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Episode 82:

“Just” Vet Med Burnout? Why Every Little Thing Gets on Your Last Nerve (Part 2)

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Picture this: The phones are ringing off the hook, fluorescent lights are glaring overhead, someone’s trying to have a conversation with you while three other conversations are happening around you, and then add a barking dog to the mix. Why does every little thing seem to get on your last nerve so quickly?

In Part 2 of this series, I'm sharing more of the everyday frustrations I experienced in practice that I later realized were connected to my ADHD and autism, especially when it comes to sensory overload.

We'll talk about why certain sounds, smells, and environments can leave you feeling irritable, overstimulated, and completely exhausted, even when you can't pinpoint why (and yes, this can happen even if you're neurotypical!).

And more importantly, I'll share practical ways to recognize what's happening and reduce the mental and physical toll, whether you're neurodivergent or not.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

  • [03:00] Why certain sounds, smells, and environments in vet med can leave you feeling overstimulated, irritable, and mentally exhausted.

  • [05:00] How sensory processing differences associated with neurodiversity can make it harder to tune out distractions.

  • [20:30] Why you can feel completely drained after a relatively easy day, even when nothing particularly stressful happened.

  • [23:00] How cumulative stress and sensory stimulation affect your ability to concentrate, regulate emotions, and handle everyday frustrations.

  • [29:00] Practical ways to reduce sensory overload and make your workday easier, whether you're neurodivergent or neurotypical.

Key Takeaways:

  • [03:00] When You Can't Tune Out the Chaos: Why barking dogs, ringing phones, and multiple conversations can make it nearly impossible to concentrate, and how sensory filtering plays a role.

  • [08:30] Turning Down the Volume: Practical ways to reduce sensory distractions, from quieter workspaces and noise-canceling headphones to taking short sensory breaks.

  • [13:00] Why Certain Sounds Drive You Absolutely Insane: Understanding misophonia, why seemingly harmless noises can trigger intense irritation, and what you can do about it.

  • [20:30] Why You're Exhausted After a Not-So-Busy Day: The hidden mental and physical energy it takes to manage sensory stimulation and regulate your emotions throughout the workday.

  • [26:30] The Cumulative Cost of Stress and Overstimulation: Understanding allostasis and allostatic load, and why everyday stressors can leave you with less capacity to handle additional demands.

  • [29:00] Recognizing the Warning Signs Before You Lose Your Shit: How to identify early signs of overload instead of waiting until you're completely exhausted or irritable.

  • [32:00] Small Changes That Can Make a Big Difference: Simple ways to reduce sensory stimulation and how to communicate your needs to management without feeling like you're asking for special treatment.

A Truth You Need to Hear:

“Just because you can push through the noise, chaos, and overstimulation doesn't mean it's not costing you mentally and physically.”

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S2 Episode 82 Transcript:

“Just” Vet Med Burnout? Why Every Little Thing Gets on Your Last Nerve (Part 2)

[00:00] Sensory Overload in Veterinary Medicine

[00:00:00] It's 30 minutes into your shift and you're going crazy. The barking dogs, ringing phones, fluorescent lights, and that one person who won't stop clicking their fucking pen. By 3:00 PM, you're ready to lose your shit even though nothing particularly bad has happened. So it might not be just irritability or just burnout.

What if there's a reason your brain struggles to tune all of that out? In part two of this miniseries, we're talking sensory overload as it relates to neurodivergence and what you can do to make your workday a lot easier, whether you are neurodivergent or not. All right, let's get into it.

[~00:00] Welcome to Stop the Burnout

Welcome to Stop the Burnout, a podcast for veterinary professionals who love medicine but are exhausted by the people pressure, expectations, and the constant mental load that comes with it. If you've ever thought, "I shouldn't feel this drained doing something I care about," you're not alone, and you're definitely not broken.

I'm Dr. Amber Parks, a veterinarian turned stress and burnout coach, and here [00:01:00] we talk about the stuff that no one taught us, like how to actually break the stress and burnout patterns once and for all, and how to stay in this profession without losing yourself. You won't find bubble bath, toxic positivity, or self-care fluff pretending to be the solution here.

Let's get into it.

[~01:00] Why Awareness of Neurodivergence Matters

All right. Welcome back to another episode of Stop the Burnout. So this is part two of our miniseries here on neurodivergence in veterinary medicine. And like I said last week, before you run away and say, "Oh, I'm not neurodivergent, this isn't for me," I beg you to stay because many of the things that I experienced, I didn't even think were neurodivergent for decades in practice, and it was.

