Stress Center Peer Support

First off I have to tell you that I love, love, love my job from the first day I just fell in love with it. I work as a 911 operator/dispatcher, I love helping people and I love knowing that I am the first person they talk to when they need help. Down side this job doesn't really go well with someone who has health anxieties. I have this thing with projecting all the calls that I get, and some are really bad, into my life. For example, we live in the country on 40 acres and I refuse to let my kids have dirtbikes or 4 wheelers because I've taken the call where someone has wrapped it around and tree and is laying on the ground bleeding and dying. Or my new one is car accidents, my son just turned 15 and I refuse to let him get a license, once again I take that calls where the kids are racing, or goofing off and wreck and don't make it. My worst is the medical calls, they give me all the symptoms and sooner or later I start "having" those symptoms. I don't know what to do I really love what I do, but I don't see how I can balance the two, even with the program.

Paper Plate - first of all I would like to thank you for your service to the public. I know that is a very stressful, but also rewarding job. I have been a volunteer fireman for 19 years now, and also ran rescue, so I understand fully what you have to deal with, because I am the one out there to answer that call. I will say that it does affect the way I watch over my 2 sons, but I allow them to do the things that you don't. We raise them to make good decisions, and have to believe that they have been listening. I always remind them of the dangers of the 4 wheeler, but have to let them go. My personal theory has been that if God can't keep them safe, then I could not either. I want them to enjoy there childhood, and I don't want to be the one to deprive them of certain opportunities. We have to have faith, and trust them to do the right things. Good Luck and I hope this helped.

Dear Paper Plate:
I work in the health care field not as a first responder but as a dietitian treating dialysis patients. I have always had problems dealing with death as it relates to my parents. I am an only child and fear the time when my parents die and i am left by alone. So for years i distanced my self from them in order for the pain to be less when they did pass. What i realized through therapy is i had guilt issues. I felt guilty and like a bad daughter for pulling away and not expressing how much i cared for them. i didn't want them to think i was ungrateful but just thinking about them dying would send me crying. My therapist helped me realize that the pain will be just as intence when they pass whether i am close or not to them. I will feel guilty and regret i had years to spend with them and choose not to. So I let down my gaurd and told my parents this. My boyfriend also says without pain in our life we can not fully appreciate joy. this has been a hard theory for me to accept but i do. I hope you can work with your emotions towards your children realizing that they can be breathing and not breathing with nothing that is in our control. But you can control the joyfull times you spend with them now. You have tought your children safety techniques and now you have to give them space in order for them to show you what they know. that is apart of parenting. Sheltering has to be followed with freedom or else smothering and rebellion are close to follow.
Bluechicki