THE WORST CRITICAL INCIDENTS

Hey there.  I have been involved with critical incidents for twenty years now because of my experience in the EMS, and for the last 13 years because of my education, experience, and expertise in CISM (Critical Incident Stress Managment).  If you are in the Emergency Service, a common question that is probably posed to you is, "What is the worst thing you have ever seen?"

According to the Emergency Medical Field, the top ten worst, or Terrible Ten are...

1.  Suicide of a colleague
2.  Line of duty death
3.  Serious line of duty injury
4.  Disaster/MCI
5.  Witnessed Police shooting and/or killing or wounding someone
6.  Significant event with children
7.  Relatives of known victims
8.  Prolonged incident especially with loss
9.  Excessive media interest
10.Any powerful and significant event deemed by the participant

According to the Law Enforcement Agencies the Terrible Ten are...

1.  Line of duty death
2.  Suicide of a colleague
3.  Serious work related injury
4.  Multi-casualty/disaster/terrorist event
5.  Events with a high degree of threat to the organizations personnel
6.  Significant events involving children
7.  Events in which the victim is known to the organizations personnel
8.  Events with excessive media interest
9.  Events that are prolonged and end with a negative outcome
10.  Any significant powerful, overwhelming event

This information is compiled via SOP's (Standard Operations Procedures) from several different agencies.

From my experience, and documentation, from the last 20 years, I have found to be the worst as follows...

1.  Death of a coworker who was a very good friend.
2.  Suicide of a coworker who was a very good friend.
3.  Responding on a call to a coworker, which resulted in a death.
4.  Very gruesome, multi-victim, high profile media case, with children involved.
5.  Responding to a family member that resulted in death.
6.  Responding to a coworker that involved serious illness, or injury.
7.  Responding to a call involving an acquaintance that resulted in death.
8.  Multi-victim death, high profile media case, with several witnesses to the call.
9.  Traumatic death of a child similar to own child's age.
10.Serious line of duty injury.

Why do I say that these are the worst?  It is because I have seen these incidents transpire personally, the majority of them I have done the actual intervention, and the worst is displayed by the lack of recovery by the individuals involved.  This is just my personal experience and humble opinion. 

Why do I post the Terrible Ten?  It is because I have seen, and still see, others who have not recovered from these types of incidents, and I want people to know that recovery is possible.  I know, with all my heart and soul, with out any doubt, that we can recover from these types of events.

If you do need recovery, what do you need recovery from?  When people suffer from critical incidents that affect them, they suffer from primarily emotional disarray like anger, anxiety, apprehension, depression, grief, guilt, irritability, panic, or moodiness.  They also suffer from cognitive disharmony like denial, difficulty making decisions, difficulty solving problems, disturbed thoughts, hyper-alertness, intrusive images, lack of faith in life, others, and oneself, lack of the ability to focus, memory loss, nightmares, or poor concentration.  Finally, they suffer from behavioral disorganization like avoidance, blaming, decrease/increase in appetite, decrease/increase in sleeping patterns, difficulty articulating, increase in alcohol/caffeine/drugs use/nicotine use, outburst, poor hygiene, restlessness, or withdrawal.

If you suffer from any of these difficulties, there is recovery.  What is recovery?  It is the act of returning to normal, or better yet, returning to yourself.

These signs and symptoms are not who you are!  When you overcome, or recover, from unhealthy reactions that are manifesting in your life, you destress yourself.

If you need help, email me, I would love to hear from you and help you in any way I can.  elizabethstanfill@gmail.com

;0)

Some things to think about.

BIG HUGS...

Elizabeth

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WHY I AM NOT A THERAPIST!

Hello there.  HAPPY NEW YEAR! Am gonna keep saying that for the whole month.

As we embark on our New Year and become New again, I would like to talk a lil about myself.  How vein!  I know. ~giggle

I love to serve, I love to help, and I love to show people their greatest potential especially when they have never seen it.  I love to bring people from crisis to calm, I love to help people overcome burnout and create happiness, energy, and vitality, and I love to assist people in discovering how to eliminate their stress with permanent stress relief.

I do not love therapists and I do not have a whole lotta confidence in the therapy process.

There are several reasons why I am not a therapist and why I am not a lover of the therapy.  It all began back when I was getting my Masters in Counseling at the Uni.  As I was completing my Masters Program, I was lucky enough to participate in an internship at the Counseling Center at the Uni, and this is what I discovered...

Most people who go to counseling, in my experience, do not want to help themselves.  There are about one in ten that will not take the victim stance and really focus on improving their situation.  That is only 10%.  In addition, I believe with all my heart and soul, that people who go to Counseling are having a hard time with life because they just never learned how to handle the stress of life.  No one taught them how to relieve their stress, and so they get in a place of trouble.

