Coping with Stress During a Call Month

Oh no not Jake writing another drawn out saga on how he can't handle the rigors of life. Nope not this time, had I written this last night that's what you might have gotten, but today I am post call and when I'm on a medicine month I suffer from bipolar disease. One day life sucks and nothing good can come of anything then the next day everything is peaches and cream. Today is, of course, peaches and cream.

So during some of my downtime (both downtime from work and downtime psychologically) last night I surfed the internet to find studies about resident burnout and depression. There's a little mnemonic that is often used for depression, SIGECAPS.
Sleep Disorder - check
Interest deficit - up for debate
Guilt - check (I feel guilty when I'm not studying during my downtime)
Energy deficit - check (this comes from the sleep disorder)
Concentration deficit - not really
Appetite Disorder - check, check (have I mentioned my 15 pound weight loss in July and again this month, if I can combine that with some exercise I might actually get down to a healthier weight come June)
Psychomotor retardation or agitation - check (very agitated, and I often feel retarded in rounds)
Suicidality - check (just kidding).

So how can I cope with this stress? The internet had answers for me! What did people do before google? One article said the following 5 categories were essential for maintaining wellness.

1. Relationships: this category includes relationships with friends, family, colleagues, and community;

2. Religion/spirituality: this includes involvement in organized religion as well as meditation or prayer;

3. Self-care: make time to take care of you! This category includes hobbies, exercise, good nutrition, avoidance of drugs and alcohol, personal counseling and treatment of depression. Don't forget to have fun!

4. Work: we need to find ways to make our work more meaningful and satisfactory for ourselves. Ideas include suggesting shift schedules that are more circadian friendly, adopting a night float system, debriefing difficult cases with others at work, and planning wellness events with other residents; and

5. Approaches to life: it's important to be generally positive about the journey you are on, maintaining balance, and focusing on your successes.Each of us is different, but here are some quick ideas for enhancing your personal wellness:

• Develop a personal philosophy and prioritize your goals;
  
  
• Maintain healthy relationships and set aside time with those people to talk about your feelings;
  
  
• Take care of yourself by eating right, exercising, sleeping when you can, and doing the things that make you YOU!
  
  
• Find something about each day that brings you joy, including joy at work, such as a positive patient interaction or learning pearl;
  
  
• Block off times in your schedule for important things such as family time, exercise, or social events, and make sure you prioritize them;
  
  
• Appreciate your accomplishments and growth during this time;
  
  
• Learn to say "no" to commitments that are not important to you (although they may be important to someone else), so that you can say "yes" to those that are important to you; and
  
  
• Learn where your resources are and don't hesitate to use them.

After looking at this list I realize that the first two categories and the last two ideas are pretty easy for me it's those 9 items in the middle that I seem to have trouble with.

Now I know not too many of you who read this blog are residents (excepting Jon of course), but I'm sure all of you probably deal with stress in your lives too. In addition to that you are probably good at a few of the 9 things in the middle of the list. So if you feel so inclined I'm curious to know how you (or those you know) do well at those things, especially during the winter months.