If You’ve Spent Years Taking Care of Everyone Else, It Makes Sense You’re Tired. I Get It.

Working in healthcare or public safety means you’re trained to stay calm, move fast, and keep functioning even when everything inside you is screaming. I know this not just clinically, but personally.

As a psychiatric emergency nurse myself, I’ve worked the chaotic shifts, held pressure in my chest through entire codes, compartmentalized what I didn’t have time to feel, and walked out the hospital doors pretending I was “fine.” Truly!

And I’ve done what most of us do:

• Crack jokes that are a little too dark for the average person

• Swallow emotions because “a shift is a shift”

• Go numb because it’s easier than breaking down

• Show up the next day like nothing happened

• Tell myself I don’t need help because “other people have it worse”

It took me a long time to even think about seeking support. So if you’re here, even just reading, I already know two things about you:

1. You’ve been carrying a lot.

2. You’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.

If You’re Not Sleeping, Snapping at People, or Feeling Numb… You’re Not “Just Tired”

You might notice:

• Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares

• Feeling on-edge, irritable, or easily startled

• Numbness, detachment, or “nothing phases me anymore”

• Foggy thinking, trouble focusing, or feeling disconnected from yourself

• Guilt over calls or cases you can’t shake

• Withdrawing from people you care about

• Feeling like you’re losing parts of yourself

These aren’t personal failures, signs of weakness, incompetence, or unprofessionalism. They’re normal responses to abnormal stress! The kind healthcare providers and first responders face every single day.

Your nervous system has been in survival mode for years. It’s tired. And you deserve support that actually understands that.

Why People Like Us Don’t Ask for Help Until We’re Falling Apart

Let’s be real. Let’s name it honestly:

• Asking for help feels like losing control

• You’ve learned to function on autopilot

• You don’t want to open emotional floodgates in the middle of a shift

• You don’t want to be seen as “unfit,” “weak,” or “not cut out for this”

• You don’t want to explain the job to someone who doesn’t get it

• You worry confidentiality won’t be respected

• You tell yourself “it’s not that bad” even when it is

And if you’ve ever thought:
“If I break, who’s going to take care of everyone else?”
You’re not alone.

Here’s the truth: First responders and healthcare providers often delay therapy not because they don’t need support, but because they’ve been trained to survive without it.

But surviving isn’t the same as living.
And you deserve more than survival mode.

Therapy That Actually Understands the Job (Because I’ve Been There Too)

At Growth Psychotherapy, you’re not talking to someone who will ask:

• “Why didn’t you just take a break?”

• “Have you tried not thinking about it?”

• “That sounds stressful. Why didn’t you tell management?”

• “Why don’t you just leave work at work?”

Instead, you’re talking to someone who understands:

• What a bad shift can do to your nervous system

• How dark humour keeps you sane

• How burnout feels like emotional concrete

• What it’s like to hold a patient’s pain in your body

• How the job can slowly erode your relationships

• The guilt that lingers after traumatic calls

• Why decompressing is hard when you have nothing left to give

You don’t have to explain the culture.
You don’t have to censor your words.
You don’t have to justify your reactions.

This is a space truly built for you.