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How Wildland Firefighters Should Manage Their Stress

How Wildland Firefighters Should Manage Their Stress

There are few professions more stressful and heroic than wildland firefighting. Every fire season, these amazing individuals risk their lives to save entire towns from destruction. But all that heroism carries a heavy toll. Every day, wildland firefighters struggle with stress and anxiety. To ensure they can remain healthy, happy members of society, here are some ways how wildland firefighters should manage their stress.

Awareness

It is important to know the prevalence of emotional stress and trauma in wildland firefighting. While on the job, firefighters will see and face some of the most dangerous experiences of their lives. Firefighters should know what events could trigger stress. These include:

Signs of Stress

Wildland firefighters should look for signs of stress in themselves and their colleagues. Everyone processes stress differently, but some common signs that someone feels overwhelmed include:

Mitigation and Action

There are ways how wildland firefighters should manage their stress, both for themselves and their colleagues. The first step is to eliminate the stigma behind negative emotions. Firefighters should talk about their feelings openly and honestly. Only by identifying a problem can they fix it.

There are several tactics a wildland firefighter can employ when feeling stressed. To center themselves, they can:

Wildland firefighters are some of the greatest heroes of the modern era. When unruly fires threaten entire towns, they risk their lives to save many more. With that responsibility comes enormous stress and anxiety. But hopefully, firefighters experiencing stress can find some help from this article.

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