Stress Can Kill: 7 Stress Avoidance Techniques for Police Officers

In every police academy curriculum I’ve seen there is a segment on Stress Management. Some academies give the topic a token mention, discuss not falling into substance abuse, valuing family, talking to support folks, etc. Others delve deeper into the topic and explain…

• Where all the stress can come from;
• The impacts on your health that stress can have;
• Some ways to minimize the stress you incur;
• How to mitigate the long term impact of stress;
• And far more.

Some agencies are big enough to have a counselor on staff or available, whether it is a psychologist, a clergy member or other licensed therapist. Most agencies, in my experience, simply aren’t big enough to support that so they build relationships and lean on the community. Some are so small that the Chief or Sheriff encourages those sworn under him (or her) to maintain those personal relationships as needed.

No matter your agency size or whether you’re title is officer, trooper, deputy, agent… whatever, you should have your own plan and methodologies for minimizing your stress. Even so, there is always some measure of stress that we law enforcement professionals incur and there have to be ways for us to bleed it off - to “destress.” Toward that end, I thought it would be good to make a list of potential destress activities understanding that not all of them are for everyone. For instance, I’m just not going to regularly do yoga. I’ll stretch and maintain my flexibility but the structure of yoga and holding poses just isn’t for me. (It may be a great flexibility program incorporating isometric muscle toning, but it’s just not for me.)

Here is a list of things you can do to destress and I’m going to start out with a few things that help to reduce the amount of stress you absorb in the first place.

1. Eat healthy

Now I’m not one to live on arugula, bean sprouts, tofu, etc. because I simply love red meat and baked potatoes too much. That said, it’s easy enough to incorporate healthier foods, eat less fast food and avoid junk food. Eating should serve two purposes - it should serve to fuel your body and we work in a profession that can demand extreme physical exertion without any warning, so we should “stay fueled” all the time; and it should serve to please your taste buds.

2. Get adequate sleep

In our profession where we’re often working extra hours, secondary employment, cutting our sleep short to attend social events, etc. it’s easy to not get enough sleep. Now I’m not the guy who says “Always get 8 hours of sleep every night,” (or day if you work overnight), but each of us has an optimal sleep schedule and it changes over time. In my early 20s, 7+ hours of sleep per night was my optimal. Now I’ve aged a bit and I need a little less - between six and seven hours per night. If I get less than five, I’m a grumpy bastard who does not perform efficiently. If I get over 7.5 then I’m lethargic for hours. Know your optimal and work to schedule it in.

3. Stretch

While many of us focus on the cardiovascular and strength portions of fitness, too many of us ignore the flexibility and we don’t even realize the potential stress management benefits of stretching regularly. Not only is it good for us physically, but the ability to get in touch with our bodies as we stretch and hold to relax our muscles, move our joints, etc. offers the perfect opportunity to bleed of some stress. If we FEEL pent up or tight, the physical sensation impacts our mental and emotional state. Stretching regularly can help us bleed off some of the aggregate daily stress we incur on the job.

4. Keep your space organized

Whether it’s at home in your bedroom, your office, your rec room or your patrol vehicle, having clutter can add to your stress. When you need (or want) to find something, having to search for it is an unnecessary source of stress. It’s easily avoided by keeping things organized and relatively neat.

5. Reduce the amount of time you spend looking at screens

Whether it’s your phone, your iPad, your laptop or even the television, spend less time looking at screens. They may provide a great distraction to everything else going on but they don’t actually help reduce stress; they just let you ignore it for a while. Then when you’re done with the screen, where you might actually have even added some stress, you’ve not done yourself any good with your health as related to stress management. Especially if your job requires you to spend time looking at a screen, do it less in your off time so you can focus your mind and clear it out some.

6. Use your senses

This may seem silly because we use our five senses all the time right? But let’s do it slightly different to help avoid or reduce stress. Take time to go for a walk and pay attention to the things you don’t normally “see” but are there all the time. Look at the flowers. See the children playing. Is that a rainbow? See. Smell the flowers, or the scent of a campfire, or whatever your neighbor has grilling. If you have a hard time smelling naturally occurring scents, try aroma therapy or get a candle that’s scented with something you like (I love the mountains but I love the smell of the beach so I have candles that smell like suntan lotion and sand). Listen to the birds singing (and if you live someplace where all you here is traffic or population noise, take a break from it to go hear pleasantry).

7. Finally, learn to say no

All too often some of our stress comes from doing things for others that we’d either rather not do or that we simply don’t have time to do. It’s okay to say no sometimes. If you’re a parent, you know how good it can be for a child to hear “no” sometimes and the same applies to many adults. It’s good for us to say it sometimes so we can either focus on our own health OR so we don’t overburden ourselves. Learn to say no sometimes. It’s okay.

In part two of this series, we'll look at the things you can do that will help you bleed off stress you’ve already taken in.