2 minute read
Are you a Social Worker addicted to adrenaline?
When it comes to feelings, the human body is best thought of as a chemistry set, stocked with potions to evoke all sorts of emotions.
There’s Dopamine for intense pleasure, Oxytocin for love and trust, and then there are hormones you have probably never even heard of, such as Somatostatin, which quietly regulates the activity of the gastrointestinal tract.
Never leave home without it.
But the hormone most social workers experience on a day-to-day basis is that wonder drug: adrenaline.
A few drops in the bloodstream is like rocket fuel.
Blood pressure ramps up, the lungs expand, muscles constrict, and suddenly you find you have the strength of a thousand lions.
Social workers rely on it mostly to write reports to tight deadlines, rush to meetings, and whack the photocopier when it misbehaves.
So while a flood of adrenaline would be fabulous if we were completing social work out on the Serengeti while fending off lion attacks, in a normal office environment, this wonder drug is rather superfluous.
What good are trembling biceps for filling out stationery requisition forms?
Yet our frail human bodies don’t realise this, and continue to spurt out adrenaline like a fire hose in response to deadlines, torrents of emails, and a caseload bursting at the seams.
To be fair, sometimes this helps.
During an intense crisis, your endocrine system can power you through and achieve almost superhuman feats.
But these are only supposed to last for brief periods, after which the fight or flight response is supposed to recede, and then we ‘rest and digest.’
For our ancestors, this meant time spent lying under a tree, reflecting on how nice it was not to be a lion’s breakfast.
For us, no sooner is one pressing demand met, than another comes sliding down the chute.
We believe this all must be for the best, our mindset one of: ‘the harder I work; the more I achieve.’
Certainly, this is the mindset of our employers who gear everything to encouraging this manic level of production. But, actually, it isn’t.
Not only does it inevitably lead to stress and burnout, you’ll end up achieving less, not more.
Adrenaline may be a wonder drug but it chews up resources fast, like slamming your foot on the gas pedal.
Sure, you take off in a hurry but you’ll need to pull over to re-fuel sooner. And if you don’t, everything starts to tire, splutter and conk out.
Overworked people aren't amazing. They're hopeless.
Juggling a thousand things at once, putting the coffee back in the fridge, the teaspoon in the bin, and pouring cold water into their cup because they forgot to switch the kettle on.
And if that’s how they make coffee, you should see them try to write a report.
You will be far happier if you slow down the pace, ignore all the flashing red lights, and give your adrenal glands a rest.
You will also - and here’s the important thing - almost certainly get more done.
Leave your desk for a break, go home on time whenever you can, look after yourself, and learn to say no.
Yes, this concept will be completely alien to us - like trying to lie down for a nap while being chased by a lion.
But you aren’t being chased by a lion.
Sometimes I think we forget that.
