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by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.\u00a0 ABPP<\/p>\n
Police Psychology<\/strong> has a strong cognitive element. Thoughts are very powerful. They have the ability to shape your reality and create a world that is completely different than anyone else\u2019s. They can provide you with Thoughts can even be so debilitating that it becomes difficult to function. In fact, in police psychology<\/u>, such a phenomenon is actually pretty common. We call it \u201csymptom stress\u201d\u2014when the symptom so stresses you out that it becomes worse than the original stress. Here\u2019s a fairly common example: Sam suffers from anxiety and starts having heart flips when he is doing something (called PVC\u2019s). It sort of normal at first, but he has become so attuned to them that now any time he\u2019s out in public he experiences severe panic attacks because he is going to die of a heart attack. He\u2019s told it\u2019s nothing to worry about, his heart is fine, but that is easier said than done. His next step, is that he is so afraid of the panic attacks that he avoids all contact with people for fear that he will have a panic attack and embarrass himself. Thist is symptom stress, and it can significantly impede a person\u2019s functioning, destroying your focus<\/a>, bringing any and all personal movement<\/a> to a near permanent stop. And, it happens a lot.<\/span><\/p>\n Here\u2019s another common example of symptom stress: Lucy has an important interview tomorrow and she knows she needs to get a good night\u2019s sleep in order to make her best impression tomorrow. She gets ready for bed but she is really worried that she won\u2019t be able to fall asleep. She lies down in bed, snuggles under the covers, closes her eyes\u2026and can\u2019t sleep. Why? Because she is so worried she won\u2019t be able to sleep, that her worrisome thoughts are actually preventing her from getting that good night\u2019s sleep. Her fear of not being able to sleep is the only thing that\u2019s standing in her way of a good night\u2019s sleep! She creates the reality through fear! And it doesn\u2019t work with thoughts of winning the lottery. That\u2019s the real problem with this.\u00a0 We don\u2019t seem to obsess about good thoughts. Sometimes it can create another problem. For example, often when a police officer has a little cold or infection and gets a touch of diarrhea, he starts getting worried that he won\u2019t be able to control himself while he is on patrol. Symptom stress takes over. Long after the infection is gone, he still has the fear and it develops into an Irritable Bowel Syndrome where he always feels like he is going to have to go. That\u2019s debilitating to an officer who can\u2019t always find a bathroom. This is actually the number one physical problem of police officers.<\/span><\/p>\n Symptom stress is different than regular anxiety or stress because you can\u2019t blame neurotransmitters or an overactive sympathetic nervous system. It is entirely psychological: you are so worried about having a panic attack that your thoughts actually trigger the panic attack. In other words, your thoughts have total power over you. In general, we are good about controlling what<\/em> we think about, and how<\/em> we think of different things. If we want to have a good day, we just tell ourselves we will have a good day, and our thoughts follow. If we want to get upset at everything, we will search for little things to get upset about. But with symptom stress, your thoughts take over completely\u2014they take your body and your mind hostage. You are like a pinball<\/a> bouncing off of different fears and voices in your head. The fear of these symptoms consumes you so completely that normal functioning becomes all but impossible. The thought of going outside becomes unbearable. The thought of going into work is too much. Even getting dressed, brushing your teeth, taking a shower, eating lunch, answering your phone all seem like insurmountable tasks.<\/span><\/p>\n In police psychology<\/em>, we need to learn how to prepare for such a situation, and teach our cops how to deal with these thoughts and feelings so they don\u2019t become so debilitating. The good news is there are<\/em> ways to deal with it, and you can learn how to overcome such debilitation. Start with the concepts below and then get a little help if you need to. Or get a Bond girl (or James Bond himself if you are so inclined) then you\u2019ll deal with real problems.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n![\"anxiety,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/anxiety.jpg\")
<\/a>questions and solutions that help you function better in day-to-day life. They can help you dream about, and plan for, the future. Yet, thoughts can also be very intrusive. Have you ever stayed awake late into the night, tossing and turning, trying to get some disturbing or unpleasant thought out of your head? How about trying to forget about something uncomfortable that occurred earlier in the day (or earlier in the week) in order to move on? The truth of the matter is \u201cthoughts\u201d seem to play by their own rules. They\u2019re like your annoying neighbor who constantly stops by uninvited and never seems to leave. You can drop as many hints as you want\u2014\u201cWell, Steve, we should really do this again some time\u2026how about next year\u2026?\u201d\u2014but they never seem to get the hint. Thoughts sometimes act in this same indifferent way: they are always around when you least want them to be there, similar to the voices in your head<\/a> that are like little gnats that buzz around you no matter what you try to do to avoid them. And it\u2019s never the intrusive thought about lying on the beach with a Bond girl strapped to your side that you can\u2019t get rid of, at least not anymore.<\/span><\/p>\nPolice Psychology: The Debilitation of Thoughts<\/h2>\n
![\"ibs,](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/ibs.jpg?resize=274%2C205\")
<\/a><\/span><\/p>\nPolice Psychology: Symptom Stress is Worse than the Symptom<\/h2>\n
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![\"Police](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/policepsychologyblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/procrastination2.png?resize=246%2C114\")
<\/a>Three Ways to Deal with Symptom Stress<\/h3>\n\n