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Depression and Anxiety for PoliceDepression and Anxiety for Police Emotional issues for police can happen if you the officer do not understand your role in life as it is God's calling. Of all the professions on earth, none is as demanding upon the ego as that of law enforcement. The very people you work with wish to create havoc for you and and they intentionally want chaos and anxiety and stress to serve their own ends. You are trying to make it a more equitable world, they are intent only on theft and damage to others. Anxiety and emotional difficulties for police can be a big obstacle if we do not understand the dynamics involved in this unique profession. Because of the uniform and the representation of authority, your identity is the farthest removed from humanness of any profession on earth. Depression and Anxiety, and the workplace stress for police will be the result without awareness of how the public sees you. Due to this removal from humanness, citizens do not see you, a person doing the job of a police officer, as they see a citizen doing the job of a truck driver or coffee shop counter person. What they see is you the police authority that is authority first, devoid of any human characteristics. To operate in this kind of work environment over long periods can weaken even the strongest of egos of police officers if some precautionary perspectives are not in place. We will first talk about stress enhancing behaviors and perspectives. Stress levels for police officers are high as a baseline at best. Added pressures within the individual to live up to a godlike expectation can compound the stress many fold. Young recruits readily see themselves as authority, and put walls up between themselves and the public, setting up a formality that lets stress build up within themselves because they feel they have to relate to the public through toughness. The other approach is to do the opposite, revealing your character and sincerity in your approach to public contact and to life in general. This will help the officer remove themselves from the non-human authority posture with their contacts with the public, and remove the authority stigma. Older and more experienced officers already do this by nature and they ease the pressure upon themselves and put the public contacts at ease as well. A common mistake of human nature in those unskilled and just entering police work is to take them selves too seriously. Depression and Anxiety for police with this lack of character will be very high, and at some point will mean personal problems in their life at home. On the other hand an experienced skill level five officer has a good awareness of his anxiety level, and that of those persons around him. More than that, they will develop a sense of the nature of that anxiety, whether ill intent or fear of harm. In personnel new to law enforcement, you will see a lot of emotional distance as they approach their contact with the public in too formal and too arrogant a manner. That is not good. They see themselves as perfect and godlike and the citizens as all evil and weak kneed. They see the public as cattle, stupid and unethical, to control and boss around, audience for their young and star-studded careers as police officers. They see others as lesser in character than they are. Typical of that perspective is that ‘all other people are not police because of inability to qualify,’ as they could. We have all seen cops like that at one time or other. Compare that to the contact you have had with older officers that are more experienced. The older wiser ones do not take themselves seriously as regards their humanness, and their approach to public contact shows it. Senior officers instinctively put their public contacts at ease, while those seeking to deceive the police will remain uncomfortable. This presentation of their humanness is one of many valuable tools of discovery a lesser officer does not have, because his arrogant presence puts everyone, civil and criminal alike on edge, and alienated! The officer’s attitudes about self directly relate to his or her ability to deal with stress. The ability to deal with stress will directly relate to accumulation of depression and anxiety in his or her life.
While the attitudes of the public are harsh in come levels of society, it will help tremendously if we examine those attitudes and their origins. No profession on earth is as related to the relationship we all have with our parents as that of law enforcement. If you had a bad relationship with your parents, as I did, it will be mirrored in your relationship to all authority forever, be they bosses, commanders in the military, police officers, senior church staff, or public figures in politics and entertainment. You will see all of these as your parent to some degree, and you will remember the unjustified wrong from your youth. Now how many of us have some misgivings toward our parents for something they did wrong to us? The answer is almost all of us to one extent or another! This is a psychological fact, due to imprinting. If your parent abused you and hated you, you will not see the burden of that in a salesclerk you meet, nor in a cruise ship attendant, but you certainly will in a police officer or a judge in a courtroom. The officer needs to realize this unique quirk of perspective in which society unfairly sees in him or her, and the origin of that perspective unique to the few professions of authority. The remedies for such professional burdens lie in several areas. First, do not take yourself so seriously, previously stated, but worth repeating. Approach your work as personally as possible. Fear will create alienation with the public. Observe the approach senior officers use in their dealing with the public and their outlook on life in general. A friendly approach will create a non-tense environment in which you have to work. Be able to laugh at yourself and accept the mistakes that you may make. While that seems like a triviality, it is actually a very powerful emotional antibiotic for stress and work anxiety. Taken daily it will prevent the accumulation of unresolved emotion from becoming anxiety and accumulate later into depression. Second, talk to senior officers about specific job difficulties. Talking will help, for in the reaching out you will become stronger and more empowered. Life is a group and team effort, for no one individual can stand by him or herself alone. There is an old saying that states, “A lone wolf is easy prey.” In the realm of emotional strengthening for ourselves, no saying is more relevant. Do not be a ‘lone wolf’ emotionally, and share something of your personal self with every stop you make and every contact you approach. Sharing your personality will relieve stress and create new friendships. Make it a point to share something of you the person along with the profession with every conversation. Let the very source of your stress, the public, be the very reliever of it. That is what the highest level of senior law enforcement officers do by instinct. They have learned how to project sincerity and their authentic selves into a non-sincere and artificial setting. As you get in touch with your higher order self, and you learn to trust your feelings regarding others, you will soon discover something magical. You will discover that being in the profession with the most burdens upon it can be just as satisfying personally, as you make new friends each day, as it is stressful because of the details of the job. We wish you every recovery from your emotional obstacles for you or your staff. Depression and anxiety for police does not have to be in your department. We wish to hear from you as you overcome the obstacles of emotional difficulty. Only the highest caliber of professional will seek out help for himself or herself, and you are definitely the finest in your profession! God bless you in your law enforcement career. Please contact us at depres15@depression-and-anxiety-recovery.com We would love to hear from you. We answer every Email personally. Please visit our Books and Articles page and check out our first in series book Overcoming Depression from Emotional Abuse/The Tools of Your Mind. This comprehensive book on emotional recovery takes us through our spiritual journey back home to our Original Self. It specifically addresses emotional abuse and relationship issues, and God's intended lessons behind it. This is the ultimate book on your type of situation. Shayne and Lori North
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