Police Psychology | Symptom Stress

by Gary S. Aumiller, Ph.D.  ABPP

Police Psychology 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’s. They can provide you with 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 “thoughts” seem to play by their own rules. They’re like your annoying neighbor who constantly stops by uninvited and never seems to leave. You can drop as many hints as you want—“Well, Steve, we should really do this again some time…how about next year…?”—but 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 that are like little gnats that buzz around you no matter what you try to do to avoid them. And it’s never the intrusive thought about lying on the beach with a Bond girl strapped to your side that you can’t get rid of, at least not anymore. (more…)