We have talked about the importance of being Mindful on the fireground and in our preparation for the challenges we face. To me, being mindful is the culminating point that allows us to truly engage in Four Dimensional Firefighting. Mindfulness is the ability to bring a state of perpetual calm, a state of Serenity, on when you are actively engaged in combat. Mindfulness can be thought of as a single pointed focus on our fireground mission to improve our operations and increase our ability. We cannot simply jump into a state of mindfulness though. We have to begin by laying a foundation of emotional resiliency and developing a capacity for self awareness.
Self Awareness is a critical skill for our Fire Service Warriors to develop if they are going to thrive. In our trade there are many situations we can be witness to, or a participant in that can cause us to experiance acute stress reactions. The fact of the matter is we often find ourselves picking up the shattered pieces of the lives of our fellow human beings. This can cause the acute stress reaction we discussed before, or it can strike us on a much deeper level and manifest as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD is a diagnosable condition according the the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). There are multiple critera that must be met to be diagnoised with PTSD. The Department of Veternan's Affairs has a page with information you can review here.
I think it is worth us spending a few minutes thinking about the stressors we experiance and developing a mental and emotion resilincey in light of the recent suicide of Lieutenant John A. Garcia (ret.) of the FDNY. Lt. Garcia was a Company officer at the Deutsche Bank Fire in 2007 where Firefighters Robert Beddia and Joseph Graffagnino died in the line of duty. Lt. Garcia was their officer that day. One can only imagine what emotions and feelings Lieutenant Garcia must have had in the wake of such a terrible day. The New York Times covered the Lieutenant's funeral in a piece published on May 20th.
Suicide is a taboo subject that is rarely discussed in our firehouses. The fact of the matter is it occurs, from large cities to small villages. In 2010 the Phoenix Fire Department had four suicides in seven months. I remember in the late 1990's a firefighter from a neighboring department committed suicide by immolating himself, in the town he worked in, on his shift day. The brothers who responded were the men he worked with every day. They had to treat his burns as he lay dying the the back of the very Ambulance he often worked on. The FDNY, the Chicago Fire Department, and countless other departments have seen suicides of active and retired members. Suicide is not the act of an emotionally healthy and resilient person: it is an act of desperation and hopelessness.
We cannot eliminate our brothers and sisters from being witness to the tragedies of the neighbors protect; our sworn duty requires us to be there. What we must do is help our brothers and sister by offering them strategies to develop resiliency, performing an after action review of our responses to allow for discussion before an issue begins to fester, and watch one another for signs of acute or post traumatic stress and have the moral courage to offer the floundering member a lifeline.
There a many more qualified then I am to develop specific strategies to aid in these matters. However I do believe that one of the core reasons to use the Fire Service Warrior Ethos is that it gives our members a defined set of guideposts that if discussed and reinforced through application MAY help develop mental and emotional resiliency. Also, I cannot say enough that for me a grounding in the Stoic School of philosophy has helped tremendously. Remember the words of Epictetus, "It is not the thing itself, but the view we take of it which disturbs us." We do get to chose if we will be weighed down by the emotionally difficult events we are witness to, but our ability to chose is related to our practice of resiliency skills.
Take care of your brother and sister warriors; offer them your support, encouragement, and the tools you have mastered to cope with the challenges we face. If you think a fellow firefighter might be having trouble dealing with an acute or chronic stress condition GET THEM HELP! Remember, "Fire Service Warriors acknowledge their responsibility to their Brothers and Sisters." They may not like it if you bring it to the attention of the Company Officer, Department Chief, or the Employee Assistance Program that they are short tempered, having trouble sleeping, drinking too much, irritable, or any other symptom that you think indicates they are having trouble coping, but getting them help now just may save their lives.
As an aside I find it appalling that we do not track PTSD related suicides as Line Of Duty Deaths. The United States Fire Administration will classify the death of an 86 year-old Fire Captain from a Heart Attack as being in the line of duty, but the suicide of an active member isn't? Why? Is it because there is a stigma associated with psychological emergencies that we don't attach to medical emergencies? I think that is a likely reason.
I don't know how many people have read Malcom Gladwell's book Tipping Point, but in it he examines the rate of teen suicide in Micronesia. One of the things that he found was that once the first teen suicide occurred and was publicized under a given set of circumstances it set off a wave of teen suicides in the small Pacific Island nation. Is it possible that the Phoenix suicides occurred for similar reasons? It's worth considering.
As long as our patterns for mental toughness are derived from the models of John Wayne and Clint Eastwood we are setting our members up for failure. If you want to hold up a man as an example of what courage and resiliency in the face of terrible adversary is have your members read up on the experiences of Vice Admiral James Stockdale as a POW during the Vietnam war in the essays Stockdale on Stocism I and II.
I also think it is worth sharing again the words William Henley wrote in 1875 in his poem "Invictus"
Out of the night that covers me
Black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever Gods may be
for my unconquerable soul
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade
And Yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid
It matters not how straight the gait
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the Captain of my soul.
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