$\"???????\"$ <\/a>

We can use the idea behind a coin toss to help manage our mental health.<\/p><\/div>\n

In police psychology, as well at other divisions within\u00a0psychology, we are always looking for innovative ways to make a point<\/span> to our therapy clients that is not only memorable, but can be applied to their lives across numerous situations.\u00a0\u00a0 One of my favorites uses the coin toss research that is probably as old as psychology itself, or perhaps as old as mathematical probability at least.\u00a0 I remember reading it as an undergraduate, but didn\u2019t think much of it at the time.\u00a0 Since then, the simplicity of the research has amazed me.<\/span><\/p>\n

The researchers tossed a coin in\u00a0the air and record whether the outcome is head or tails.\u00a0 The research team tossed the coins 100 times, 1000 times and even 10,000 times.\u00a0 At the higher numbers, a strange phenomenon occurred.<\/span><\/p>\n

What they found was there were runs of heads and tails in a row \u2014 over thirty of one side or another.\u00a0 Now we all expect there to be a 50\/50 distribution of heads to tails, but what was not expected was one side showing up 38 times in a row.\u00a0 It\u2019s like in Tom Stoppard\u2019s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead <\/i><\/b>where the play opens with 100 coin tosses of heads to show that time is not moving for the main characters until the play starts.\u00a0 Sometimes time stops in real life too.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Ups and Downs in Life<\/h2>\n
The gambler knows that you get streaks in a game and you must play the good streaks and survive the bad streaks. In life also, you gets runs of good luck and runs of bad luck.\u00a0 You truly have to ride the good streak but survive the bad streaks.\u00a0 That is the random nature of the world.\u00a0 Survival means we cut our resources to the minimum, expend less energy and just recognize time will heal slowly.\u00a0 Cut your emotional losses.\u00a0 When you are doing well, ride it for all its worth because truly getting ahead in life means riding a good streak as well.<\/span><\/p>\n
I can remember one of the bad streaks in my life.\u00a0 In 1994, my house burned down in June, my pool caved in the next month. \u00a0I was robbed in August in the trailer I was staying in on my lawn, and at a conference meeting that October, I found out my trailer had completed flooded out because the water pipe had broken while I was away.\u00a0 The water had gotten to the level of the window before\u00a0my next door neighbor had\u00a0discovered it oozing out the bottom of the trailer.\u00a0 I knew my luck would turn around eventually and it did the next year.\u00a0 My First book was picked up by a publisher and published.\u00a0 Sometimes, this is something that your patients need to hear.<\/span><\/p>\n
Removing Stress by Accepting the Randomness<\/h3>\n
$\"gambling\"$ <\/a>
Random events may seem not so random to you at times, but understand that your luck can change in an instant.<\/p><\/div>\n
I start by telling them about the coin toss story, and the numbers of heads and tails in a row.\u00a0 I talk about random events having a tendency to appear not so random at times.\u00a0 I teach them survival mode, the value of patience and the passage of time.\u00a0 Then we talk about recognizing when a good streak is starting.\u00a0 It helps them accept what randomness means, and it helps them through the low spots in life.\u00a0 Normally the low spots can\u00a0give an alcoholic an excuse to drink, or\u00a0a depressed person reason to feel even more hopeless, or\u00a0a suicidal person a reason to quit. But you need to ignore these voices telling you to give up<\/a>, and know your life will turn around if you just wait. Forewarning is forearming and the person who is prepared has a better chance at a stable life<\/a>. In fact, some times the stress of the bad streak can actually make you stronger<\/a>!<\/span><\/p>\n
Give it a\u00a0shot if someone is in a \u201crun of bad luck.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll find in maybe a month, two months\u00a0or ten months later it will get quoted back to you, of course, without giving you the reference.\u00a0 Then you know you have been successful in changing a life.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D. ABPP<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
Please go to https:\/\/www.kickstarter.com\/projects\/thinbluemind\/the-thin-blue-mind-video-courses-and-inside-police<\/a>\u00a0 and read the campaign
\n<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
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Come back regularly for more updated articles on police psychology<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police Psychology:\u00a0 Randomness in Life by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP In police psychology, as well at other divisions within\u00a0psychology, we are always looking for innovative ways to make a point to our therapy clients that is not only memorable, but can be applied to their lives across numerous situations.\u00a0\u00a0 One of my favorites uses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17168882],"tags":[17168800,17168797,17168817,17168816],"class_list":["post-15","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resilience","tag-mental-health","tag-police-psychology","tag-stress-management","tag-stress-tip"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":112,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=112","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":0},"title":"Police Psychology | The Principle of Relativity (or something like that)","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"March 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"The Principle of Relativity (or something like that) \u00a0 I like to teach that scientific principles and theories have mental health correlates that we should pay attention to in both police psychology and all denominations of the mental health field. Scientific theory is highly dependent on observation (both inside and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Motives and Opportunity"","block_context":{"text":"Motives and Opportunity","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168884"},"img":{"alt_text":"jet plane","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/jet-plane.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":121,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=121","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":1},"title":"Police Psychology | The Principle of Entropy","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"March 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 \u00a0 The Principle of Entropy \u00a0 On the theme that scientific principles and theories have mental health correlates that we should pay attention to, I would like to add another scientific principle that can help us with police psychology called \u201centropy.\u201d Let me put this second law of thermodynamics\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Avoiding Being a Missing Person"","block_context":{"text":"Avoiding Being a Missing Person","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168886"},"img":{"alt_text":"Police psychology: entropy","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/messy-desk-sipress.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/messy-desk-sipress.gif?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/messy-desk-sipress.gif?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/messy-desk-sipress.gif?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3979,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=3979","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":2},"title":"Police Psychology | An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"August 30, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure Robert John Zagar PhD MPH and Brandon Northern Current ways of finding challenges like trauma and stress miss 61% of at-risk. Conventional approaches of interviews, background checks, and short paper and pencil tests are less than chance\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Police Stress"","block_context":{"text":"Police Stress","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168885"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":995,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=995","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":3},"title":"Police Psychology | A Toe for Mickey","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"January 21, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | A Toe for Mickey \u00a0 Mike went down to the floor a couple of times. Doubled over, holding his stomach, wrenching, trying to catch a breath between the strokes of thesword that was ripping out his insides. Mike had a serious anxiety disorder compounded with a quadruple\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mastering Resilience"","block_context":{"text":"Mastering Resilience","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168882"},"img":{"alt_text":"anxiety, Police Psychology","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/anxiety-275x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6005,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=6005","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":4},"title":"Police Psychology: Good Stress: Bad Stress","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"May 25, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology:\u00a0 Good Stress: Bad Stress by Gary S. Aumiller Ph.D., ABPP \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Mastering Resilience"","block_context":{"text":"Mastering Resilience","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168882"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1046,"url":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?p=1046","url_meta":{"origin":15,"position":5},"title":"Police Psychology | The Time Management Matrix as a Mental Health Concept","author":"Gary Aumiller","date":"February 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Police Psychology | The Time Management Matrix as a Mental Health Concept \u00a0 Anyone involved in police psychology knows how important it is to understand proper time management. However, the technique I use can be applied to anyone in any field. Basically I had come up with this technique years\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Avoiding Being a Missing Person"","block_context":{"text":"Avoiding Being a Missing Person","link":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/?cat=17168886"},"img":{"alt_text":"Police psychology: time management matrix","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/time-management-matrix-300x218.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p60sbO-f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4248,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15\/revisions\/4248"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/policepsychologyblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}