One of them is a paramedic now. I imagine, surgeons might go through similar character development.
It's funny how often we get asked "what's the worst call you've ever been on?" which, when you think about it, is a strange question to ask. Do you go around to other people in your life on social occasions to ask them to relive unpleasant events for your curiosity?
However, that being said:
It's generally assumed that it's the most gruesome call. The most unpleasant trauma. That's not the case. When it comes down to it, we're all just tissue and blood. We stop bleeding, put (some) things back where they belong, and try to replace what has been lost (fluids), etc.
The worst calls are generally the tragic, the emotional abuse. Child sexual assault. Elder neglect. The horrible accidents that are no-one's fault, but will rack someone with guilt for the rest of their lives.
Those ones add up. I'd say those are the reasons for most EMS and Fire PTSD.
There's a good documentary about the rebirth of Detroit, which was for a long time the number one city for arson in the world, called "Burn" (incidentally financed/championed by Denis Leary)...
One of the firefighters in that documentary says, sitting, emotionally exhausted and eyes shallow from a long night, or career:
> I wish my head could forget what my eyes have seen.
Reading it makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to be a police officer. God knows it isn't the pay.
Sending goatse over IRC was a rite of passage back when I was in middle school. Kirk Johnson's service to humanity is invaluable.
unsure how much of it is curiosity or whatever psychological conditions the rest of comments were suggesting. regardless, i would not consider it an ideal approach to build your stomach for the medical field.
Doesn't fit any definition of a sociopath I looked up, quite contrary
pretty much sums it up; anything that does not break you, will make you stronger.
ever chewed on your food, breathing thru the nose, while cleaning diarrhea diapers and being screamed at? your parents did.
Sometimes memories are great merely for the fact that they're the past ;)
Not even remotely true. Plenty of people have to spend years in therapy to undo their parent's trauma.
Let's put it another way, do you think a rape victim in college will have better outcomes than someone who is not raped in college?
I think in your cases it "broke" them
Of course things either break you or make you stronger. The unexpected outcome would be for to leave you exactly the way you were before.
It's a positive dismissal.
It makes people weaker.
not sure about the rape analogy thou
It is reflective of a society that sees emotions that don't feel productive as "bad" and to make excuses or falsely positive reasons to dismiss them.
The classic example is the British attitude of the "stiff upper lip".
These narratives result in lower happiness, compassion and generally poorer mental health.
Don't let a society that encoded outdated views on emotional health dictate that you shouldn't freely allow emotions to complete their cycle and be expressed.
I truly cant express how bad perpetuating this kind of thinking is on an individual and societal level.
The best counterexample is freezing damage. Each time makes you weaker.
I believe both e.g. participating in war or being a victim of a crime makes you mentally weaker.
Many veterans seems to be the brink of collapse and those people were probably better suited mentally than the average man for ensuring war since they self selected for it? Or maybe less naive people would fare better?
then again it can hardly be denied that a reoccurrence is seldomly an equally devastating experience