About the victim stance.  What I mean by this is, when someone is having a hard time with life but won't look at themselves and their personal challenges. They tend to blame others and life for their misfortune.  They sometimes get so caught up in their anger, anxiety, and/or depression they cannot, and will not believe they can do anything about it because they believe it is the fault of others, and the faulty world they live in.

Another reason for my reasons is most students who want to become Therapists are really unsound themselves.  It is my humble opinion, and experience, that the students that I knew in school had their own issues to deal with, were still quite adolescent, and usually didn't like themselves or their clients.  How can you help your clients if you are troubled and you don't even like your clients?

Another reason for my reasons is, most teachers that are teaching people to be Therapists are dubious and perplexed.  Now this again is only my opinion.  The sad part about all of this is I use to look up to Professors and thought they were brilliant until I really got to know some of mine during my Masters.  OUCH!  Harsh, I know.

Another reason, most Therapists are unbalanced.  Again, my opinion.  As a student in the Counseling Program, I had to participate in my own counseling for 30 hours.  Lord have mercy, it was not an easy task to find one that didn't have issues.  The really good ones, that were referred, were all booked up, and weren't available for the entire year.

Searching for my own therapist took about thirteen tries.  When I would call the Therapist to make an appointment, I had certain questions that I would ask to make sure they would meet my criteria.  The majority of them got offended or became arrogant like, "How dare you ask me that."  Crazy, huh?

To me, arrogance is ignorance, and getting offended when someone asks you a question is quite adolescent.  It is totally appropriate and professional to ask questions, it is called communicating.

One last thing.  The Uni neglected to tell me, and I failed to find out, that a Therapist makes thousands of dollars less than I was already making.  All though this is a disappointment, totally my fault, money is not the factor in my decision on helping people, it is a good side note though. 

Now, I am not a Therapist just because of the lack of money, I am not a Therapist mostly because I really want to serve and I really want to help people.  If people who come to therapy need ways to relieve stress but don't really want help, I don't see how I can accomplish my mission.  When I am financially strapped, I don't necessarily see how I can progress and help others either. 

This is all my choice, and my opinion.  No offense to the good Therapists out there.  You know who you are.

MY DISCLAIMER...  I do believe that there are good therapists out there, and I do believe that therapy can help, it's just not for me, and the above statement is just me utilizing my freedom of expression of my opinion.

Why am I telling you all of this?  Because I want you to know a lot about me and because what I do is not therapy, it is education.

Moreover, maybe you need help with your situation and I want you to see, if you are having a hard time with life, it may just be that you haven't mastered the art of stress relief.  When you are in the Emergency Field, you can see things that are so abnormally out of the ordinary, your mind may have a very difficult time dealing with, and enduring it.

Additionally, many people who come to me for help take the victim stance, in that they believe that they cannot do anything about their situation because of others' behaviors, and how horrible life is.  If that is true for you, you must know, there are thousands of people that I know of, and probably millions out there, who are doing business with some serious stress and are learning to destress themselves by looking at their own thoughts, feelings, and actions and trading them for more successful ones. 

Their are a couple of people that call or text me, now and again, who take the victim stance, and for the life of me, I want to help them but, like addicted individuals, you can't help someone if they won't let you.  They want their external circumstances to change, and will not change themselves within.  They want to call me and wallow in their misery, instead of doing something about it.  They know everything, they are unwilling to listen to anyone else and their point of view, and they don't want to do anything for their self-improvement.

Sounds like I am complaining.  Maybe I am, maybe I'm not but, what I say is all true, in my opinion ;0)  Being the victim is not bad, it is quite normal, because we all do it, just some do it more than others.  We all do the victim dance in certain circumstances.  I am like that on certain things, and I was one of the worst victims in my past.  Some how, some way, I saw the light, and I am a lot less victimy than I use to be. ~giggle

Those who are willing to help themselves can make a better life.

If you are having a hard time with life, your career, your relationship, or any other aspect of being, and you want it to get better, I invite you to email me, and see what we can do.  I would love to hear from you and help you in any way I can.

elizabethstanfill@gmail.com

Elizabeth

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Destress Yourself By Eliminating Doubt And Creating Faith

I would like to ask you if you believe you can?  What I mean is, do you believe that you have the ability to accomplish any goal you set your mind to, with ease and comfort?

Ask yourself, "Do I have the ability to accomplish any goal I set my mind to, with ease and comfort?

I BELIEVE!!!  I believe you do and I believe I do.

In order to accomplish any goal that we set, we must believe that we can.  So many people set goals and never accomplish them because deep down inside their self-confidence and self-esteem are so low that they do not believe it is possible.

