My Story - Police to Fire to Unemployed

DEEP BREATH…Hold…Exhale

The Beginning

Breathe 911.  

This idea was birthed out of a desire to see first responders find healing from the repeated trauma that they have experienced on the job.  While we, as first responders are really good at taking action in emergency situations that we’ve been trained to handle, we have not all been trained or discovered how to handle the repeated trauma we experience in healthy ways.  One of the reasons is, everyones path to dealing with their “issues” comes in a different form and it would be impossible to facilitate that scope of training.  A second issue is that we take on historically bad practices which can include binge drinking, drugs, and other OCD habits. 

My background is as follows: I spent the first 5 years of my professional life as a Police Officer.  After that I transitions to a career as a full time Firefighter.  During covid we decided as a family to sell everything we owned and become a full time RVing family.  I took a leave of absence which quickly turned into me quitting from the Fire Dept.   As we’ve transitioned as a family out of the “normal” life we lived, out of my career as a professional firefighter and out of living in one location, I’ve had to come to grips with a few things I was uncomfortable with the biggest one was that I no longer wanted to be a firefighter.  Over the last 2 years I’ve definitely had to deal with some identity issues that have come my way.  Covid caused us as a family to make a lot of what some would consider “drastic” decisions.  In all this and through the years I’ve realized how I’ve overcome a lot of the trauma and hard things I’ve seen and dealt with as a first responder (15 years worth).  The methods I’ve used have been consistent at times, sporadic at other times, but have overall helped me in amazing ways overcome the repeated trauma and develop healthy outlets and means to deal with it.  I think as first responders we always want to help, fix and make things better, and we don’t always know how to do that for ourselves.   We can sometimes take on unhealthy habits and routines that compound the underlying problems over the long run.  

With that being said welcome to Breathe 911.  This is a place for you to find resources and community.  On our website you will find resources for first responders to deal with mental health and improve physical and cognitive performance.  I am not a Doctor, Counselor or Mental Health expert.  I am here to share my story and the story of my friends who have overcome adversity to claim their lives back.  

This is a place for you to find community and discuss the benefits of different methods to deal with trauma and increasing your performance.  And while we want to deal with trauma we also want to live an exceptional life after we’ve dealt with it.  We explore how breath work like the Wim Hoff Method, XPT, meditation, and physical exercise has helped me and how it can improve our mental state and capacity for a better life.  We also dive into how cold therapy and Sauna have played a significant role in my past and present routines and what the research says about them.  And just so we’re all clear my personality will probably lead us down all sorts of other rabbit holes.    

I would love to discuss some of the “therapies" that I’ve used in my treatment.  While this isn’t the place to get lost in “talk therapy”, or commiserate and start navel gazing, I believe there’s a huge need for some therapies and have had experience with some good and some not so good methods and practitioners.  I feel is important to remind you again that I’m not a mental health expert, I’m just speaking from my experience. 

There are lots of different ways to treat our trauma and we will all have different roads to healing, my goal is to be another method available to you.   

So this is the kick off, this is the place that if you’re a first responder, military member, or dispatcher  who has experienced trauma, PTSD, or just felt sad/angry or mad (which if you’ve been in the game I know you have) this is where we meet.  I want to hear from you, I want to share your story to help others, and I want to help provide resources and experts to help us all live a better life.  The sacrifice is always worth it, but maybe we don’t have to sacrifice as much as we think.  

Welcome to Breathe 911.  You belong here.  Please send me an email to connect, to chat, to tell me you story or if you have any questions.  I’d love to hear from you.  [email protected]  

Or connect with me on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/darrenjanzen

If you need resources or would like to learn more check out the rest of the site. 

https://www.breathe-911.com

I’d love to hook you up with my free Breathe/Hydrate/Sleep guide which is a great starting point for you to start taking control of you health and your life. 

You can get that here:

Breathe/Sleep/Hydrate

DEEP BREATH…Hold…Exhale 

Darren