prison interior

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This is a follow-up post to last month’s “Yoga as a Stress Reducer for Corrective Professionals” with licensed clinical social worker Sue Radcliffe. Suicide rates are twice that of her in the general population, and prison officers are at high risk for cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and suicide, which is life-threatening for men and women. is a concern. Ensure public safety and security.

Radcliffe, after learning of the statistics of prison officers’ negative health outcomes, the lack of policies addressing health, and the fact that there were no formal recommended health protocols and treatment programs for officers to voluntarily participate in, made this decision. We created a unique program. According to Radcliffe, stress-induced damage occurs within the limbic system, starting in the amygdala. As Shanker (2017) pointed out, the most prominent feature of the limbic system is its ‘survival’ traits, such as hypersensitivity to hazard cues (auditory, visual, and olfactory). Flee or fight at the slightest provocation. very focused. looking for a safe place. Mobilize resources to prepare your body for intense exercise. Simply put, it causes a fight, flight, faint, or freeze response.

human brain

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The amygdala sends messages to the hypothalamus, which controls the autonomic, sympathetic, and parasympathetic nervous systems. As Radcliffe explained, the sympathetic nervous system increases heart rate and blood pressure and prepares for threat. The parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for calming you down. Radcliffe goes on to say that when the hypothalamus sends messages to the pituitary gland, it secretes adrenaline and cortisol to prepare for the threat police officers are about to face.

upset man

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This is a normal reaction to threats. However, given the circumstances in which corrections officers are placed, they are always in a state of hypersensitivity and always alert to potential dangers. The above systems (amygdala, hypothalamus, pituitary) are essentially “stuck” and thus always contribute to the constant hypersensitivity of police officers. According to Bergland (2013), elevated levels of cortisol, the stress hormone that our bodies release in anticipation of and in response to stressful events, interfere with learning and memory and impair immune function. , weight gain, blood pressure, cholesterol, heart disease.

Prison officers have noted emotional and behavioral changes after duty, and brain science can explain it all. ” begins to be. When the hippocampus is “eaten”, learning and memory become difficult. Damage to the thalamus, our relay station for emotions and how we process our senses, can result in extreme emotional reactivity (or no reactivity) or enhanced perception or hearing threatening remarks). Bad mood). The frontal lobe is thought to be the region of the brain devoted to “executive function.” This is the last part of the brain to develop (about 25-26 years) and is involved in planning, foresight, understanding actions and consequences, and impulsivity. It becomes difficult to plan ahead, and it becomes difficult to recognize the negative consequences that certain actions may have. It is possible to act first and think later. When the brain’s limbic system is affected by excess cortisol secretion, prison officers’ daily lives become difficult, both personally and professionally.

mental health issues

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Our brains are not meant to be under constant threat. We are meant to be in a threatening situation, but then we come out of the threat and head to safety. The lower part, the pituitary gland, is activated and gives the body energy to run safely. You are out of the threat and your brain can relax. As a corrections officer, you find it incredibly difficult to relax. Relaxing the brain can do harm.

These changes in the brain can lead to fatigue in prison officers. We covered this in a previous article, Prison Officers and Compassion Fatigue. A practical approach to effectively addressing the negative effects of chronic stress is trauma his informed yoga. This is meant to calm your brain by staying in the present moment. This leads to neurogenesis, the process by which new neurons are formed in the brain. This happens when you are in the moment—because it gives your brain a break. or body parts. This calms the brain and thereby creates healing.

don’t give up

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This might sound cool, but it’s actually pretty simple. A study by Price et al., (2017) found evidence-based yoga practice may lead to a reduction in PTSD symptoms. It can heal your brain, stretch your muscles, and reduce PTSD symptoms. If traditional treatments such as talk therapy or medication management treatments don’t work for you, consider trauma-informed yoga.