Jason: My Job IS My Stress

People always say guys don’t care about their health but at least for me that isn’t true.  I saw my dad get old way before his time, he never quit smoking even at the end and I always say I don’t want to be like that, I want to be here for my family for a good long time.

Up until a couple years ago I would’ve said I was doing pretty good. I still got out and hunted every fall and a couple buddies and I put a good-sized workshop at my house, and I built out an extension where my wife could teach china painting classes.

I’m a copy machine technician for a big company. These aren’t the machines you see at the receptionist’s desk, these are the machines they use for proxy statements and annual reports and so on, so they always have to be working perfect and downtime cannot happen.

I can pinpoint when things started to change. The company was sold, and one of the first things that happened was they started laying people off. I used to have a 7-person crew at one site and now it’s two. We’re always behind and I don’t think it’s ever going to be like it used to be.

The layoff situation made me anxious, and I started working later too, just trying to get stuff done. It was kind of a cascade, you know? I’d get home later, eat something fast, crash on the sofa just to try and chill out for a bit.

I for sure put on some weight but also my blood pressure went up and I had what the ER said were just panic attacks, but I thought I was having a heart attack.

I knew I couldn’t keep this up and so I ended up working with my health coach on stuff I could do to handle the stress better. We came up with a lot of different ideas, everything from some ways to eat healthy without having to cook when I get home late, to some classes I took on stress management techniques.

My friends would just say, “Dude, you just need to chill some” but it’s not that easy, you know? I really appreciate that I’ve had someone I could work with on this.

(Stories represent typical situations based on the aggregated experiences of our providers and clients.)