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EDITOR'S PAGE
Dan O'Connor
Addicted to Stress?
You're in the right job if you get a high from stressful situations.
I
'll admit it, I'm a stress junkie, hooked on deadlines — and pretty much
useless without one — and used to living a life with not enough hours in
the day and a to-do list that's too long. What about you? Do you like stress
a little too much? Get off on it even? You're hardly alone.
For all the complaining you might do about being crazy busy and overwhelmed, for always feeling that you're thisclose to burning out, the fact is
you need stress, you crave stress, you even thrive on the stress that's baked
into your pressure-cooker job.
"Many people think that, in our field, stress is part of the turf," says Louise
DeChesser, RN, MS, CNOR, administrator of the Middlesex Center for
Advanced Orthopedic Surgery in Middletown, Conn. "I've seen leaders who act
like the Tasmanian Devil, thinking that if they're running around like a crazy
person, everyone will think they're important and very busy."
Stress junkies are the over-doers both at home and at work. People prone to
competitiveness, anxiety and depression may be most likely to get a high
from stressful situations, says Debbie Mandel, a New York City stress management specialist.
Sadly, sometimes my weekends are huge letdowns. After another crazy
busy week here at the magazine, it's almost as though I've forgotten how to
get along without all the stress. Raise your hand if you, too, begin to feel anxious at the mere thought of slowing down your schedule.
Wouldn't it be nice to reclaim the joy and spontaneity in life? One of the keys
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | O C T O B E R 2012
