Shift work can be brutal, but it doesn't have to be. Welcome to a healthy shift. My name is Roger Sutherland, certified nutritionist, veteran law enforcement officer, and 24-7 shift worker for almost four decades. Through this podcast, I aim to educate shift workers using evidence-based methods to not only survive the rigors of shift work, but thrive. My goal is to empower shift workers to improve their health and well-being so they have more energy to do the things they love. Enjoy today's show. And welcome back to another episode of a Healthy Shift Podcast. My name Roger Sutherland. But you already know that. I'm your guide on this shift working journey, and today I have a completely new topic. Now, I just want to be open and honest, and I want to be transparent with you. The last few weeks or the last three weeks of podcasts have taken their toll. There is no doubt about it. What I absolutely love about it is it's generated an enormous amount of conversation and an enormous amount of chat in the background with me around people being seen. And that to me is more important than anything else. And I mean that with the utmost sincerity. These podcasts are not about you seeing me and learning about me. It's actually about me letting you know that you are seen yourself. I want you to know that with the episodes one, two, and three about the discipline system and about silencing and policing and about the job leaving you, this is not personal. It's not a personal attack to you. Just so you know, this is not unique to you. And a lot of people feel really targeted by their management. They feel like they're being bullied, but it's actually gross incompetence on behalf of leadership today. And this is one of the biggest problems. And some of the stories that I've been told that I've heard through um through my DMs on social media and email and messages have blown my mind. But it doesn't surprise me. But what it has highlighted and shown me is just how rampant and rife this actually is. And what is there that we can do about it? Well, what we can do about it is we can bring awareness to this behavior. We need to start pushing back. We need to start putting a light on it. It is not normal. This is not acceptable behavior in today's day and age for people to behave like that. What I'm doing is I'm actually shining a light on it so that you can go, yes, this is me. This is what I see in my job. This is where it fell down for me. This is, or to give you an idea of maybe you get seen where you weren't. I can tell you personally that this is a really long journey for me. Personally, it's been a long journey. It's been six years. I was literally thriving in my job in Vicpol. I was known as like a red cordial boy. I was up and about, loving the job. I made choices to go to areas where I could still really thrive and still really enjoy the job, still do the 24-7 shift work and everything else going along with that until all of a sudden it literally just collapsed around me. Um, and this is literally what will happen to you too. And I make no secret of it. You can be absolutely flying. And as soon as you get on the nose for some reason with someone, brace yourself because there is no way out of it. And I will tell you now that the only way that you can get out of it, and I will never ever forget these words, and I can remember these words vividly from a very experienced person in the police association in Victoria. I'll I'll nominate that. I won't say who it was, but it was someone who said to me, Now, Rog, all of this has happened. What we've got to do now is we've got to get you through this and out of this, losing the minimum amount of bark. Now that's a really interesting comment. And at the time I was saying to myself, no, I'm going to fight and fight and fight, and I'm going to fight all the way through, and I'm going to prove that it's toxic and what's actually happened and it's bullying and it's targeted and what it is. But I will tell you that those words were a hundred percent correct. Just get through it and get out, losing the minimum amount of bark, because that's the only way. Fighting Town Hall doesn't work. The only person that suffers will be you. And you can fight it as much as you like, and you can tell me your individual stories. I get that. And I know that there are people that have fought really hard and have won, but at what cost in the end? And does it really make you happy in the end? No, it doesn't. So, what I want to do is the one thing that I do want to do is I want to make a point to you in relation to this. If you've listened to my part one, part two, and part three podcast, they've taken their toll on me personally. You've got to remember there's a human behind this podcast. And I are literally working my way through all of my own issues and things that I have to deal with as well. And a lot of this has been very activating for me as well, because it gets me back thinking about the situations and what happened and how. And it has, and I'm not going to deny it's actually taken its toll. Now, that's not your fault, that's mine because I put myself out there. But I'm doing it to help others. I'm doing it so that you, the listener, are seen. I'm doing it so you, the listener, don't feel alone in this situation because that can make an enormous difference to you. The only thing, the only thing that I'm asking you for in as a request in return, and I mean the only thing, is I just ask that you share this podcast. I ask that you share it with other people so that they get heard and seen. If you have been helped in any way whatsoever, even once if there was a tiny little snippet of information or something that I said in one of these podcasts, then can you do