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ISSUES
Stress,
Anxiety, Depression, Suicide and Divorce
Answers provided by
Dr. Gary Aumiller, Executive Director of the
Society for Police and Criminal Psychology (www.policepsychology.org)
and a Police, Corrections and Forensic
Psychologist for 24 years. He is the author
of three popular books: Keeping It Simple,
Red Flags: How to Know When You
Are Dating a Loser, and Walk Like a
Chameleon.
Many spouses of officers live in fear that their
loved ones will be injured on killed when they
go to work.
What advice can you offer them?
The phenomena
of spouses in law enforcement that fear for
the lives of their spouses seems to take a
different path for males versus females.
When the male is the spouse that works in
law enforcement, the wives report they have
a tendency to accommodate, or get used to
their husband leaving for a job with a badge
and a gun. They become a little isolated
from it until something happens at work to
one of their colleagues then a panic can set
in. They might talk about it with other
wives, but it is more of a nagging sensation
and fear that seldom comes to the front of
their emotions.
Husbands whose wives work in correction
report a different experience. They report
that they often think of their wives being
in harm's way and may cycle through
demeaning their job or telling her to quit.
They seem to get the full emotion a little
more often. There is an instinctual process
in men in relationships to try to protect
their wife, and this is often at threat when
the wife works in a correctional setting.
Essentially, they are rendering incapable to
do their perceived duty to protect and this
can cause aberrant behavior. The wife of a
correctional officer injured on the job is
more likely to blame the job or the
offending party, where the male with the
wife who is the corrections officer will
tend to blame himself. These lead to
different levels of emotion as well as
different paths of the emotional affect.
Familiarity
breeds comfort. There is nothing that can
be done to reduce the anxiety when something
happens to a co-worker, but the reality is
that something can be done to reduce the
anxiety in advance. Husbands and wives who
are more familiar with the workings of the
jail and the many safeguards there are more
comfortable with their spouse working in a
prison population. This can be
best accomplished by having the spouse
actually go to work, and many prisons have
such a program; or by the corrections worker
telling their spouse about the safeguards
instead of all the bad things that go
down. The greater part of the anxiety will
come from the actually worker telling the
often exaggerated stories that go around in
a prison of close calls and the like. The
person who really wants to quell the
anxieties of their partner will refrain from
talking about the bad and focus on the often
arduous safeguards.
Many female officers suffer from anxiety,
depression, and stress. What are the symptoms?
What should they do?
Lists of
symptoms for anxiety, depression or stress
can be found all over the internet. It is
better to talk about the process of
developing these psychological problems that
is unique to working in correctional
settings. If one were to ask a room full of
corrections officers what the most stressful
part of their job is, most would say it
comes from dealing with their co-workers and
their bosses. Few people in any area of law
enforcement have problems with the actual
work, but rather the seething problems of
dealing with their administration or an
administrative aspect of their job. Being
forced to do overtime when they can't, or
being ordered to duty they do not want
creates the majority of the negative. Many
of the jobs in correctional institutions
also have a lot of "think time" -- or time
where they are watching something and have a
lot of time to think. This combination of a
job that requires a lot of administrative
handling and time to think of how unfair it
is can be disastrous.
I work with our officers on making sure
their life outside of jail is full and that
they have a lot of self-development types of
tasks going which can fill that down time --
or think time. Officers that take classes or
have goals of reading a series of books are
self-protecting against the "think time"
that often hurts them. It is also apparent
that officers need to tell their bosses in
advance when the absolutely cannot be held
over if possible so extra consideration can
be given. Combining good preparation and
good involvement in one's outside life is
the best self-protective measures an officer
can have.
There are high divorce and suicide rates in
corrections. What are the signs? What should
officers and their wives do?
The
statistics are a little staggering.
Corrections officers have a suicide rate
39% higher than the general population
according to one study, they have a
higher divorce rate and they tend not to
live past 59 years old according to
Metropolitan life insurance actuarial
predictions. Let's put a little science
to that. When the FBI held a conference
of the 50 top people in the country to
study police officers suicide, many
people talked about the high rate and
quoted that it was ten times higher than
the general public, but the research for
the conference suggested the suicide
rate was in fact about the same as the
general public and perhaps lower than
other gun owners. The idea of law
enforcement officer only living until
they are 59 was one study conducted many
years ago. There are a lot of myths in
police and corrections work, and the
often grim reaper news of many websites
really has not been shown when research
has been done. And frankly there is not
a lot of research on these topics. So,
where the divorce and suicide rate may
be higher in corrections, the research
is not really conclusive enough to
perpetuate the myths being repeated.
With that being said, in this
psychologist's experience, the divorce
rate is a little higher and probably on
par with other law enforcement
occupations. People in law enforcement
tend to have a problem called 'isolation
of affect' which means they don't let
people in. That will lead to divorce.
The suicide rate seems to be a little
higher but I do not believe the claims
that it is 3-10 times higher. The
longevity statements make no sense. If
saying that corrections officer do not
live past 59 years old on the average
can be proven when life expectancy is 77
years old, we should never have anyone
work our prisons. We should look to
other means to treat people who commit
crimes. I don't believe this data for
one second. It is against everything I
know in corrections, and all the retired
officers I know that have gotten out of
corrections and started second careers.
Signs of suicide and marriages falling
apart are something everyone can see.
Suicide in law enforcement starts with
feelings of being away from others. It
has been called "anomie" which really
means separateness from the world.
Increase in substances (alcohol or
drugs), or some other altered state
accompanies almost all suicides.
Depression may or may not be present,
but desperation almost always is.
Studies of suicide in law enforcement
officers show the time that it is most
likely is during the breakup of a
relationship. The other time is when
their job is being threatened by an
internal investigation. Suicides in law
enforcement outside of these two
situations are very rare. When
discovering a co-worker who might be at
risk, or looking at oneself and thinking
there is risk, it is best to leave an
intervention to a professional. Get them
to therapy.
The lack of respect or acts of disdain
is the top symptom of an impending
divorce. People should look for major
changes in their interactions patterns
with their spouse and not ignore if the
computer is taking over the
relationship, or it seems like there is
a greater distance between partners. If
discovered that you are getting apart,
try to do something that would bring you
back together. A trip, a vacation, a
weekend back to where you were married.
Spend more time together. Make the
relationship a priority. Read some
self-help together. (This author's
Keeping It Simple is a good self-help
book for correction officers). If your
actions do not work, seek out a marriage
counselor. Do not stop with the first
counselor you meet as quite frankly
there are people doing intervention work
that shouldn't be seeing your family
dog. Find someone that works for both of
you and don't stop until you find that
person.
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