Tired of the anxiety associated with being a medic

[brd1883]

How do I stop the anxiety while working the truck. I've been a medic for 4 years and still feel unease while working. Constantly feeling like the next call will be something I can't handle or I'll mess up on a serious call and look stupid. Every time the tones drop my heart falls. Once the dispatcher reveals the call to be a routine one, I feel better but only after that happens.
This feeling makes me hate work. I want to be one of those people that is so confident that they're heart never races and no call has anymore effect on them than walking to the mailbox. I've mentioned this the more veteran medics I work with and they say you just gotta grow some balls and not worry about what's gonna happen. I work with terrible medics who I don't even know how they passed NR, but they don't have a care in the world. They all have the "whatever comes, comes" attitude. How do I get this? I'm assuming this is anxiety. Just always feeling unease and worried while at work. Any advice

 

[NomadicMedic]

Talk to a therapist. Situational anxiety can often be helped with therapy.

If not, maybe this isn't the job for you. No shame in it. It's not for everyone.

 

[k9Dog]

It will happen with time. Don't overthink it, just take the situation as it unfolds at the scene. Also, training. The more training and extra classes and extra time going over equipment and protocols the more confident you become. Some adrenaline with critical calls is normal. Also, stress in other areas of your life can magnify your work stress. Many medic, cops and firefighters turn to alcohol, antidepressants, etc to cope with different aspects of the job. Therapy is another option, but I think over the years the confidence will come.

 

[Chewy20]

I think over the years the confidence will come

I would think that confidence should be there after four years. Just saying though.

It's their emergency. Not yours. Do what you have been doing for the past 4 years. You'll be fine.

 

[k9Dog]

Everyone is different.. Some people take 5+ years I've seen to be completely comfortable, and some medics that are more high strung are always a little nervous even after decades. I agree, it's not my emergency. Don't want to sound like a ****, but if someone codes or has a STEMI it really isn't my problem, I will do my job, but such is life... This job isn't rocket science, there's only so much we can do and have to work with.

 

[Chewy20]

Bingo

 

[NomadicMedic]

Yeah, but after 4 years? The anxiety should be all but gone. Statistically, that's when burnout usually starts.

Again, there is nothing wrong with admitting that EMS may have been the wrong choice. A little bit of uncertainty is normal, but stomach dropping feelings of dread aren't. You shouldn't hate what you do.

 

[hogwiley]

I haven't been a medic one year and there are still 3 calls in particular I dread. Potentially serious peds calls. Woman in labor, and long psych transfers.

I had plenty of experience with the last one as a basic and I hated it from day one and it hasn't gotten any more enjoyable over the years. They generally fall into one of two categories. Boring as hell or uncomfortable as hell.

Getting some psych patients to do what you want them to do can be about as easy as herding cats. I'd rsi many of the squirrelly ones if I could.

 

[Seirende]

Talk to a therapist. Situational anxiety can often be helped with therapy.

If not, maybe this isn't the job for you. No shame in it. It's not for everyone.

This is a helpful reply. It contains good advice which is directly related to the question at hand. +1

I haven't been a medic one year and there are still 3 calls in particular I dread. Potentially serious peds calls. Woman in labor, and long psych transfers.

I had plenty of experience with the last one as a basic and I hated it from day one and it hasn't gotten any more enjoyable over the years. They generally fall into one of two categories. Boring as hell or uncomfortable as hell.

Getting some psych patients to do what you want them to do can be about as easy as herding cats. I'd rsi many of the squirrelly ones if I could.

This is the opposite of helpful. It is only tangentially related to the topic, contains no wisdom, and stigmatizes persons with mental illness. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your psych patients.

...Not that you can't improve, maybe experience will give you a bit more perspective.

 

[mgr22]

I agree with DEmedic. If you were just getting started in EMS, I'd say give it more of a chance. After four years, though, feeling so much anxiety and even dread about your job sounds like a signal to try something else. There's no shame in that, and it's not just an EMS thing. When I got out of school, I went to work on a production line, supervising 125-150 workers. I hated it, felt enormous, unrelenting anxiety, and accepted a transfer to a position that was a better fit after about 18 months. My quality of life improved greatly.

 

[Gurby]

How do I stop the anxiety while working the truck. I've been a medic for 4 years and still feel unease while working. Constantly feeling like the next call will be something I can't handle or I'll mess up on a serious call and look stupid. Every time the tones drop my heart falls. Once the dispatcher reveals the call to be a routine one, I feel better but only after that happens.
This feeling makes me hate work. I want to be one of those people that is so confident that they're heart never races and no call has anymore effect on them than walking to the mailbox. I've mentioned this the more veteran medics I work with and they say you just gotta grow some balls and not worry about what's gonna happen. I work with terrible medics who I don't even know how they passed NR, but they don't have a care in the world. They all have the "whatever comes, comes" attitude. How do I get this? I'm assuming this is anxiety. Just always feeling unease and worried while at work. Any advice

I think this comes with experience. You've been a medic for 4 years, but how many serious calls have you had? If you've just been doing pre-scheduled transfers your whole career, maybe you just haven't gotten enough experience yet to feel confident?