me a favor and please share it with somebody else that may get it? And can you do me a big favor as well? If you're listening on Spotify or Apple, can you leave a rating and a review in relation to it? Because that costs you absolutely nothing to do, but it helps the show enormously. Now, our listening numbers have climbed astronomically since I've started talking about these things. And I'm incredibly grateful for that. But the ratings and reviews are what push this show out to other shift workers and other people in this situation that need it. So if you've taken any value, could you do me a favor and help me get in front of someone else who's struggling? Because that's what I want to do. I want people to feel seen. If we can save one person from not feeling so miserable in it, can I just ask you a small favor? And could you please just pause it, go back and go to where you can put five stars or give it a rating at the top. And if you're on Apple, you can actually rate it and you can go down to the bottom and you can write a few words of review that will help somebody else. Remember, someone shared this with you, someone pushed it in your direction. Pass it on, pay it forward. I'd really appreciate it. All right, let's get into today's episode. Today, I want to talk about something that really does not get spoken about enough, but it's something that we all live, and that is the danger of accepting a new normal in these jobs. Now, if you are someone who works in frontline health or emergency services like policing, fire, you're a paramedic, you work in corrections or defense, then this one here is actually for you. Because the job doesn't break you in one hit. You don't just go to work one day, boom, and you're broken. That's not how it happens. It actually chips away at you very slowly without you realizing quietly, biologically, mentally, physically. And the most dangerous part of all of this is you actually adjust to it and you adapt to it. And you accept each stage as a new normal. You don't realize how much that you are adjusting and adapting to the new situation and accepting as a new normal. But I will tell you this it is not normal. That slow creep that takes you over you. You don't get into policing or the military or as a nurse or paramedic or fiery or anything like that, dealing with those situations and get out of it with unscathed. You don't. It starts small, poor sleep just becomes, oh, it's just part of the job. You're wired at night, you're exhausted in the morning, you live in a brain fog. Then your diet starts to slip. Convenience food, oh, that night shift sugar, energy drinks, skip meals, and weight starts to creep up. You start putting it on around your middle, that dangerous visceral fat that creeps in and wraps around your organs and starts to suffocate them and causes you all sorts of problems. What do you do? Oh, it's just my age. Oh, I've got perimenopause, oh, menopausal. Well, it's metabolism, it's shift work. And then the next thing that happens is the gut issues start to come. We start to get IBS, we get diarrhea, or we get constipated, or we get pain in our guts, we get bloating. That IBS, we start to get reflux. The next thing that starts to happen is our skin starts to flare up. We get that ruddy red look about us. We get short-tempered. Our fuse get shorter. When your partner speaks to you, you get frustrated. You're on your phone and they go to speak to you and you lose your mind. You snap faster. Your wick is lightning fast. Then you start to get to the stage where you don't feel joy like you used to. And what's the next thing that happens? You start gambling, or you start watching porn, or you start um drinking alcohol or taking drugs or doing things like that because you're always chasing that dopamine hit or that next hit up. And this is the next thing that happens. Now that's anidonia, that you don't feel the joy and pleasures in the things that you just used to. And you find it extremely difficult to find any joy in anything. You stop looking forward to things, but you keep functioning. You keep turning up for work, you keep laughing with your colleagues. So you assume in your mind you're fine, but you're not fine. What you've done is you've actually adapted to dysfunction. And this is something that's really important. Now I had my own wake-up call. When I was in VicPole, I thought that that was life. I thought that the hypervigilance was normal, the poor sleep was normal, the exposure to catastrophe was normal, all of the things, the cynicism, the black humor. I genuinely started to believe that the society were crooks, liars, and were all NQR. Why? Because 100% of the people that I dealt with came from a very, very small slice of society, a tiny minority. But when that's your daily exposure, your brain starts to generalize and you think that's humanity. Well, it's not, it's actually your work bubble. Because it wasn't until I stepped out and I thought that I'd miss it more than anything. I honestly thought I'd miss all of my brothers and sisters in blue. And to be fair, I did miss parts of it. I did miss the structure and places to go. I certainly missed the income. But what shock me was this it wasn't until I stepped out and I looked back in at everybody else that I realized just how much I had normalized that wasn't normal. The stress, the tension, the edge, the decline in health, the negativity, the black humour, the fake friendships. Where are all the people when you leave the job? What happened to them? Because they disappear. And if you're listening to this and you are someone who is in work and you're associating with and all your mates are in the job, wait until you leave. I'll guarantee to you that they will