It may sound simple and it may sound silly but it is true.

When you say to yourself, "I have the ability to accomplish any goal I set my mind to, with ease and comfort."  Do you think and feel like you do?  Do you think and feel that this is true?

A big part of Destressing Yourself is eliminating doubt and creating faith in yourself, others, and in life.

So, when you make the statement above you should believe it, believe that you can.  If you don't believe that you can, say to yourself, "I have the ability to accomplish any goal I set my mind to, with ease and comfort."

Now, write it down, memorize it, say it to yourself often, and say it until you believe it.

Do this my friend, and I guarantee, if you don't believe it, you will.  You gotta have faith!

If you would like to learn more about having faith in yourself, others, and in life, please join me for our FREE Teleclass this month on meditations, affirmations, and visualization.  These three habits will help you accomplish any goal you set your mind to.  In addition, these habits will assist you in increasing your self-confidence.

Meet you there!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Don't forget to have fun and be playful!

Please email me if you have any questions, I would love to hear from you.

If you have not, please add me as a friend on facebook, Elizabeth M. Stanfill.

Elizabeth Stanfill
destressyourself.com
destressyourself.blogspot.com
661-877-7800
elizabeth@destressyourself.com

ANGER AND IRRITABILITY IN THE EMERGENCY FIELD

Anger and Irritability in the Emergency Field


When I was in my twenties, I worked as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT) for a very prestigious private ambulance company. This company was very hard to get into, compared to the other companies. It was so hard to get into that no one else in my graduating class of EMT's made it in, I was the only one, and I was very lucky.

The only unfortunate thing about this company was that I was the only female. Back in those days, many men did not like females in the Emergency Field. Needless to say, there were many very cranky individuals. Looking back, and knowing what I know about stress now, I realize that many of those cranky individuals were not cranky because of me. Those individuals were cranky because they were miserable people.

Now that I am in my forties, as I look back through my years in the Emergency Field, as an EMT and as a Counselor, I realize that misery is a habit, a very stressful habit.

As I look back there were EMT's, Paramedics, Emergency Room Nurses, Emergency Room Doctors, Police Officers, and Fire fighters that were very angry and irritable. Matter of fact, I remember thinking to myself, when I first started in the field, that there were more angry and irritable people in the Emergency Field than in the general population.

I use to ask myself, "why are there so many angry emergency personnel?"

That is an excellent question, don't you think? This is not to demean or criticize Emergency Personnel, it is to discuss possibilities so that we can create solutions for those who are having a hard time with anger and irritability.

There are one of two reasons why people in the Emergency Field are angry or irritable. The first reason is that they were that way before they became a first responder. The second reason is, something happened to cause them to change who they were. What I mean by that is, something happened, whether it was a traumatic call, a critical incident, or a habit they picked up from another worker or partner, that made them angry and irritable when they were a happier person previously.

If you are in the Emergency Field and you are angry, moody, or irritable, I know from personal experience that it can be fixed. If it really matters to you why you are angry or irritable then you should definately find out. It is not necessary to know the cause to overcome it.

Although, if you have Acute Stress Disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it may help to know the source of your emotional state so that the process of healing may move forward.

Never the less, if you want to overcome your negative emotional state, it is totally possible. The way we react emotionally is a habit and much like an addiction. A habit is something that we do, that is hard to stop, or we don't want to stop. An addiction, in my mind, is something that we do, that we do not believe we need to quit, or we do not believe we can quit.

The best way to change a habit or overcome an addiction is through information and education. In my store, on my website, there are many different audios that you can download that will help you learn to overcome anger or irritability.

We have free podcasts about Basic Stress Management, Critical Incident Stress Management, and Stress Relief for the Emergency Personnel.

Learning Deep Relaxation is very helpful because with practice you can learn to relax anywhere at anytime. Deep Relaxation is a very successful practice.

We have audios that help with creating positive emotions like feeling gratitude and feeling love, that will assist in overcoming the negative emotions of anger.

We also have an audio on learning to destress yourself in a minute, another exercise, when pracitced often, that will create a successful practice in order to overcome stressful habits.

And finally, our most popular audio, How to Destress Yourself. This audio is a four part class. It is designed for economic, as well as time convenience. This audio will help with basic and advanced stress management so that happiness, energy, and vitality may be created. This class helps individuals understand and overcome many negative emotions.

Well, I hope that is helpful...

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns please email me elizabeth@destressyourself.com

or

comment below...

Have a great day! Have a great week! Have a great month! Have a great year! And most of all, have a great life. You got the power.

Don't forget to have fun and be playful, it's in your nature.

Elizabeth