Stigma Free

We are all a family, brothers and sisters in  emergency services. Someone told me that we are a dysfunctional family  but we are a family nonetheless, and we are a tight group. But let me  ask you this, do we really pay attention to our brothers and sisters?  Can you tell when something is bothering someone on your truck or in  your station?

We  need to look out for our brothers and sisters so we all come home from a  call, but this also means when we are not on a scene as well. We need  to know each other enough to start seeing differences in behavior. Is  someone showing signs that critical incident stress is affecting them,  or is it (should I even think the words) depression or thoughts of dying  by means of suicide? So many of us do not want to ever say or hear the  words depression or suicide. I know that the usual response to someone  who is experiencing depression is “well get over it” or “just snap out  of it”. These are not helpful words.

There  are many things that can get someone to the point of depression. We can  have family, financial, or health issues. We may be experiencing  effects of critical incident stress or other things. Some medications,  which we have to take, or surgery that we have had may cause us to feel  depressed. But if we keep it to ourselves, we wallow in our own  self-pity and our challenges then have our permission to run our lives.  If we keep it and do not vent or ask for help, we put ourselves into our  own prison.

To  be a true brother, we need to care about each other. When people are  not acting their “normal”, you may want to ask the person “how are  things going?” Let’s face it, we are not the “normal” that society  thinks of when they think of normal. We appear to be a little off center  but that’s okay because that’s how emergency services is. Sometimes we  need to talk to others that can relate to us in our “normal” state.

One  challenge, that we have, is that we are the rescuers. We go into  burning buildings that nobody else would enter. We go into places of  chemical spills, we are used to rescuing everyone else. Sometimes we  have to remember that it is okay for us to ask to be rescued. If you are  having a code, can you perform CPR on yourself? So why think that you  can handle your depression or suicidal thoughts by yourself.

Remember,  we ARE family. There are people that are willing to listen and help you  get the help that you need. Have you tried your department chaplain of  the CISM team? The CISM team knows therapists that actually know our  culture. Hopefully, the people with depression will connect with a  therapist that can help them. Yes, I know that many times we want to  handle everything ourselves but there are times where it is okay to hang  up the hero cape and admit that we need help.

According  to the National Fallen Firefighters Foundation, it is estimated that  suicide is four times more likely to happen than a line of duty death.  Think on that. What do we see? We all have been exposed to people who  have attempted to die via suicide or have died by means of suicide.

There  are resources out there. Serve and Protect is a 24/7/365 crisis line  for emergency services, where you can also speak to therapists or  chaplains (serveprotect.org or 615-373-8000). But you also have the  National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (suicideprevetionlifeline.org or  800-273-TALK (8255)). Go on the website for the National Suicide  Prevention Lifeline and look at the signs so that you can notice some of  the warning signs or review the information for yourself, if you are  having challenges.

Many  of us are afraid of speaking the words “depression” or “suicide”, but  by not speaking these topics does not mean that they do not exist. We  use thermal imaging cameras to see hotspots in buildings to prevent a  fire in buildings. We do not have TIC’s to see what is going on in  people’s minds. We need to ask them and if we are the one going through  the depression or having thoughts of hurting ourselves, we need to not  be proud and keep it all to ourselves.

We  are brave enough to join the fire department in the first place, we  need to be brave enough to ask for help or help someone else get the  proper help.

Instead  of getting a CPR save or pulling someone out of a building and getting a  save, how would you feel about saving a brother or sister? We are  family. Don’t be afraid to discuss this issue, the life you save may be  your own.