disappear. Because they do. And this is what actually happens. Because they're fake friendships. You don't realize it, but you're all pulling towards a common cause while you're all part of the brotherhood. But once you leave, you're out. That's it. And that is something that's really hard to understand. And this is a conversation that I was having with someone the other day, highlighting where did all the people go, they said. I I had so many friends in the job. Like I couldn't believe it that when I stepped out or I stepped off on sick leave, I never heard from anyone. No, that's right. That's what happens. You don't hear from people because they don't care. You're part of the part of the brotherhood while you're in. But once you're out, those friendships that you have, that team that you're in while you're working, that's while you're working. But when you're no longer working, they're not there anymore. Yeah, they might contact you a few times to start off with and then they just fall away, and then you don't hear from them again. Now I'd accepted this as a cost of the job. But I want to talk about the difference that it makes when you step out of the job and step away. Because you don't realize a lot of things that have actually occurred. You don't realize it isn't until you're walking through a shopping center and talking to people in a shopping centre and that you start to think, God, I'm actually just engaging and chatting with these people. And I'm not standing here thinking, oh, what do they want from me? What is it they want? Oh, they want something. Oh, who's that over there? How come they're talking to me? Now, a good mate of mine recently, he was telling me, in fact, he's my best mate, and he was telling me that he went to see his chiropractor. Now, his chiropractor actually said to him, I haven't seen you for ages, and you've strolled in here today, and I can't believe the difference in you. You're like a different person. Now, he left at the same time or just around the same time as I did. And again, you don't realize the biological impact that the job has on you, the tension, how it tightens you up, tightens the muscles up, tightens you into, you know, creating all sorts of issues biologically in your body. You know, the Cairo would say to him when he was working, oh, this is tight, and I have to try and work it out, and he'd be back again the following week or the week after that. And oh God, this is you, you're so tight. And now he goes, he went, he hadn't been for nearly 12 months. And the Cairo goes, Oh my God, the difference in you is amazing. That is those jobs. That is stress. That's how you're accepting your new normal. Now the Cairo laughed at him and said, you know, that's you just tolerate it. You're like a different person, but you get used to that tension in your body. But that tension in your body is unhealthy. It is not good. It is impacting on you in a very big way. And that actually hit me because it's a very simple scenario, but it shows you how much the tension in your body takes control. Because that's what we do in these jobs. We tolerate, we endure, we normalize dysfunction in our bodies. And then what do we do? We defend it. Now, biology does not care about your identity. And here's the truth: your nervous system doesn't care about your badge, it doesn't care about your role, it doesn't care about your rank, your uniform. Chronic sleep restriction alters glucose metabolism. Shift work disrupts circadian biology. Repeated trauma exposure changes stress hormone patterns. Compassion fatigue is real and it is horrendous. No one talks about compassion fatigue, but compassion fatigue is the worse level than burnout. When someone says to you I'm burnt out, compassion fatigue is beyond that. It is very real. And if you don't believe me, look it up. I've actually done a podcast with Michelle Finnegan, Dr. Michelle Finnegan on um compassion fatigue. And it is really important that you understand, particularly as a nurse and in policing and also as a paramedic, it's important that you understand compassion fatigue. It is worse than burnout, and it needs early identifiers because it will really take its toll. Cynicism becomes a protective adaptation in us, and short temper is literally a stress response. And our gut dysfunction is common in shift workers. Oh, I've just got a bad gut. Oh, I've got a bad gut. Yeah, stress. As a certified nutritionist, when someone comes to me with gut dysfunction or gut problems, the first area I address with them is stress. You don't understand how much stress impacts on your gut health. That vagus nerve that runs, there's a gut brain axis that runs between your brain and your gut, and it's sending messages backwards and forwards all the time. When your head is stressed, your gut is stressed and it causes all sorts of problems. Now, these are not personality traits. What they are and what they've become is biological adaptations. And we call it oh, it's just the job, it's just shift work. The perception trap. When you're in it, you think, oh, this is just how people are. Then you start scanning every interaction for a threat. You wonder what it what is it that people want from me? What is it you want? You go into a cafe and you sit against the wall of the far wall so you can see the door. You're in shopping centers and you're hyper-vigilant, you're aware of everyone that's around you. You assume that there's an angle, you see the worst, and you forget something that's really important. When you're working, you're actually interacting with a fraction of a fraction of society. And when I stepped away, and I can vividly remember talking to an old squad mate of mine who'd been out for a good five years, and I