Crisis Triage - Assess your Beliefs

One of the most terrifying calls that ever comes over the pager is for an infant or child not breathing. The terror starts when the parent or adult calls 911, it transfers through the radio waves in the sound of the dispatchers voice, it vibrates into the gas pedal of the ambulance through the foot of the driver and it rings in the urgency of the sirens as they blare at the other drivers to move, move, move!

Only once in the many calls like this that I responded to, did it end up being true. Only once, out of the many calls where I could feel my heart race in my throat. Only once, out of the many calls where I mentally reviewed the childhood emergencies chapter of Mosby's Paramedic textbook on the way to the scene. Only once, out of the many calls my partner and I previewed a game plan, as we prepared for the worst case scenario.

I repeat this to emphasize a point. In each of those emergency responses, my system was fully in fight mode based on the underlying belief that a child was not breathing. This is in fact what the fight, flight, or freeze response is intended to do: enable you to react in an immediate and decisive manner when you believe there is danger.

"B" Belief is like "B" Breathing in that we often forget we are doing it until either one is threatened and then we are too panicked to be rational

In every day situations, "B" Belief is like "B" Breathing in that we often forget we are doing it until either one is threatened and then we are too panicked to be rational. If the underlying belief when our spouse forgets to pick up after the dog is that they simply don't care what we need or want, it is less surprising when our response is anger. The challenge is that we usually don't realize we hold that belief until we begin to analyze why such a small mistake caused us to react so strongly.

My car scenario offered a host of beliefs and emotional responses for me to play with. To start with, I was angry. "Why me? Why now? Why do I deserve this?" This thought track highlighted an underlying belief that my car was somehow to blame for making me suffer in a way I didn't deserve. Realistically though, my car had been having trouble for some time and I had simply been ignoring the issue until by coincidence it could no longer handle the strain and simply gave out at the same time my life felt like it was falling apart.

In addition to anger I felt anxious that I would be hit or that I would not have a car, emotions based on the belief that my safety or security would soon or in the future be threatened. I felt embarrassed by what other drivers thought of me and guilty that I was slowing traffic as my car hobbled down the road. The situation and my emotional responses were outside of my control, but the beauty of emotions is that they offer us a clue about what is going on.

In a medical emergency, the key to assess breathing is to stop and listen. It is the same with belief, once we learn to stop and listen we can begin to recognize our emotions and tune into the thoughts that run through our head. Only then can we identify some of the underlying beliefs that trigger these thoughts and emotions. And just like in emergency care, once we understand the issue, we can start to treat it.

Above all, don't forget that you are breathing.

Coming next: Crisis Triage - Assess your response