There’s nothing wrong with drinking in moderation, but if it’s your main way of coping with stress, then it can become a serious issue. Drinking too much can mask the stress levels that lie underneath and can also negatively affect the quality of your work, your health, and your relationships with family and friends.
What is the impact?
Being in policing means that you have regular exposure to stress and trauma at far greater levels than the average person. In addition to the potential for physical harm in the line of duty, officers witness traumatic and disturbing events and images and experience stress related to their roles and reception by their community. Because of your unique profession, these issues can mean there’s an increased risk for problem drinking, either because of social pressures to drink (to ‘fit in’ with your peers), or as a way of controlling stress, anxiety, and depression levels.
Research has shown that many officers demonstrate a great deal of psychological resilience in the face of disasters and traumatic events in the line of duty, even when compared with other rescue workers. However, when nontraumatic job stressors (such as workload, fewer resources, administrative problems, or poor community relations) are present, officers exposed to traumatic events demonstrate a high prevalence for psychological distress and stress disorders such as PTSD. Researchers found that when police have a stress disorder, they are far more likely to drink alcohol as a way of managing their symptoms.
Signs and symptoms
If you drink alcohol, it’s important to evaluate your relationship with alcohol and take a minute to consider how and why you drink.
Here are some questions to think about:
Do you drink to be social, to connect and be with family, friends, and colleagues?
Do you enjoy the taste?
Do you find it helps you unwind and relieve stress?
Do you drink to forget, or to be able to put difficult things aside in your mind?
Do you binge drink? Do you ever black out?
Do you drink to help regulate your mood or mindset?
How often are you drinking?
How many units are you drinking per day? Per week?
If you are working and you believe your alcohol habits are affecting you in work, it is important to seek help.
If you are working and you believe your alcohol habits are affecting you in work, it is important to seek help. Examples of how alcohol could be affecting you at work:
- Needing to drink to “cope” at work
- Going to work hungover repeatedly after drinking a lot the night/day before
- Colleagues telling you they smell alcohol
- You cannot concentrate or you are having memory problems
- If you want to cut down, try to have several drink-free days each week
Some forces conduct random alcohol or drug tests, particularly in safety critical roles (e.g. response driver, firearms officer). If you are worried, contact occupational health and/or your line manager. Remember you could be making things unsafe for yourself or others. It is a good idea to understand your force alcohol policy (sometimes referred to as substance) if alcohol is infringing on your work.
Self care
If you have concerns, talk to a close friend, your family or partner, if you can. If you think your drinking habits are affective you at work, you should seek help. You can do this by:
- Speaking with your line manager or colleague
- Contacting Occupational Health through a self-referral or by asking your manager to refer you
- Speaking to a federation rep or staff association member
- Contacting counselling or Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) if you have one
- Talk to your GP or practice nurse
To keep health risks from alcohol to a low level if you drink most weeks:
- Advice for everyone is to not drink more than 14 units a week on a regular basis
- Spread your drinking over 3 or more days if you regularly drink as much as 14 units a week
- If you want to cut down, try to have several drink-free days each week
If you’re wondering about your alcohol intake or think you might have a problem, Drink Aware has a helpful self-assessment tool.