And I do think it is a huge factor, not only in chronic stress and burnout, but how we recover and heal chronic stress and burnout, and taking [00:02:00] this into consideration because if we don't know, it will make it more challenging. And you don't have to be necessarily officially diagnosed. You might not experience every single thing that I did, and yours may be different, and that's cool, too.

But having that awareness is hugely important. So if you haven't, go back and listen to lax- excuse me, last week's episode and those examples that I go through and all that, that fun, juicy stuff. I think that was some good info. This week I wanna talk about how certain sensory things can overload us. Now, anyone knows going into a veterinary clinic, there could be a range of smells, sounds, visual things fluorescent lights, obviously noise, emotions, all, all the above.

[~03:00] When You Can’t Tune Out the Noise

So it can be very mentally taxing without us [00:03:00] recognizing it, and that's the piece I wanna talk about because this can really... We almost gaslight ourselves 'cause it can a- add to our cognitive load without us knowing. So I'll give you some examples. Number one, which I talked a little bit last episode, but any sort of noise, especially if it's repetitive and it's a bunch of different things, especially if it's happening all at the same time.

So like I mentioned, dogs barking, the phone's ringing. Maybe you can hear a client who's talking in an exam room, and they're really freaking loud. Maybe there's... This gets me every time. You know, maybe you're standing in the pharmacy area. Seems to be the area in many veterinary hospitals that everyone congregates because you're coming out of exam rooms, you're coming out of treatment, and there can be multiple conversations going on at once and- [00:04:00] I, like that will send me over the edge because I am, like, listening to all those conversations, not 'cause I want to, but I can't turn it off.

So that will take a lot of cognitive space that we're not aware of, and it's gonna be a little bit different for everyone. So some people, noise is meh, whatever, but we could go to, a concert and not have an issue, and that's because these are things that, if you're going to a concert, you know you're going to a concert.

You know it's gonna be loud, okay? But when you're at work, especially if you're trying to concentrate on something, having, a lot of noise or conversations can make it really challenging. I know when I would call clients back, I would have to stick my finger in my ear, my other ear that didn't have the phone, because I could hear people's conversation and I totally couldn't hear the client on the phone, couldn't hear who I was talking to.

[~05:00] Sensory Filtering and Attention Networks

I would lose our train of [00:05:00] thought in our conversation because I was listening to another conversation in the room. So that can be really challenging. And the problem... Well, I won't say problem, but the way that this happens and why this happens is that some people have trouble or difficulty filtering out anything.

So we know our brains, I forget what the statistic is, but our brains filter out, so many crazy amount of bits of information every second. Y- the awareness that your butt is sitting on the chair, right? Or that your pants are on, or that you've got a necklace on, or that, name whatever. So our brain filters a lot of that out.

The problem is, for many of those that are neurodivergent, and again, this was me not knowing, it can be really hard to filter out that sensory information that some people can [00:06:00] just, filter it out and it's no big deal. But it is very challenging for neurodivergent people. So it becomes really difficult when a lot of things are going on at once, because I know for myself, sometimes I would feel Thinking like, what is going on right now?

Why do I feel anxious? My heart rate just increased, There's nothing, specific. There's not a certain client coming in. There's not a case. And it was just like there was so much chaos going around that I was absorbing that, but I was absorbing that because I couldn't filter any of that out.

I couldn't turn my brain off. It felt like there was a million things going on at once because it, there was, and I couldn't just pick out the things or the conversations that were important to me. There's nothing that drives me crazier when I would be in practice, and there'd be a dog barking, and someone would come over and start having a conversation.

I'm like, "I can't fucking hear you. I can't hear you, and are you not annoyed [00:07:00] by that barking?" And yeah, it drives me crazy. So what happens is that the thalamus part of our brain is the part of the brain that's responsible for regulating incoming sensory information as well as the attention networks, and those attention networks really help us to filter out what is pertinent information versus what is not.

So that's the same reason why you can be, like, a crowd of people and, there's noise, and then all of a sudden you hear someone calling your name because we're attuned to hear our own name. There could be someone else calling someone else's name, and you don't necessarily hear it, but it's having those networks just be, really fired up, if you will. And we can't, especially being neurodivergent, we can't filter a lot of that out., So there is a lot of neuroscience behind this. the other thing that you hear a lot is people like, "Oh, everyone's getting diagnosed with ADHD and autism."

