DESTRESS FOR EMERGENCY PERSONNEL

One of the most common signs of stress among the emergency service, besides denial, is unhappiness. There are fire fighters, paramedics, police officers, and EMT's that are truly unhappy.

What is the cause of this unhappiness? It's different for everyone, and in the Emergency Field, it comes and goes in phases. It may be caused by problems at home, problems at work, or it may be caused from a recent critical incident.

If you are unhappy something must be done because life is full of joy. Many emergency personnel enjoy life but there are those times that are just overwhelming and then we get stuck in that rut.

So what can one do? We can learn to destress which really means to create a stress free life. One must evaluate where the stress is coming from and then search for the solution.

One of the things I propose is never ending goal setting. What I mean by this is, pinpoint the problem and then work on the solution. The solution is your goal. If you have money problems then the goal is to solve it. If you have health problems then the goal is to solve it. If you have relationship problems then the goal is to solve it.

Often times we know how to solve our problems and the only reason we don't work towards solving them is because we do not focus on it. In other words, we do not set a goal to focus on it.

Spend time on yourself and set goals to solve your stress and if you need help seek it.

An obstacle in relieving stress in the Emergency Field is many individuals do not, and will not seek help. It has been said, the number one sign of stress in First Responders is denial. 

As heros, we help others, and tend to believe we don't need help because if we do then something is wrong with us.

One must look at the evidence. If you are angry, anxious, and/or depressed for long periods of time or out of proportion to the things happening in your life, it may not be normal for you. It may not be normal for anyone. If it doesn't seem normal, it is a really good indicator you may need help.

My graduate studies were in Marriage, Family, and Child Counseling but I believe in self-help via bibliotherapy more than I believe in therapy. Maybe because I was a first responder for twenty years. 

I'm not saying therapy doesn't work, I'm saying I don't believe in it for me. I've read and studied many spiritual books, including the Bible, and I found more healing and relief that way than talking to a therapist who doesn't have much inclination as to what we may be going through due to special circumstances in the EMS.

The greatest advice I can, or could give anyone suffering from stress is you got to be able to notice you have stress, and you got to be able to focus on the solution.

The next advice is please seek consultation with your Private Medical Doctor, it may be you need medication to help you. I believe in the assistance of medication because I've seen it help many heal emotionally, mentally, and physically.

With the help of your PMD, and focusing on the solution, relief is sure to come.

Examples of solutions are:

For anger, the solution can be peace.

For anxiety, the solution can be calm, confidence.

For depression, the solution can appreciation.

Simple, but not necessarily easy.

These solutions are of course more complex than the phrases provided above but we are habitual beings, and if we practice anger, anxiety, or depression, we can, and will become experts because practiced habits makes things permanent. Therefore, if we intentionally practice the opposite, we can become experts with permanent habits, as well.

The application and practice is how we become great at anything. Just think about art, driving, and sports. At first, we must learn the skills, and after application and practice, if we want to, we can be experts.

I'm a professional because I get paid but, I am an expert because I have a high success rate. 

It takes application, education, and practice to become experts at anything, including calm, confidence, with inner peace, which happens to be the opposite of stress.

I've talked to EMT's, Fire Fighters, Paramedics, Police Officers, and Military Personnel and some understand they are stressed, and some are in great denial. The question is, are you happy? If no, then you may have high levels of stress. If yes, you are probably alright unless people are telling you that you are not. Then the next question is, is your anger, anxiety, depression, irritability, or moodiness out of control?

Just some words of healing to think about, I'm sending out into the Universe, if you need it because a lot of people are buying up the book I wrote on EMS Stress.

To your healing, if you need it!

Take care...

Elizabeth Stanfill

READ EMS STRESS FOR 
EMT'S & PARAMEDICS

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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OF COURSE IT'S STRESS!!!

If something is wrong with your physical body, there is a high probability that you are stressed.  Stress is the number one cause of EVERY illness.  Stress lowers the immune system.

What causes stress?  Most people think that stressful events cause our stress but actually, what causes stress is how we react to and think about the event.

For example, death is a very stressful event, wouldn't you say?  What causes the level of stress, in this situation, really depends on how a person reacts to and thinks about death.  If one person thinks that there is no life, NOTHING, after death and he or she will never see their deceased loved one again, their stress level will be significantly high.  If another person thinks that there is life after death and they will see their deceased loved one again, after their own death, their stress level will be significantly lower than the first individual.  We must also take into account how well the person deals with stress.

I have recently seen this particular reaction.  Recently, two friends of mine have experienced the death of a close loved one.  The first person, we will call him Fort (I don't know anyone named Fort, he he he), lost his spouse, and the second person, we will call him Hub (I don't know anyone named Hub either, ha ha ha), lost his long-time significant other (never married in other words).  Fort has a strong faith in the plan of salvation, believes in eternal marriage, and handles stress very well.  Hub, on the other hand, has faith in God, but not a very strong faith, and is horrible at handling stress. 

Immediately during and after each funeral service Fort was strong and happy, celebrating his deceased spouse's life and Hub was very miserable, and displaying illnesses like headaches and abdominal problems.  There is a lot more to these stories than what I have shared but the foundation of it all is this; Fort has faith and handles stress well therefore, his stress was very low.  Hub has not so strong faith and handles stress not so good therefore, his stress level is high and he sustained illnesses.

