Stress can affect anyone at anytime and anyplace. What’s important to know is that stress can actually be good for you. It is only when stress reaches unimaginable levels that it hinders your progress and makes you feel frustrated and sad. When confronted with a stressful situation the human body retreats to its survival mode, known as the “fight or flight response”. It causes the release of steroids and adrenaline from various glands in the body. These hormones send our respiratory, cardio-vascular, abdominal, endocrine and nervous systems into overdrive.
Stress is caused by constant pressure, both at work and home. One important function of short-term stress is to channel our resources to deal with challenges or life threatening situations. Temporary stress gives us an extra boost in escaping danger by increasing the speed of our reactions. Police stress, however; refers to the negative pressures related to police work (Police Stress). Police Officers are under a great deal of stress on a daily basis. Types of Police stress includes: external, organizational, personal, and operational. Many factors lead to these stressors, such as; poor training, substandard equipment, poor pay, lack of opportunity, role conflict, exposure to brutality, lack of job satisfaction, fears about job competence and safety.
Adding to the stress of everyday complications in police work, you may face what is known as suicide by cop. Suicide by cop has become a fad so to speak with individuals who wish to die but can’t do it by their own hand. The stress of suicide by cop adds an additional factor to taking someone’s life. Short term effects of suicide by cops is similar to those who where in other crisis’s. An officer may develop PTSD after experienc...
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...ly and friends. In addition, use physical exercise to help work through the stress and take care of your body through rest, relaxation and massage (Police stress). We as a society must push for better psychological treatment of our officers and make sure that they are receiving the proper training and diffuse techniques while in the academy. After all they are there to protect and serve us, so who better to protect them but society.
References
Brown, H. (2003, January 1). Police PTSD. Police PTSD. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.geocities.com/stressline_com/ptsd-family.html
Police Stress. (n.d.). Police Stress. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.soc.umn.edu/~samaha/cases/police_stress.htm
Police Stress. (n.d.). Traumacenter.org. Retrieved April 20, 2014, from http://www.traumacenter.org/resources/pdf_files/Police_Stress.pdf
Working in corrections has been associated with higher stress rates due to the unpredictable nature of the field (Parker, 2006). Correctional officers are forced into dangerous situations without adequate protection as a result of the prison environment, which can further lead to physi...
the psychological health of police, fire, and ambulance officers.” International Journal of Stress Management, Vol. 11, pp. 227-44.
Some of the world’s most-loved and well-known superheroes include Superman, Batman, and Spiderman. However great these superheroes may appear, their fictional stories also include stressors that they face everyday, such as the villains that they encounter and the pressure of being a hero and an everyday citizen. In this way, stress often negatively impacts the lives of the ones who watch over every neighborhood, every street, and every house. Such is the job of a police officer. Because stress has become an important topic in the community of law enforcement, things that are commonly discussed are the causes of stress, the effects of stress, and the handling of stress in the lives of police officers.
Everyday law enforcement personal have the possibility to face dangerous events in their daily duties. In performing such duties a police officer could come by a seemingly ordinary task, and in a blink of an eye the event can turn threatening and possible deadly. When or if this happens to an officer they won’t have
Stress means different things to different people and stress effects people in different ways. Some people think stress is something that happens to them such as an injury or a promotion and others think that stress is what happens to our mind, body and behaviors in response to an event. While stress does involve events and how one responds to them these are not the critical factors, but our thoughts about the situation in which we are involved are the critical factors. Essentially, stress exists whenever homeostasis is disturbed or cannot be maintained (Stress and the Social System Course Guide, 2013). Homeostasis refers to the body's ability to keep the internal chemical and physical environments constant. As your body begins to react to stress several changes occur. These changes include increased heart rate, blood pressure and secretion of stimulatory hormones. Ones body prepares itself in stressful situations to either stand ground and fight or to flee from the situation. Walter Cannon called this stressful reaction the fight-or-flight response (Greenberg, 2012).
Police officers encounter a huge level of stress on a daily basis. Police officers have to deal with criminals and put themselves in physical danger every day. The stress that officers deal with can leave long term effects on their body, as well as having a huge influence on their well-being. Many people do not understand the tasks and struggles that officers have to encounter each day and the long lasting effects that these daily tasks can leave on an officer.