Well, actually, it's always been there. We [00:08:00] just haven't been diagnosing it. So it's not that there's necessarily, I believe, more of it. I think we're more aware than we were, and some people, I think because it is frequent we're seeing more people get diagnosed with it, that people believe, "Oh, well, yeah, I'm like that, too," or, "They're making this up."

[~08:00] Reducing Noise and Creating a Quieter Workspace

There, there is a lot of neuroscience behind this, that there are chemical differences and structural differences in people's brain from neurotypicals to neurodivergent. So just so in case you're gaslighting yourself, this is probably a, a real thing. So what's our solution? Well- The biggest thing is we try to limit, right?

It's gonna be challenging. Number one, get that barking dog to shut up, let's be honest. Send it home if it can go home. Give it meds if it can't, 'cause honestly, if it's a barking dog that's continuously barking, they're not happy either. So [00:09:00] I know, some dogs, they're not happy in a kennel. You take 'em out, and they're in the treatment area on a leash.

Maybe they're, tied to the wall. You know, those, leash things, and they're happy. They're just chilling, whatever it is. I know that when I was practicing and we would have a barking dog like that, that was, like, number one priority. Like, how do we get this dog to not bark? Does it need to go home?

Does it need a different setup? Does it need, maybe a blanket in front of the crate, and then they just settle down and they take a nap? That is important because then in my mind, I'm like, "All right. There's one less thing that is going to rob my energy and my mental capacity." The other thing is having, if you're a veterinarian, having a desk, and I know this is not always feasible, but having a desk in a quiet area or at least not in the middle of treatment.

I've seen many of these. They're not behind a glass wall. They're, in the middle of treatment, which I get the [00:10:00] concepts, but holy fuck, it is really hard, even if you're neurotypical, to write a record, make that phone call. Those are challenging on a good day, and then add in all the chaos, right? And then honestly too, there's nothing worse than

I've been on the phone before with I don't know, maybe a call center or something, and I'm like, "Where are you at? Because it sounds like a fucking party." I can't hear the person on the phone because there is so much noise in the background, so that's another thing to consider.

If you can't do that, I totally get it. I've said last episode, noise-canceling headphones are my friend. I wear them probably almost daily, w- even in my house. I'm by myself maybe, and no one's here, and I just wanna focus noise-canceling headphones, they go on. And the thing is too is having a conversation, which I'll talk about at the end here, how do we

Bringing your [00:11:00] noise-canceling headphones to work and just putting 'em on, people aren't gonna get it. Don't expect everyone to understand this. So I'm gonna talk about ways to, introduce this idea, and you're like, "I'm not being rude. I'm not trying to be rude. I'm not ignoring you," right? We're using these as a tool to get work done and be more efficient.

[~11:00] Taking Sensory Breaks and Leaving for Lunch

So those are hugely important. A lot of times taking, a sensory break. So when you have that barking dog and then they're quiet, it's like, "Oh, okay. All right." You feel you're less on edge. I know I have. The other thing I've said before, and it sounds stupid, but go to the bathroom. Go to the bathroom, take, a sensory break.

Ideally not on your phone. Go in there, go to the bathroom, obviously, if you have to. But I would do this a lot in the ER when it was really chaotic. Obviously, there's not, an active emergency going on when I'm doing this, but I just needed, the IV fluid pumps to stop beeping, [00:12:00] the, blood machines to stop making noise, those five people having a conversation, the phone ringing.

I just needed that deprivation and kind of a reset. So that has been really, really helpful. The other thing is if you can, and you can get a lunch or some other break, go outside or leave the building. So this was, like, my trick when I did relief work because I charged by the hour, so if I wasn't working, obviously I'm not gonna charge if I'm taking a lunch.

I know everyone char- sets it up a little bit different. So but I didn't wanna get pulled into also doing tasks that I wasn't getting paid for necessarily. So I would always leave the building. Maybe I had my lunch with me. Many times I did. But I would go in my car, I would go drive somewhere so I wouldn't be in the parking lot, or they wouldn't...

anyone coming out of the clinic wouldn't see me, and I would just [00:13:00] sit in my car. And it help- it really helped me. I didn't realize at the time, but it really helped me to reset and to have a little bit of sensory deprivation so that when I go back for the afternoon, I was more on top of things, right?