said, Oh, I'm really worried about leaving and all the rest of it. He goes, Rog, let me tell you, you're going to absolutely love it with you, with your personality and who you are, you're going to love it. Having conversations with people and not thinking, what do they want? Having a laugh, chatting about life, instead of it being all about this bullshit that we deal with in the job. And I vividly remember that conversation, and it is so true what he told me on that day. And it isn't until you step out that you realize that once you start re-engaging with the broader community, you realize that the majority of society are actually decent. Most people are actually trying. And most people are kind. Now I can literally engage and chat and I have relationships with people without wondering what it is that they want from me. I can have conversation about life, ideas, growth, family, grandkids. Not just crime or trauma or the dysfunction of the job or bitching about the people at work. That shift was profound. But I couldn't see it while I was inside the machine. And going back, compassion fatigue is not a badge of honor. Compassion fatigue isn't weakness, it's actually cumulative exposure. You can't witness that much trauma without it leaving its mark. But here's the danger. If you accept emotional numbness as your new normal, you don't just blunt pain, you actually blunt joy, and you blunt connection and you blunt meaning. And then you wonder why you feel flat. And then it becomes about gambling or porn or alcohol or drugs or sex. Those sort of things are how you chase that dopamine hit. Now why does this matter? Now I'm not saying to leave your job. I'm not anti police, and I'm not anti healthcare, and I'm certainly not anti emergency services. I lived it. I loved it. I speak from lived experience. I don't speak from textbooks and I don't speak from theory. I get it, and I get you. But what I am saying is this do not accept that dysfunction as normal. Check in with yourself. Do not assume because everyone around you is tired, overweight, cynical, and wired, that it is actually healthy. It's common. But common is not the same as normal. So what is there that you can do? First of all, this is what I would tell people if I was standing in front of them on their very first day in the police academy or the day in uni as a nurse or whatever it is. If I got to address you on the first day, I would say you need a life outside of the job. You need real life. Not just collapsing on the couch, eating Doritos, smashing Doritos, and watching Netflix. What you need is people outside of your industry, conversations with others that are not centered on trauma, hobbies that are not linked to performance. Move for health, not for punishment. And treat sleep as a non-negotiable nutrition that supports your biology. And sometimes you need distance to actually see it clearly. You need boundaries. Don't go to work and then come out of work in these WhatsApp chats continually talking about work with colleagues. Because you are not leaving work and you're leaving yourself in a highly heightened state. Sometimes you need that distance just to see in. Sometimes you need time off to give your brain a break. Not just from putting the uniform on and doing the job to actually just having a mental break so you're not thinking about it. Sometimes you need perspective. Sometimes you need to step back enough to realize what it is that you are actually tolerating. Because when you're inside it, you can't see it. And I'm going to give you another piece of advice as well. Listen to your partners. Listen to what they are saying to you. It's not an attack. Don't think it is an attack. It is an observation. Your partners love you, they are with you, they know you better than anybody else. Listen to what they are saying to you. Because they're telling you the truth. They are closest to you. So ask them and then listen to them. Or listen to what it is they're saying when they do. Don't get snappy and bite back. Because all you're doing is proving the point. I want you to think about that. When someone pulls you up on something and you get resentful and you bite back, you aren't proving the exact point of what they're actually flagging. You're not tough. You're actually not listening. So if any of this feels really uncomfortable to you, good. Because what it means is you're actually reflecting. And I want you to ask yourself this question, please, I beg you. What have I accepted as normal that isn't? What symptoms have I actually explained away that on reflection are probably not right? And what parts of me have I actually let go when it comes to nutrition, when it comes to movement, when it comes to my health? Think about it. Because you can serve and you can perform, and you can be very professional, but you don't have to sacrifice your biology and your own humanity in the process. So let's finish it up there. Keep this in mind and think about it, because it's a really important thing for you to think about. And if this episode resonated with you, remember you got to the end of it. Leave a rating. Please leave a short review if you're on Apple. And if it helps another shift worker to find this, it helps someone else realize that they're not crazy, they're adapting. And adaptation is not always healthy. You'll hear from me in the next episode. Thanks for listening. Thank you for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you get notified whenever a new episode is released. It would also be ever so helpful if you could leave a rating and review on the app you're currently listening on. If you want to know more about me or work with me, you can go to ahealthyshift.com. I'll catch you on the next one.