10-74
In the state of Maine where I work this 10code is one that makes every dispatchers heart stop, their stomach turn, and every officer in the area drop whatever they are doing and run code blindly to help... 10-74 OFFICER IN DISTRESS AND IN NEED OF EMERGANT ASSISTANCE.
However on the flip side there is no 10Code for when a dispatcher is in distress. No one comes rushing to our aid when we are drowning. We are a rare bread that is expected to swallow it all and move on to take the next call, handle the next teletype, answer all the radio traffic in a timely manner. So how do we survive? How do we keep going when it all seems impossible? Its unspoken but well known between dispatchers that we swallow it as best we can and keep moving until shift is over, but what happens after we log out? A quote from Grey's Anatomy that hits hard in these times from the character April Kepner is " No you can't pause, because in real life the trauma doesn't stop..." Nothing is more true in this profession. Some centers have the luxury of more than one person on at a time so you can take a quick break, walk a lap around the station or parking lot, get a sip of water away from the desk but you are expected to come back and do it all over again. Then there are those centers that you can't its just you and the phones alone for 8, 10 maybe 12+ hours. I have now worked in both environments and I can honestly say for me it doesn't matter if there are 4 other people in the room or I'm alone with my thoughts the whole shift nothing changes the state of distress until I clock out and know I am DONE answering calls and radios for the day. Then what?
Depends on who you are. Some go get a after work stiff drink at their favorite watering whole, some take the longest hottest shower imaginable, others might go straight to bed skip the shower and any food all together. In my 3.5 years I've done it all, I've poured a way to big glass of wine as soon as I get home. I've jumped into the shower hoping as I physically wash away the day that some how it will also scrub away the pain, suffering and the STRESS I experienced. More times than I'd like to admit in the beginning of my career I came home and didn't even get undressed just flopped onto my made bed and passed right out because I was emotionally and mentally spent after a harrowing 16 hour shift, only to wake up a little bit later to find that one of my loved ones had checked on me at some point and took my shoes off and covered me with a throw blanket as I slept like the living dead.
At some point, I looked at my self in the mirror getting ready for work I saw what the stress was doing to me, the 25lbs weight gain, the dark circles under my eyes, the thinning hair. I knew there needed to be a better way, I had to make a change and manage it better. That is when I started reading studies about stress on the body and how to manage it. I found that exercise is the most underutilized stress management tool out there. I found moving my body, weather it be hoping in the pool and swimming laps or hitting the gym and lifting weights made me feel so much better almost lighter in a sense. The stress that weighs on my mind and my body lifted, I arise as a new woman.
When we are in distress our bodies will release cortisol. That's just a fancy medical term for sugar. In stressful situations our brain and body uses the extra sugar release as a super boost in the moment to think and fuel our fight, flight or freeze response. This is vital for human survival, if you are an officer or a firefighter in a stressful situation this energy boost is helpful. However in the dispatch setting not so much, we aren't in a foot pursuit chasing a suspect or hauling 80lbs of gear and hose up 3 flights of stairs. We aren't physically burning the sugars at a high rate by exerting ourselves, we are sitting (or standing) at a console not in dangers way. As adults we all know sugar = energy (that's why we don't give our own kids candy close to bed time or they will be wired and bouncing off the walls), when we don't burn off that energy we have trouble sleeping, we get the dark circles and baggy eyes. We all learn in middle school health class sugar not burned gets stored as fat, hence the weight gain. ITs all cause and effect. Cortisol is released, that's the cause and sometimes we cant help it, the effect comes from not properly getting rid of it from our system.
When you feel stressed, do what you can to move within your shift. Take that break from the desk if its something you can do, and if not when you get off shift take the long way to your car, go to the gym and lift weights or even just spend 15 minutes on a bike or the treadmill walking. Moving even in a light to moderate way will burn off the excess cortisol. I try not to promise anything in this line of work but I will promise this... YOU WILL FEEL BETTER. After you have done so go ahead and take that long HOT shower, and climb into bed for that well deserved rest, just move first don't let it settle.
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