Stress Relief

bradleyj,

One of my instructors at a First Line Supervision class was a Board Certified Expert on Traumatic Stress. She highly recommended taking Vitamin B Complex as well as talking to someone about the bad things that cause stress. She said that the NYPD thought Vitamin B Complex was some kind of miracle drug after she introduced it to them post 9/11 (she was there on 9/12).

As others have said, I'm not a doctor and can't give medical advice. All I can tell you is that it's helped me deal with the stress of the job.

RE: Medication not helpful against stress. Please help.

Personally, the best way I deal with stress is to optimize my sleep. Working on the job gives me a lot of stress. I get my vitamins and sleep supplement from a website called NutraYoung. All I can say is that it has really helped me.

RE: Medication not helpful against stress. Please help.

Hmmm there are other ways to prevent people from stressful thoughts

You met wanna try searching internet for some useful site's which provides useful ideas!
Well i have found one though .. it was www.awake2000.com .. they had some amount of good knowledge regarding how to have life as an positive thoughts

RE: Medication not helpful against stress. Please help.

Same case happened with me .. though it was not exactly similar
But one thing ... people should remember is to have faith and have atleast some amount of confidence regarding there personal lives before doing any suicidal thing
I would like to share this information with you'll ... founded about this site like 3-4 months back www.Awake2000.com ... they have some amount of knowledge regarding positive thoughts, you met wanna check it out Smile

Cheers

- John Kiggs

As another noted...

...unless he or she is a medical doctor/reserve/cop or some similar credibile hybrid, nobody in here has any biz recommending any particular course of action.

And I'm sure as hell not.

I will only say that in my case, I found Xanax to be helpful. I don't take it all the time, only when I feel really stressed and that anxiety is about to get the better of me (How ironic that I only get stressed *after* I retire from law enforcement...as Gilbert Gottfried would say, "SONUVABITCH!!").

In fact, just knowing I have it available is something of a stress reliever...not unlike the peace of mind you have knowing that you have your sidearm available, if needed (And that's where the analogy ends, as I generally don't like to think of firearms as stress relievers :)

If you happy and you know it pull the trigger....

Waddya mean that firearms aren't stress relievers? Crap...now the veterans tell me.

LOL... :-)

"Is your number still 911?" - Ofc. Rachel T.

RE: Medication not helpful against stress. Please help.

To paraphrase an old movie (and I do not remember which one, just the line), one of the best ways to deal with stress is to find the source of it, and then break his knees.

Guns, like any other hobby, can be a stress reliever. The danger in it for cops is that you need them as a tool also. Don't play with your tools.

The very best form of stress relief I have ever found was when I owned a horse. Even just brushing him down was great. I truly believe it had to do with knowing that a horse can sense and react to your emotions, and he outweighs me by at least 5 to 1. You wanted him to be calm, so you had to act calm around him. If you act calm long enough, all of a sudden it is not an act. Give me an hour brushing the horse down and I will be much happier and calmer all day long. Getting time to ride was even better, obviously.

Stress and Horsing Around....

We're not much for horses in metropolitan areas (as much as I'd like to "pony" up for one). Will it help me to drive a Pinto??

RE: Medication not helpful against stress. Please help.

Well, driving a Pinto would help if you like barbecue. But probably not much for stress relief.

As an aside, there are usually good stables available in almost every city for boarding a horse. It can get expensive though.

RE: Medication not helpful against stress. Please help.

I was thinking about this thread and some of the jokes we have been having on the forum lately. Stress is a serious problem in our field and will show up as burnout if you do not do something about it.

While I liked horses, and shooting is another great stress reliever if done as a hobby, not everyone will like one of those two options. But I do strongly recommend that everyone in law enforcement find a hobby they like. You need something to handle stress on a long term basis. I don't really care what the hobby is as long as you enjoy it. It can be knitting (yes, men do knit), model airplanes (I enjoyed radio control for years), hot rods, horses, motorcycles, shooting, or simply reading a good book. You need to find something outside of law enforcement that takes your mind off your work.

Along those lines, when you look for the hobby, look for groups other than cops. You need to mix with people other than cops to help keep you grounded in reality. Most hobbies will have some club where you can meet and socialize. Since we know these people will not understand our jobs, we won't be as willing to talk about it to them. This forces us to stop thinking about the job all the time. Living law enforcement all the time is a great source of stress and needs to be eliminated.

For those of us who are regular posters on this forum (new or old), computers can be the hobby. We love to talk and joke in here. But this is the only active law enforcement forum I am regularly on. I also have a facebook account, talk with military veterans (both MP and general) and old school friends. I read a lot about both motorcycles and airplanes on the computer. Do not let the hobby of computers degenerate into another work related source of stress.

Sorry, I will get off the soapbox now. I just was thinking about our joking answers and realized someone might be looking for a serious answer. I realize there is truth and serious advice in the joking, but wanted to make sure I was clear that we understood this as a serious problem.