Are You Psychologically Flexible?

Growing awareness of how a law enforcement career challenges cops’ mental health has been a welcome change as the profession and individual officers have shined a light on the prevalence of suicide, depression, PTSD, substance abuse, and anxiety.  While long a common trope of movies, TV, and police procedurals, that the increasing awareness is now coming straight from the men and women who wear the badge will be key to fixing the problem.  Increasing numbers of officers are now ignoring or shrugging off old stigmas about asking for help, showing up in therapists’ offices themselves or pointing colleagues toward counseling, and embracing the hard but rewarding work that is therapy.

As therapists who often work with first responders, and particularly police, we welcome the new openness and “To hell with the stigma!” attitudes we are seeing in our police clients.  We are impressed with the understanding of – and willingness to acknowledge in themselves – depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress, and to be educated about how truly common and easy to fall prey to they are.  And, as therapists who often work with first responders, we have come to some insights of our own about who will readily embrace and successfully respond to treatment and who are likely to remain “stuck” or resistant to change and healing.

Anxiety and PTSD are two very commonly diagnosed and treated disorders in first responders.  Post-traumatic stress is a front and center topic in a lot of departments and law enforcement media, and one cops seem willing to own, especially since its genesis lies in an externalities.  It is not uncommon while treating PTSD for an underlying history of anxiety to be uncovered.  The good thing is that anxiety and PTSD are relatively easy to treat, provided the client has or is open to psychological flexibility. 

Successful treatment requires much of the client, perhaps most importantly a willingness to be vulnerable and let go of preconceptions and old patterns.  Treatment suffers when clients are psychologically or cognitively rigid.  Unfortunately, these types of rigidity are common in law enforcement officers, whether because of inherent individual pre-hire qualities (which are sometimes sought out by agencies) or acquired with experience.  Officers who succeed in treatment are either psychologically flexible to start, or able to identify and correct rigid patterns within themselves. 

Understanding Psychological Rigidity and Flexibility

In psychology, rigidity (cognitive or psychological) refers to an inability or unwillingness to shift from certain unhelpful or obsolete mental sets, the largely subconscious tendencies, beliefs, and behaviors by which we approach problems.   Our mental sets are shaped by our experiences, belief systems, habits, and culture, with culture believed to be the predominant driver.  Law enforcement is itself one such culture that helps create and shapes the mental sets of those who work within it.  Policing reveals and reinforces certain “truths” and cops tend to hold tightly to them even if their veracity is called into question in the context of different knowledge or other cultures.  This can even be true when different cultural experiences exist within the same department. 

Let’s use the current and hotly debated topic of marijuana legalization as an example:

For the sake of our example, imagine a police department large enough to support and utilize not just patrol and investigations, but also a wide variety of specialized units, and consisting of multigenerational officers from a variety of backgrounds and experiences.  Were you to poll the officers of this department regarding their attitudes toward legalization, you would probably hear a variety of opinions and rationales, ranging from absolute pro-legalization to “Absolutely not!!!”  Now, ask the Narcotics Unit what they think and the range of opinion will almost certainly be much narrower, if there is any variety at all. 

Specialized units are generally self-selected, in that officers must apply and compete for positions on them; those wanting to work drugs tend to have certain beliefs, attitudes, and attributes to begin with and then they voluntarily join a team that continually plays back and reinforces them.  A culture develops and mental sets are formed that are essential for that culture’s success and survival.  The mental sets of a drug enforcement unit are going to be pretty solidly anti-drug.  Consider too, that challenging the mental sets of this team will be tantamount to challenging their very identity not only as a unit but individually. 

In therapy, the mental sets carried in by the client can either assist or hinder the therapeutic process, and sets that are both culturally reinforced and maladaptive are extremely difficult to overcome.  With cops, this might mean mental sets about the need to be in control, to hold information close to the vest and protect it from disclosure, that counseling is for the “weak,” to distrust those not in law enforcement, or that disbelieve this is all confidential and safe.

Psychological flexibility, on the other hand, is the capacity of someone to cope with changing and difficult circumstances, apply novel or creative thinking to problems, access and assess their mental sets, and correct or discard those that are unhelpful, obsolete, or maladaptive ad replace them with consciously arrived at improvements.  Psychological flexibility protects us from the dangers of troubling emotions and feelings, while not quashing or ignoring them, and allows us to incorporate them into our lives in a way to see them as inevitable and even necessary pieces of the human experience.

As psychological/cognitive rigidity helps protect against perceived threats, psychological flexibility is about being vulnerable to positive change.  The difficulty lies in that change, even when we consciously understand it is needed and will be good, is usually perceived as a threat by the primitive defenses of our strongly held mental sets.  If anxiety and PTSD are something you struggle with, embracing psychological flexibility is a must, and you can expect your therapist to challenge old mental sets and the rigidity that protects them. 

This will be uncomfortable.  It will also be freeing!

In our next article we will provide some principles and practices to promote psychological flexibility and start to question and challenge old mental sets.