What call do you most dread to get? Try to mentally run yourself through that call a bunch of times and rehearse how you will handle it.

 

[hogwiley]

This is a helpful reply. It contains good advice which is directly related to the question at hand. +1


This is the opposite of helpful. It is only tangentially related to the topic, contains no wisdom, and stigmatizes persons with mental illness. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your psych patients.

...Not that you can't improve, maybe experience will give you a bit more perspective.

Fair enough, I admit the post just looked mean.

It stemmed from frustration over problems we've encountered with a couple of hospitals where crucial information isn't relayed to us and the patients werent managed properly prior to our arrival. There was a mentality to just get these patients out of there as quickly as possible. But the post did look bad and came after a tough shift involving one such transfer, but I don't mean to sidetrack from the OPs discussion.

 

[Seirende]

Fair enough, I admit the post just looked mean.

It stemmed from frustration over problems we've encountered with a couple of hospitals where crucial information isn't relayed to us and the patients werent managed properly prior to our arrival. There was a mentality to just get these patients out of there as quickly as possible. But the post did look bad and came after a tough shift involving one such transfer, but I don't mean to sidetrack from the OPs discussion.

I've had bad days too, I can understand speaking under stress.

My post stemmed from frustration with watching psych patients at times get blown off and treated as subhuman by otherwise decent providers. However, I can also understand frustration with the mental health system, as long as that doesn't translate to less than professional care for mental health patients.

 

[Akulahawk]

With mental health patients, I pretty much always gave them the choice of how they wanted to be treated. It pretty much always was something along the lines of "act like a decent human being and I'll treat you like a decent human being. Act like an animal and I'll treat you like an animal. Your choice." All but the most "out there" psych patients understood they had the choice and what the choice was. I have yet to be assaulted by a psych patient nor have I had to unnecessarily restrain them, and I had great cooperation with them simply because of that statement. Never force your own ideas on the patients, but instead let them know that their behavior drives your actions and do what you say.

Just be human with them and they'll usually be human back... even when they're seeing/hearing things that just aren't there and they're clearly responding to their own internal stimuli.

 

[JC2004]

Hey, brd1883. While it' possible that this job isn't for you, I don't think you're giving yourself enough credit. If what you say is true, you've been dealing with this for a while and you haven't given up! Good for you! I think some people are just prone to have a higher level of anxiety than others. It doesn't make you bad or ineffective at your job. I also recommend talking with a professional to help develop strategies for coping. As a paramedic/firefighter for 25 yrs, I've been coping with anxiety for almost 50. With trial and error, you're the only who will know what strategies will work for you. Believe it or not, I've found my anxiety to be a strength and not a weakness! It's pushes me to constantly both train and learn. Rather than each day be the same old thing, each day at work is exciting. I know plenty of medics almost half my age who claim to be "burnt out". I hope that makes sense. The most important thing is to not give up. Learn to control the anxiety and not let the anxiety control you! You'll do great!

 

[k9Dog]

Anxiety is a defense mechanism, those with anxiety likely lived longer in the caveman days and were more alert, careful etc. it's just not as helpful in modern society

Control your breathing, and think about the immediate moment, not the future or past.

 

[Underoath87]

Anxiety is a defense mechanism, those with anxiety likely lived longer in the caveman days and were more alert, careful etc. it's just not as helpful in modern society

Control your breathing, and think about the immediate moment, not the future or past.

I think you're confusing anxiety (which can be debilitating) with alertness. Anxiety far exceeds the degree of sympathetic activity (chronically, at least) that is useful or healthy

 

[k9Dog]

Underoath, you're incorrect. Anxiety, which stems from an overactive amygdala (your bodies alarm center) did in fact have benefits thousands of years ago. Stress and anxiety evolved for protective reasons. For instance, when a saber tooth tiger was near, the sympathetic nervous system would kick in causing pupil dilation, alertness, rapid heart rate, muscle tension, etc as catecholamines flooded the body. Today, when somebody cuts you off, you're sitting in traffic, etc, the same physiologic reaction occurs and its detrimental. It was once useful when we were living in tribes in the wild but in 2016 it's no longer beneficial.

 

[SeeNoMore]

OP we sound similar. Here are my thoughts :

1) Is this affecting your performance on the call? I can say honestly that most of my anxiety is prior to the tones and that after I am on the way to the call I feel much better , even if it is a sick kid, OB , bad Trauma etc. Somehow it's the time before that bothers me. If you are so nervous you are providing substandard care, it may be time to really ponder whether EMS is the best field for you.

2) That being said, no one is perfect. I feel like a lot of my anxiety comes from wanting to never make a mistake. I spend a lot of time going over every scenario in my head, wondering whether this will be the call I royally mess up and become a laughingstock. This kind of worry is just not realistic. As long as you keep in the books, generally perform well and learn from your mistakes you are doing as well as most of us. Don't be so afraid of messing up that you can't act or can't ever relax.

3) I have accepted that I will never be as relaxed as most others I work with. I try and use that anxiety in healthy ways. Practicing on the manikin, writing scenarios , studying, checking the equipment , and making cheat sheets for anything I worry about (knowing common RSI doses in ML by heart, peds doses , etc) Even if I know them it's helpful to run them through my head.

Good luck