Nagaland: Police personnel sensitised on stress management

DIMAPUR — As part of its ‘Stress awareness week,’ Carl Rogers Institute of Mental Health and School Counseling (CRIMHSC), in collaboration with the directorate of State and Family Welfare under National Mental Health Programme (NMHP), conducted an awareness programme at the Police Headquarters (PHQ) in Kohima on Friday.

Addressing the uniformed personnel, the resource person, Dr. Viketoulie Pienyu, pointed out that the worries and anxieties of life have become more prevalent in this generation. He added that our needs and wants have increased as compared to how it used to be before thereby resulting in stress.

Some of the symptoms of stress, according to him, included restlessness, sleeplessness, irritability, concentration issues, headache, hypertension, diabetes, blood pressure, stroke etc.

“When someone is highly stressed, they cannot be productive in their workplace. There are different ways to manage stress that can both be healthy and unhealthy,” Dr. Pienyu said.

Some of the common factors for stress in a workplace included lower rank officers’ income inequality, transfers, prolonged separation from family, which prompted many soldiers to substance use to relieve their stress.

“Progress at work, a good family life is the best way to buffer your stress, avoid substance use to relax because they are addictive and the tolerance increases. Stress is a subjective experience, daily connections form the basis of our mental health, jogging, balance work and rest, good time management, get to like your profession and grow in it, be content with what you have, engage in creative activities, maintaining a good family life,” Dr. Pienyu advised.

He further stated that addiction is a disease that affects the physical and psychological health.

Kezhazolie Cornelius Mere shared insight about the institute and its functioning. Quoting Carl Rogers, “The experience of been understood and valued gives us the freedom to grow,” he said “all of us deserve to be valued, all of us deserve to be acknowledged and all of us deserve to be understood, so that way we all grow together as a society.”

Also speaking at the programme, Nagaland Director General of Police (DGP), Rupin Sharma, mentioned the need for assistance for the addiction and mental health issues in the Nagaland Police department.

“Bad experiences lead us to resort to unhealthy means to deal with stress,” Sharma said and suggested some recreation activities to help themselves de-stress.