General

Small things getting you down? We have four important questions you need to ask yourself today.

As firefighters, we want the best. We want the best in order to be able to do the best job we can. On the whole, we’re motivated and driven; we have a job to do, we know how to do it, and we want to deliver. We want the best workplace environment, the best equipment, …

Stress is a natural byproduct of the firefighter’s life. Have you ever been the target of someone else’s emotional outburst? It’s generally shocking and disorienting. You were going along with your day and suddenly you are dealing with an unexpected verbal assault. At the end of it all, you are frustrated, scared, and maybe even …

You may be able to fool yourself into believing that by ignoring or suppressing emotions you won’t have to face them. Wrong. When you think about truly sharing your emotions, would you prefer to leave the conversation or conveniently find something else to talk about? Maybe it’s because you don’t know how you are feeling or maybe …

We allow our emotions to overcome reality and then base our decisions on those emotions such as anger, guilt, jealousy or other emotions. So there is a good possibility you might not have heard of Firefighter Behavioral Health Alliance (FBHA). As founder, I am a retired fire captain from the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In …

For the last 15 years, I’ve had the pleasure of presenting to many audiences — one of these audiences being young men. There is a ridiculous notion that boys don’t have many emotions and it is often seen as a girl thing. I have learned that it is a perception that couldn't be further from the truth!

When the stress doubles, we double the coping mechanisms. Having worked with emergency services for over 20 years, I have learned a thing or two about critical incident stress.  We generally associate it as the stress coming from the collected sights, sounds, and moral dilemmas not normally faced by the regular public.  Jeffrey Mitchell, himself …