[~13:00] Misophonia: When Certain Sounds Trigger Intense Irritation

'Cause we're not coming in already overloaded on sensory. So that can, those little things can definitely help. Another scenario here that is similar is certain sounds would drive me nuts. This is, and I mentioned it last episode, and I, again, I think this is how it's pronounced, misophonia, M-I-S-O-phonia.

Mi- miso like the food? I don't know. But essentially what this is this intense irritation, and it seems very irrational. But essentially we hear a noise and it, sends us over the edge. [00:14:00] So the most common ones we hear of are people chewing, breathing. I know this sounds insane for the people that maybe haven't experienced this.

The other one that I think is most common I hear a lot from clients is the dog licking, right? Licking their paw. My dog goes nuts once in a while, and it will send me over the edge. So you hear your dog licking their leg or whatever in the middle of the night, and you wake up out of a dead sleep.

And you're like, "I'm awake now." So this isn't something that is made up, and that's what I want people to understand. I've seen some things on social media lately, and someone was talking about this. And someone that was, apparently didn't have the issue, was saying, "This is all made up.

You're just dramatic." I'm like, you think I woke up today and wanted to be irritated by the sound of someone chewing? Really? I don't know about you, but I have better things to do. [00:15:00] And if I could not be bothered by it, I would not So this is a real thing, and there is neuroscience behind it. So essentially, this type of response to certain noises is the same thing as, triggering our amygdala, which is our fight or flight part of our brain.

[~15:00] The Neuroscience Behind Misophonia

So research actually does show, too, there is a lot of altered activity and connectivity involving the, anterior insula and the emotional related networks in our brain. So this is why this happens. So you don't have to be neurodivergent to have misophonia. Neurotypicals can get it as well. What I've found doing some research, I think it's between the ages of nine to, 13 is when if we're gonna have it, we start to see it.

It's usually in, from what I've found, not something that just happens as an adult. [00:16:00] So I remember as a kid my family would joke with me because I would be like, "Stop chewing so loud," and I would get intensely irritated. So now looking back , yeah, that's exactly what it was. And again, this is very common.

I don't know why, though. I think it's just the irritability factor now going into, perimenopause, hormones are all over the place, but it... I mean, it can be anything. So someone scraping the inside of a yogurt container . This sounds insane, I realize that. Again, I didn't wake up today and say, "I wanna be irritated by this."

No, this is just what it is. It's all nuanced for certain people, right? So it's gonna be a little bit different. Breathing. I, I remember being in exam rooms and I had an older client and they, clicked their dentures and I was gonna lose my shit, and I felt awful, but I was like, "I, I can't be in here."

[00:17:00] And I worked at an ER one time. One of the techs, who was a phenomenal technician, was actually somewhat quiet on an ER shift, and so we were eating lunch, and I remember turning my head and looking and being like, "What the fuck is that noise?" And it was her. She was eating, but, with her mouth open, and I could hear her chewing and moving her food around.

Ugh. I was done. I literally looked around everyone else. Again, didn't know I was neurodivergent, didn't know this was a thing, and I looked at everyone else and I'm like, "No one is irritated by that?" . I got up and moved. I just got up and went in the other room. I was like, "I cannot deal with this anymore."

[~17:00] Managing Sound Triggers and Communicating Your Needs

So how do we deal with this? Well, obviously trying to reduce our exposure to it. This can be challenging when you're dealing with this at home because your partner, your spouse, husband, wife, whomever, may not understand this. And so your goal is to not get them to understand it. Your goal is to [00:18:00] just try to have them understand what you need, because those are two different things.

So sometimes if someone's driving me crazy with a noise or whatever, the biggest thing I'll do is just get up and remove myself. And it seems like it's frequent now because it's all different fucking noises. Noise-canceling headphones, I- like I said, I use them just about daily. Usually that's enough, and I have to sometimes cognitively take a step back and say "This person is such an amazing person.

They're not doing this on purpose." But again, it's triggering the fight or flight, so that's almost like telling our body if you are getting chased by a bear, "No, it's just a nice bear. He's gonna be okay. He's not gonna do anything to you." Right? But you would still be very activated. You would want to run.

It's the same thing. So do what you can or what you need and recognize that. I think that's the biggest piece is not [00:19:00] just why am I so irritable? These are very specific things. Yes, it's being irritable, but it's a noise. So if you're irritable about something else, then that could be something else that's making you irritable.

