Stress Relief

[Lithium]

What do you use as your stress relief from work? What sorts of coping skills do you find useful? Do you have someone you can talk to outside of EMS after a difficult call?

I'm curious what others do around the world ...

peace

[cosgrojo]

I ask my wife (school teacher) to tell me how her day was. Sometimes it is easy to lose perspective on how regular people live, and if I'm not reminded frequently, I can be a bit of an ass. I find it fascinating that I have no real idea what it is that normal people fret about, so I like to listen to it. My wife likes to talk, I like to listen, it calms me down.

I also read... alot.

[TechMedic05]

Good point about talking to 'normal' people. My dad always jokes about how he thinks my schedule is pathetic, and how much he'd love to do what I do. He just forgets he's a lot closer to six figures than I ever will be.

I drive. A lot. That's kind of why I don't mind living 88 miles from work, too. I commute once a week, 2 hours each way. It's a nice way to be completely and utterly distracted from everything else in the world, except the cars infront of you, the gradual hilly curves of Western NH, how soon to shift, and my feet cuddling the pedals. The 6 disk CD changer helps alot, too!

I like how diesel fuel in a car is theraputic. I also like the 47mpg I've been averaging :-D

[weasel 108]

I can talk to my wife.She is the greatest and a good listener. My wife had been in EMS for over 20 yrs,so I think that is a "+" ,because she understands the crap that I sometimes have to deal with. The crews that I work with are also a great bunch of people to talk to.

My stress relief is usually my "N" scale model trains that I do with my 2 sons.

[Goose]

I've picked up boxing it helps a lot. its more then just hitting a bag there's a lot to it. it takes my mind off work. fixing old cars is great to right now I'm doing body work on a 67 cougar. talkings good for a bit only if the other person understands what you need from them. i just need to vent sometimes don't really care if you have an opinion to fix or help.

[littlemomarose]

i talk to my family about how my day went and what happened because it makes me feel better

[EMSGeek]

Mixed martial arts and bowling. But not at the same time. That would be bad.

[mobey]

Here is a quick list of stress relief techniques related to EMS

-Retaliate against "the man" by filling out your PCR with roman neumerals.

-Next time your transporting a frequent flyer, drive to the ER in reverse.

-Bill the ER doc your wage for waiting time

-While on an emergency run pull up to someone and ask for directions using a fake language barier

-Use your mastercard to pay your Visa

-Jam 8 tiny marshmallows up your nose and try sneeze them out.

-Try to defibrilate your lifepak 12

-Warn your patient you have a rash that may be contagious

-Tell your next patient that thier your first "real" patient since you finished remedial EMT school last week!

In reality I spend too much time on EMTCity, that helps. I also tinker on old cars as someone else mentioned. I have found it is important to find something unrelated to EMS as a hobby, and make sure I have friends outside of EMS to get away from it sometimes.

[Medic26]

I do alot of fishing and hunting. Its nice to get out and have some peace, gives me time to just relax and forget about everything else for awhile. Everybody is different, but its nice to know you have something to look forward to doing when you leave after a horrible shift.

[AnthonyM83]

Gym, self-hypnosis, comedy DVDs/movies, hot showers, stretching/meditation stuff, relaxation tapes. Someone gave me the idea of changing fully in and out of uniform at the station, to make it feel like you're leaving the job back there and not taking it home with you.