressed officers are forced to seek unprofessional help from their colleagues. Most of the common self-medication for these officers who fail to seek assistance if substance abuse. Alcohol is the most abused drug by law enforcement officers (Rahn, 2019). The saddest thing is that these drugs just suppress the feelings of stress in law enforcement officers.

The most common self-medication for stress by law enforcement officers is substance abuse. Alcohol and other hard drugs that have intoxicating effects make people forget the worries of the day. However, when these wear out, the reality that the person was running from catches up to them. For law enforcement officers, stressful events are frequent every day. Therefore, some seek to stay high on drugs whenever they can (Price, 2017). Consequently, they become highly ineffective and in the long run, addicted. Instead of the problems subsiding, they increase as every day is a chance to witness a traumatizing event. As the problems escalate, so it the daily dose of drugs to keep law enforcement officers in line. Unfortunately, some officers who seek the easy way out of stress end up hurting themselves. Accepting that stress is real in the workplace is not a weakness, and should not be perceived as so by law enforcement officers. On the contrary, the officers should be encouraged to seek psychiatrist help according to the set rules in the work laws and regulations.

Stress can be treated and managed, a process that increases the efficiency of officers of the law. Self-medication in stress management is very hazardous, as the process of self-medication is unhealthy. Most law enforcement officers who fail to address stress and depression in the right manner pursue emotional detachment. Mostly, the emotional detachment is for close family and friends, or any person who they are emotionally close. Self-medication increases cases of aggressiveness, especially for officers who become addicted to drugs (Bishopp, Piquero, Worrall, & Piquero, 2019). In the long run, these officers become more of a danger to the civilians that a safety net. Contained use of drugs leads to drug dependency, which at the worst, becomes a long-life condition. As a result of self-medication, most officers become immune to the right treatment for stress and depression. These officers become highly inefficient, while others become a danger to society. For others, suicide is always an option as they fail to deal with stressful events.

Christian Perspective

Avoid drugs

Drugs are a temptation to the people. They promise good things such as comfort while the reality is that drugs finish someone from within. Instead of turning to drugs, Christians should seek alternative ways to deal with stress, whining the acceptable means. The most common recommendation for law enforcement officers is peer counseling. First, this exercise does not break the code of ethics for police officers as they share with fellow officers. In addition, this method can help both parties as each one may be having stressful issues related to their working environment. Drugs are a temptation that leads to addiction (1 Corinthians 10:13). For addicted officers, the best way out is undergoing rehabilitation. Through this means, not only does the officer break the bondage of drugs, but it also uses their body in the manner prescribed by Christians and intended by God, which is by taking care of the body.

Value family network

As law enforcement officers face stressful moments, they seek to break their connection with their family members. Christians view each other as members of one big family, bonded not by blood, but by a common goal. The primary purpose of Christianity is to make life better for each person. Family is the central component of the Christian faith. Oneness and unity between spouse and love for children and siblings. If law enforcement officers can uphold family values, they can manage a lot of stress in a healthy way. It is not about disclosing sensitive information about their work, but by sharing quality time with their loved ones. As they share time, these officers will realize that there are people who care for them. Love means a lot and can help them turn to a person instead of a bottle for support. Turning to a person is healthy as it offers a permanent solution to stressful moments.

Promote cohesiveness

Law enforcement officers are perceived to be different, and in most cases, treated differently by society. The profession of law enforcement officer makes people unpopular as any person they arrest have family and friends who feel different towards the police. Most members of many societies fear police officers. Any point with a police officer on sight is viewed as a bad moment. Society ensures that officers of the law do not make friends with civilians. However, if police officers were considered as hospitable people, people could make friends and have light moments with them (Mumford, Taylor & Kubu, 2015). This gesture can help relieve the stressful moments in their workplace. Christians need to bridge the gap between law enforcement officers and society. People should live in unity regardless of the profession, given that at the end of the day, everyone needs to keep food on the table.

Create a stress management plan

Christians preach about the spiritual well-being of their members. In addition, they fight for the mental and physical well-being of their members as the body is the temple of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16-17). Therefore, people should do whatever it takes to ensure that their physical, mental, and spiritual bodies are fully operational. For law enforcement officers, Christians should encourage them to have a stress management plan. This plan should have officers only so that they can share their challenges and support one another. This exercise can drastically reduce the incidences of high stress within members of law enforcement agencies. At some point, these officers can invite the pastor to share the scripture with them and encourage them. With a regular and organized stress management plan, law enforcement officers can enjoy a stress-free life amid their profession.

Respect and gratitude

Every person makes mistakes within the course of their profession. Some people view law enforcement officers as bad people, while the contrary is true. An officer of the law is not there to impress but to defend the rule of law (El Sayed, Sanford, & Kerley, 2019). They do their job because they love the society while they shun evil. When people disrespect officers of the law, it increases their chances of becoming stressed up. When the people you are trying to protect, begin throwing stones at you, you are likely to get irritated. In this regard, Christians should seek to change the perception of people towards law enforcement officers. We, as a society, should show love and gratitude for the work that they do. Unfortunately, in any case, they handle, one party must be at a disadvantage as both cannot win. It is at this point that Christians should seek to merge the community and officers of the law. Just as we celebrate them when we are faced with disasters, the feeling should be the same at all times. The people need to understand that law enforcement officers are not superhumans without feelings; they should learn to appreciate and respect them.

Conclusion

Law enforcement is a challenging profession where officers must face stressful and traumatic incidents. The daily life of an officer of the law exposes them to depression. Since officers of the law are meant to be tough, they use this perception to limit themselves to getting psychological assistance. Unfortunately, this is not the best way as it affects their relationships, work, and mental well-being. In the middle of all the challenges, many officers run to drugs, which later creates suicidal thoughts as stress turn into depression. There is a way out for the law enforcement officers that can make them healthy without compromising their toughness. Seeking help by sharing with colleagues makes it easy for one to get psychological healing. These are for the things that are sensitive to work and cannot be released to civilians. After work, law enforcement officers need to have a life away from their profession. It is at this time that they spend quality time with family and friends. People have to make law enforcement officers feel loved in order to help them manage work-related stress.