Police officers and staff do a critical job in keeping our society safe. It’s vital and often extremely rewarding work. But the job has lots of challenges – from long shifts to traumatic experiences. Over time, these pressures can lead to burnout.
Police burnout symptoms
Burnout can happen to anyone in policing – and it can impact all areas of our lives. It can negatively affect our performance at work and even disrupt our relationships with friends and family.
But burnout doesn’t occur overnight, it’s a gradual process, which is why understanding the symptoms and spotting them early is so important.
Here are some of the common signs and symptoms of police burnout:
Emotional exhaustion
- Feeling tired all the time, even after restful sleep.
- Unwillingness to take on a new project or anything that would involve extra effort.
- Avoiding offering support to others.
A sense of detachment
- Impersonal responses towards victims and colleagues.
- Feeling isolated and cut off from partner and family.
- Lack of emotion towards happy or sad events.
Loss of purpose and self esteem
- Feeling incompetent at work and feeling not good enough.
- Talking about being a failure or expressing self-doubt.
- A loss of belief in a positive future.
Coping with burnout
If these symptoms sound familiar and you think you might be experiencing burnout, it’s never too early to act – or too late.
The following are practical steps you can take to combat police burnout symptoms. They focus on three key areas:
- Managing stress
- Building resilience
- Seeking support
Stress management
Stress management can help you cope with the daily pressures and demands of a role in policing. Here are a couple of techniques that can help.
Progressive relaxation technique
This is a technique that helps relieve physical tension by systematically tensing then relaxing different muscle groups, one at a time. It’s straightforward and can be done at your desk:
- Tense the muscles
Take a slow, deep breath and tense the muscles as hard as you can for five seconds. It’s important to really feel the tension in the muscles, even if it causes some mild discomfort or shaking.
- Relaxing the muscles
After five seconds, let all the tightness flow out of the tensed muscles as you exhale. The muscles should be loose and limp. Notice the difference between the tension and relaxation.
Box breathing
Rhythmic, controlled breathing exercises can help reduce anxiety and stress.
Box breathing is a technique where you inhale for a count of four, hold for a count of four, exhale for a count of four, and hold for a count of four – repeat the sequence four times.
Check out the box breathing timer below for an easy way to give this technique a go straight away.
Building resilience
Building resilience helps reduce the risk of becoming mentally and physically exhausted – which can contribute to burnout. There are three key areas to focus on:
- Nutrition
- Sleep
- Exercise
Nutrition
Diet: In policing, eating well is easier said than done, but it’s really important.
What we eat directly affects how we feel and how susceptible we are to burnout. We’ve created a range of straightforward, time-saving recipes to help you fuel your body better.
- Easy diet tips: find out how to fuel yourself for a shift and disover snacks that recharge rather than drain your energy.
Hydration: It’s also important stay hydrated. Whenever you can, aim for 6 to 8 cups or glasses of fluid – ideally water – in a 24-hour period. (Around two litres).
Alcohol: when it comes to burnout, it’s really important not to self-medicate with alcohol. If anything, when we’re feeling burnt out, it helps to actually reduce alcohol intake – alcohol is a depressant and can make the symptoms of burnout worse in the long run.
Sleep
Shift work can make it difficult to switch off, especially in a demanding job like policing. But sleeping poorly on a consistent basis adversely affects mental health and lowers our resilience against burnout.
So how can you turn this vicious cycle into a virtuous one?
We’ve teamed up with leading sleep expert Sophie Bostock to create a toolkit to help everyone in policing sleep better.
- Access bite-size content from anywhere: practical tips to improve your sleep straightaway.
Exercise
Policing is a physically demanding job, being physically fit can help us tackle the rigours of the role. Exercise also helps us manage stress, boost mood and sleep better. It’s a really important part of the jigsaw when it comes to managing police burnout symptoms.
Lou Dutch, former fitness lead for Dorset Police, has helped us create a series of fitness videos tailored for policing.
- Build your resilience: access strength and mobility drills that you can fit around your working day.
It’s ok to seek support
Burnout can happen to anyone. The important thing is to recognise the symptoms and take steps to improve the situation. Seeking support is a great way to do this.
Talking about your experiences with someone, can help you process your thoughts and make sense of how you’re feeling. Our peer support network connects you with a colleague who’s got shared experiences. Get support and start the conversation (you'll need to scroll down to the ‘seeking peer support’ section).
You can also contact your wellbeing team.
Don’t ignore the symptoms, seek support now.