What is the value of your mental health!

What is your mental health worth?

It has been a rough couple of months for mid-west law enforcement. With that mind, individual officer wellness is important. Looking at red flags in your own mental health is essential to maintaining some modicum of sanity, in insane times. No one person presents with mental health conditions the same way, while there are some common themes, presentations, moreover symptoms the manifestations, and stress or destress tolerance in each individual is a proactive and protective factor. While the officers might be good at "storing" up and compartmentalizing at work, the issues will start to bleed out at home. Causing relationship issues with close family, friends, and children officers will start to creep into individual and social isolation, substance abuse to cope (alcoholism), and potentially other maladaptive coping mechanisms.

There is long standing debate amongst law enforcement professionals and researchers as to the number officers who take their own lives within a year. I think everyone can agree that one is too many. So much so as I am launching my own organization to help first responders/law enforcement/corrections appropriately treat PTSD and related disorders. While I am doing some self-promoting I am also hopefully bringing some awareness toward/for mental health. Mental health is no longer a laughing matter it is a reality. Mental health, and wellness are important sides of the same coin. Agencies are utilizing wellness checks on a yearly basis in the hopes of staving off mental health problems. Other agencies are encouraging use of the Employe Assistance Program EAP system.

Twenty five years ago, I would have said mental health is for the weak, and that there is really no need for it. Talking to a therapist or doctor only leads to problems, troubles, and potential career ending misfortune. However in light of recent events in Minnesota, and around the United States officers are struggling with what I would call compounded or complex PTSD.

However as one can see I have transitioned into a career where mental health is clearly the focal point, it is front center on everything that I do. From interviewing new clients, to diagnostic assessments, to advocating for reasonable accommodations for officers suffering from PTSD. There aren't enough mental health professionals to meet the needs of society. What makes this more difficult is that officers/first responders are a special breed of people. We (collectively) are sarcastic, cynical, and dis-trustful by nature. Certainly by those who have purported to potential control our fates/careers. Therapist, and clinical professionals have been viewed as the enemy, why because they have been used as tools or viewed as tools in the past to determine the suitability of employment, and fitness (fit) for duty exams. I have had trepidation towards therapists/psychologists because of how I viewed the controlled my career trajectory. However that has changed over the past 20+ years.

Working in a police car officers are built, created, and trained to have a rough and tough exterior. Working in this office, officers deal with high stress, boredom, social isolation, and resentment. These things impact the officers mental health. However these things also prevent, and impact the officers willingness and wanting to seek appropriate mental health intervention. The reasoning simple and because officers create coping mechanisms that are both maladaptive and unique to the profession that are coping skills.

The big thing is to seek help, if you need help!