“Until you put your life up as collateral for another life, you don’t know what life saving is about”
by KATHRYN GALLOUPE MSW, LICSW, SUDPC
It can be daunting to find a therapist who is competent to understand civilian issues and is agood personal fit, but for First Responders and those on the front lines, there is much more to consider when seeking out mental health care than competence and a good fit.
It is these additional issues that often keep First Responders from seeking out mental health treatment. While civilians have a lot to consider when pursuing mental health care, First Responders have many additional fears and questions when it comes to asking for help.
Additional considerations to seeking mental health care for those on the front lines include, but are not limited to:
Will they be judged as unfit for duty by their Commanders, co-workers, and family?
Will there be reprisal if they have turned to alternative coping outlets like alcohol, drugs, or other illegal or against policy channels to relieve their pain?
Are the perceived and/or real repercussions to their reputation too high to admit that they need help?
Not to mention, asking for help can be difficult when everyone looks up to you. Asking for help can carry a perceived stigma of weakness and/or failure to those who everyone admires.
“A number of first responders I know start to find their careers difficult to cope with around the 10-year mark. That’s when the invincibility they felt as new first responders begins to waver, and it becomes apparent that holding on for another 30 years until retirement could be damaging. Traumatic calls add up, and we rarely discuss them with our work or life partners, let alone process them with a trained psychologist. Instead, the stigma of mental illness can make first responders feel like they have no choice but to “pull it together” and move on to the next call.” (Processing Trauma Can’t Wait Until Retirement For First Responders | HuffPost Canada Life (huffingtonpost.ca))
“For a very long time, I felt like asking for help was a sign of weakness.”
The heavy mental and physical toll extracted upon First Responders due to the nature of their service, often alienates them from their family and friends. They often feel that nobody in their lives understand the world in which they survive, and they are right. First Responders protect and serve 24 hours a day. Once their shift ends, they continue to protect their friends and family from the atrocities that they endure daily. First Responders are taught to be courageous, but their courage is unfortunately suffered in silence.
ACUTE AND CHRONIC STRESS OFTEN LEADS TO DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND PTSD.
First Responders are trained to respond to emergencies. To endure the witnessing of daily trauma, interact with populations that are dangerous and unpredictable, and to bring the most frightening and shocking scenes to a state of control and safety for all involved. Their bodies are in a constant state of stress or fight or flight response. When under perceived and/or real threat or witness to trauma, the brain’s alarm center is alerted, and the body releases a vast amount of hormones to cope with these environmental changes. “The release of all these chemicals causes important changes in the body’s ability to respond to threats such as increased energy, heart rate and blood sugar; increased arousal and pain relief.” (Charney, 2004)
Living in a constant state of stress can quickly lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD, and/or several other mental health and medical diagnosis. Untreated mental health or medical diagnosis can lead to decreased quality of life, illness and/or an early death. The statistics for First Responders living with PTSD are alarming. “PTSD isn’t just an inconvenience – it can be debilitating and even deadly:
• 20-30 per cent of paramedics have PTSD symptoms.
• 39 first responders committed suicide in Canada in 2015. Approximately 60 per cent of those deaths are related to PTSD, according to the Tema Conter Memorial Trust.”
First Responders are essential to the lives of everyone.
WHAT IS PTSD?
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness. It involves exposure to trauma involving death or the threat of death, serious injury or violence. Traumatic events may include crimes, natural disasters, accidents, or other threats to life. It could be an event or situation that you experience yourself or something that happens to others in the course of your employment. Sometimes it may take several traumatic events before PTSD is diagnosed. This is often referred to as Cumulative PTSD. (ptsd-fact-sheet-final.pdf (opseu.org))
Common Symptoms of PTSD include:
Recurring flashbacks (memories) of a traumatic or difficult session
Suicidal Thoughts
Being on Alert / Looking Out for Danger (Hypervigilance)
Panic Attacks
Racing Thoughts / Spiraling
Feelings of Guilt or Shame
Feelings of Anxiety
Feelings of Depression
Feelings of Anger and Rage
Nightmares
Trouble Sleeping
Insomnia
Negative Self-Image / Self-Esteem
Lack of Feeling / Being Emotionally Numb
Dissociation / Out-of-body Experiences
(Common Symptoms of PTSD Checklist - DVEN)
WHO IS TAKING CARE OF THOSE WHO TAKE CARE OF EVERYBODY?
The good news is that PTSD and all other mental health conditions related to First Responders and those on the front lines are treatable. With the right therapist and therapeutic modality, you can not only get well, but you can also live a life free of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and thought’s of ending your career or worse, suicide.
First Responders are essential to the lives of everyone, and it is the responsibility of the mental health community to have experienced therapists who are skilled in the diagnosis and treatment of First Responders, Veteran’s and front-line workers so that they can live full lives free of the psychological burdens that steal their vitality if left untreated.
As a 25-year veteran provider of psychotherapy and community mental health, I have had tremendous success working with First Responders, Veterans, and those on the front lines of emergencies and the COVID-19 Pandemic. I have served in our emergency departments as a crisis counselor, worked as a mental health professional in corrections and owned a thriving practice for those needing a high level of confidentiality in their mental health treatment.
Currently at Thrive Counseling Kirkland, I specialize in First Responders, Veteran’s, and front-line workers. I concurrently specialize in men’s issues. I would be honored to provide a free consultation and/or work with you in my practice. My goal is to prevent, intervene on, and treat all stages of mental health diagnosis that are common to our First Responders, Veteran’s, and front-line workers. If I am not a good fit for you personally, I am committed to helping you find another therapist to work with.
RESOURCES:
Emergency help for Police and First Responders
Emergency Responder Resources - King County
Self-care Toolkit for King County First Responders and Essential Personnel
Police resources — Connecting the DOTS (dotsproject.org)
First Responders and Disaster Responders Resource Portal | SAMHSA
Mental health crisis lines | Washington State Health Care Authority
The mental health crisis lines listed below are available for all people in Washington regardless of your income or whether you have insurance or not.
For immediate help: call 911 for a life-threatening emergency.
For immediate help with a mental health crisis or thoughts of suicide: contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TRS: 1-800-799-4889)