The purpose of this post is to show you that 1) your level of stress is not caused by your situation 2) your level of stress is caused by how you think about your situation (FAITH) and how you react to your situation and 3)  stress does, and will, cause severe illnesses if you do not learn how to destress yourself. 

If you are dealing with a physical illness, I know that if you learn how to destress yourself (which just means to think and react differently than you do to stressful situations) you can overcome your illness, I know this because I have seen it happen time and time again.  Many people have come to me with headaches, stomach problems, muscle aches, anxiousness, sadness, neck pain, back pain, and many many other problems, and once they learned to destress they overcame!  On the same note, many people never learn to overcome their stressful habits of doubt, fear, and worry and they continue to sustain their illnesses and they get worse.

YOU GOT THE POWER!  YOU CAN LEARN TO DESTRESS YOURSELF AND CREATE GREAT HEALTH, HAPPINESS, ENERGY, AND VITALITY!  I AM A WITNESS TO THAT!

CLICK HERE FOR EMS STRESS BOOK

FREE Learning To Relax Audio

Hey everyone,

I just posted my last Teleclass, Learning To Relax, for FREE at destressyourself.com.

Check it out, you can listen now or right click to download it to your computer.

I hope you enjoy....


Elizabeth

DESTRESS FOR THE EMS TELECLASS INFORMATION FOR APRIL

Please join us this Wednesday morning, at 6 am Pacific time/9 am Eastern, April 29, 2009, for our Destress for the EMS (Emergency Medical Service) Teleclass. We will talk about how we can Destress by discussing our stressful habits that we have and turning them into successful practices.

Dial in Number 1-309-946-5100

Access code 205356#

Please be on time for class because there are limited number of lines. Although this class is free, long distance charges apply. If you miss this class, it will be available in our store within a few days for a small fee.

I am very excited about this class because stress in the EMS is very common and there is no reason anyone should not live with happiness, energy, and vitality. This is gonna be fun! I can't wait!

Just a reminder, the majority of Destress Yourself Products, in our store, will be 50 to 75% off for limited time. Enjoy!


Elizabeth

ACUTE STRESS DISORDER; DEFINITION

Acute stress disorder develops within one month after an individual experiences or sees an event involving a threat or actual death, serious injury, or physical violation to the individual or others, and responded to this event with strong feelings of fear, helplessness or horror. The diagnosis was established to identify those individuals who would eventually develop post-traumatic stress disorder. As far back as World War I this condition was referred to as "shell shock," in which there are similarities between reactions of soldiers who suffered concussions caused by exploding bombs or shells and those who suffered blows to their central nervous systems. Civilians may also suffer from it. More recently, ASD was brought to light as it became clear that for a short period, people might exhibit PTSD-like symptoms immediately after a trauma.

Trauma has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, trauma refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound or shock. This definition is often associated with trauma medicine practiced in emergency rooms and represents a popular view of the term. Psychiatrically, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful or shocking, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.

Psychiatric trauma, or emotional harm, is essentially a normal response to an extreme event. It involves the creation of emotional memories about the distressful event that are stored deep within the brain. In general, it is believed that the more direct the exposure to the traumatic event, the higher the risk for emotional harm. Thus in a school shooting, for example, the student who is injured probably will be most severely affected emotionally; and the student who sees a classmate shot or killed is likely to be more emotionally affected than the student who was in another part of the school when the violence occurred. But even secondhand exposure to violence can be traumatic. For this reason, all children and adolescents exposed to violence or a disaster, even if only through graphic media reports, should be watched for signs of emotional distress.

Sources:

• American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
• Anxiety and Its Disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (Guilford Press)
• Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• American Journal of Psychiatry
• Journal of Anxiety Disorders
• Journal of Traumatic Stress
• Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
• War Psychiatry: Textbook of Military Medicine
• Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• National Institute of Mental Health
• National Center for PTSD
• Department of Health & Human Services

January Destress for the EMS Teleclass

This week I will be teaching the DESTRESS FOR THE EMS teleclass this Wednesday, January 28, 2009, at 7 a.m. Pacific time. All teleclasses are free, for now, and can be accessed by signing up for our free weekly newsletter.

This is one of my favorite classes to teach. I was an emergency responder for many years, I taught Critical Incident Stress Management, I responded to Critical Incidents for first responders as a peer counselor, I trained hundreds of emergency personnel to become peer counselors, and therefore I know how important stress management is for the emergency services.

It is not an easy thing to get Emergency Services Personnel to deal with there stress because they are the hero's and they are not suppose to have weaknesses. Many come to me privately. The only reason I say this is because I would want someone to come to me privately and confidentially because it is better than not getting any help at all.

I love what I do and I am excited for this week. I have taught so many of these classes that I cannot count and yet I still love doing it because I know it makes a difference.

By the way, all of our teleclasses will be one hour earlier next month due to multiple requests from the east coast as well as the west coast.

Have a great week and don't forget to have fun and be playful because it is in your nature.

Elizabeth