In the workplace, stress can have some strong physical and mental effects on employees. To best understand stress, it is first important to define it. Stress is defined as “a feeling of tension that occurs when a person perceives that a given situation is about to exceed one’s ability to cope and consequently could endanger one’s well being” (Hitt, Miller & Colella, 2011). Stress on the job is usually the result of people feeling inadequate and unable to perform the given duties of a position at a high level. This could be the result of not having the tools necessary to complete the work or having an outside need that is unable to be met while performing duties. Today, we’ll examine different types of stress and the effects that stress can have on individuals and the workplace.
Kinds of Stressor to Police Officers Dr. Bryan Vila in his talk highlights a number of issues that pervasively form police stressors. The major police stressors can be broadly categorized into four kinds. These stressors have negative impacts to both an individual and the organization he/she works with. Dr. Bryan Vila identifies the following key factors; Budgets Police operations have been for so long been restricted by budgets.
Police officers experience frequent and ongoing stressors in their work. These stressors range from cumulative stress (constant risk on the job, the need for adherence to often restricting and conflicting regulations, public perceptions that may be inaccurate) to critical incidents such as violent crimes, shootings and mass disasters. There are also several sources of psychological stress, which include, characteristics within the organization, criminal justice practices, public practices, and police work itself (Trauma Center, n.d.).
Stress by definition is; any circumstance that places special physical and/or psychological demands on a person such that an unusual or out-of-the-ordinary response occurs. No one is immune to job related stress, making its existence a serious problem for employers and employees alike. Stressful jobs span an organization’s ladder from the bottom rung to the very top.
Stress is the combination of psychological, physiological, and behavioral reactions that people have in response to events that threaten or challenge them. Stress can be good or bad. Sometimes, stress is helpful, providing people with the extra energy or alertness they need. Stress could give a runner the edge he or she needs to persevere in a marathon, for example. This good kind of stress is called eustress. Unfortunately, stress is often not helpful and can even be harmful when not managed effectively. Stress could make a salesperson buckle under the pressure while trying to make a sales pitch at an important business meeting, for example. Moreover, stress can increase the risk of developing health problems, such as cardiovascular disease and anxiety disorders. This bad kind of stress is called distress, the kind of stress that people usually are referring to when they use the word stress.
Thus, the job profile of police is very challenging. They are prone to a lot of job pressure. Lack of cooperation and support from the public adds to their problems. The increasing rates of suicides and illness reveal that police personnel in India are beginning to crack up. The police personnel should be stress free, healthy in mind and body because it has to perform important functions in the society and it has a major role in country’s
Stress is defined in the dictionary as “state of mental tension and worry caused by problems in your life”. Everyone encounters stress in their life caused by many different variables in life and we all cope with in different ways. The way one copes with the stress is how it can affect our body. Some take to working out, eating healthy, take breaks from what is stressing you out and getting plenty of sleep which are good ways to cope with it. Some take to other coping mechanisms that are not very great for the body. Some examples are stress eating, abuse of drugs and alcohol, bottling up the stress, and depression. These bad methods can cause serious damage to one’s health on the body.
Stress has various effects on the body, both psychological and physiological. Stress can have positive effects on the body and can be beneficial, but frequent stress will eventually cause negative effects on the body.
"Stress is a natural physical and mental reaction to both good and bad experiences which can be beneficial to your health and safety." (8 Ways Stress Is More Dangerous Than You Think) Everyone 's body responds to stress by releasing hormones, also, you brain receives more oxygen. Stress starts to occur when we become worried about a task or responsibilities we face. Major stress is called chronic stress. It can cause symptoms that can affect your health in a larger way. Some people may say that they succeed more under stress, but sadly, that’s rarely the case. Research has shown that "stress makes a person more likely to make mistakes" (Stress Symptoms, Signs, & Causes). For most people, stress is extremely normal for them that they don 't see it as anything but ordinary. However, stress can motivate someone while under pressure and even get you through a tough or dangerous