
Editor’s Opinion
This week, in a span of two days, I heard the news that three firefighters died from suicide. The velocity of death in such a short time made me call up a friend and ask, “What are we not doing?” As we talked about the latest speakers we had heard or articles we had read, this thought hit me: Stop simply telling me not to kill myself.
Once upon a time we shrouded firefighter suicides in silence–a dirty family secret that we swept under the rug. As my career has progressed, we’ve finally opened the floodgates on the subject. We see conferences, articles, podcasts, and social media content talking about firefighters and the subject of suicide. We ripped up that rug and we let the painful topics come flying out. We’re all aware of the pain and shock that a department faces when a member passes.
But now what? I know that we feel firefighters have higher rates of suicide. At a recent conference on firefighter mental health, the speaker asked that everyone who has been affected by a firefighter suicide stand up. The whole audience stood. The reality is that just being a male already puts you at a higher risk. When you add in the fact that we’re so comfortable with death and we constantly see that suicide is a viable option, it might simply be that we make that decision faster than the rest of society. That concept is extra painful when you think of the fact that we’re taught how to make rapid decision under stress because we’ve drilled on it a million times. Isn’t it odd that we don’t view a mental health crisis the same way?
It’s time we rewrite the book.
For years, the generation before me seemed to take an unspoken vow of silence when it came to their pain. We’re now in a generation where the alarm has been sounded on what the problems are–suicide, higher divorce rates, substance abuse, and depression to name a few. We’ve successfully broken through that seal of silence. Now, as this middle generation grapples with viewing “mental health” as “brain health,” we have an entirely new generation coming onto the job asking two simple questions that sometimes get on our nerves: “How?” and “Why?” Why not use that to our advantage?
The decision to leave this earth is the most painful and intimate decision that those we have lost have made. We don’t need a reminder that we shouldn’t do it. We don’t need you to tell us not to.
We need to be better taught “how” not to when we might find ourselves facing that decision. When all the things we’ve been facing have finally piled up, we’re drowning in them, and there only seems to be one way out, we need to know “how” to swim–not to be told that we shouldn’t have gone out into the deeper waters.
There is no playbook for firefighter health. We are in a completely bizarre situation where our brain health is affected by a million little things: sleep deprivation, binge eating, a lack of nonfirefighting hobbies, hypervigilance, and stress at home from family members who only see a small, happy snapshot when they visit us at the firehouse. We’ve slowly started to dip our toe into these subjects, and I think when we start to really wade in, we’ll find out just how muddy the waters are.
We can start protecting ourselves by understanding what our bodies go through and what changes can make a difference in our health. I’m no neuroscientist, but I’m pretty sure that a 72-hour shift isn’t exactly doing wonders for my brain, my mood, or my body. Mental health and physical health can no longer be two separate conversations: Our brain is going to mirror the stress and damage that we put our bodies through.
I hope that each month we can arm you with information that can be aimed right at the unique mashup of issues that you face on and off the rigs. We know that one day this job might take our lives, but let’s make sure that it’s not because of something we could have changed.
BIO
Stephanie White is a 21-year veteran of the fire service. She started her journey as a volunteer, and has been a career firefighter/paramedic in Virginia for the past 19 years.
Over her career she’s been actively involved in firefighter health and wellness while being assigned to some pretty great companies. She is currently enjoying the challenge that is spelling and writing while living the shift-work life.
Stephanie is the managing editor of Firefighter Nation.