So just being aware of that, and for that client, that would drive me nuts with... I just, I honestly, "Hey, all right. We got this game plan moving forward. Let me go get everything together and I'll have my technician come in." I just, I had to get out of the room. I'm like, "I'm not going back in there unless they have questions."

I think it was an annual appointment. I'm , "I can't." So that's a boundary you'd set for yourself because you know you're gonna be activated by it And trying to, I think like I said, really recognize that there's nothing wrong with you. This is just you have a more sensitive nervous system.

Well, no fucking shit, because you're probably really fucking good at your job, and it doesn't come [00:20:00] without some maybe drawbacks is how we can look at it. So it's not that it's always a bad thing,, "Oh my gosh I'm irritated by this and this is a lot." No, it's more of, this makes me really good at my job, but I also have to take care of it because I can be easily stressed and overwhelmed by things like noises, right?

That's how I want you to look at this. There's nothing wrong with us. It's looking at it through the lens of what do I need and stop denying myself those things that I need because it sounds insane or because the person sitting next to me doesn't deal with the same thing. That's irrelevant.

[~20:00] Why You’re Exhausted After a Not-So-Busy Shift

Okay? Okay. Okay. The next scenario I experienced many times, and this is the feeling of being really tired after a shift, but then you think back and you're like, "That wasn't the busiest shift I've ever worked." In fact, it wasn't that bad. Maybe you worked general practice, you had some cancellations. "I actually got everything [00:21:00] done and on time."

But then you get in your car and you're heading home, and you're like, "I'm fucking beat though." We're just mentally exhausted and physically we feel exhausted. So what we're not accounting for is those previous two scenarios I talked about with noises, lights. Fluorescent lights are killers, by the way, for neurodivergent, and honestly, no one looks good in them.

I understand it's helpful in a clinical setting to see things, but no one goes under fluorescent lights and thinks they look better. So I don't know what the solution is. I'm sure there's other lighting that would still allow us to see without being awful. But that can be just very jarring, right?

You walk into, a stark exam room, things are like white and it's bright and, right? Like it's, that is really hard to work in that environment day in and day out. So going back to this other scenario, we [00:22:00] don't realize that all of these things that we're trying to manage our sensory input all day long, and also regulate our attention because if there's a lot of noises going on, that's pulling our attention and we're having to work very hard to maybe talk to the person in front of us and hear what they're having to say without listening to five other conversations.

Same thing being on the phone. And then add in irritating noises that are really hard, if you can, to try and minimize those. But again, that's taking some of your mental and energetic bandwidth that we're not accounting for. And again, sometimes we're gaslighting ourselves being like, "That's, this is ridiculous.

[~23:00] Emotional Regulation and Hidden Mental Effort

I'm just, irritable person and I'm miserable." And no, you're just super sensitive. We also have to recognize that we are having to accommodate that all day long, and we're not aware of it. So The other [00:23:00] thing too is emotional regulation. So in ADHD, we can have challenges with executive functioning, which I mentioned before is the part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex.

That is the part of the brain that is responsible for emotional regulation, critical thinking, task initiation, planning. So that is not up to par for some people with ADHD, then the emotional regulation part takes a lot of work. So I can't even tell you how many times I would be at work and someone would do or say something, and internally I'm , "Are you fucking ki-", I would be screaming.

But I'm not obviously saying that to the person. Maybe there were times that that was warranted, but I kept that in. Two things: one is that for me was part of like regulating my emotions of not losing my shit, but two, [00:24:00] I think part of my people pleasing didn't allow me to have conflict with someone, and fear of conflict for sure.

But I, whoa, I just don't wanna be that person, 'cause then this person might get upset with me. So I think that was a lot of it too. But again, all of that takes mental energy. So the neuroscience behind this is that, yes, there's a lot of ongoing stimulation to our brains all day long that we are not consciously aware of.

[~24:00] Smells and the Accumulation of Sensory Stress

So the noises, the sounds, the smells. I don't know about you, but cigarette smoke. And I would go into the exam room and I'm, "I can't do it." I'm in a small enclosed space. I smell cigarette smoke on you even though you tried everything to cover it up, and now also I smell like body splash mixed with cigarette smoke, and I usually end up with a headache.

So that's a part of sensory, right, stimulation. You're trying to ignore it. I don't know about you, but there are [00:25:00] sometimes certain smells, and I feel like it's more so now, that cause me to want to rage. If it's like a gross smell, it, ugh, I can't. Not that it ever smells good, but if you're having like a constipated cat and you're sedating them and you're trying to manually remove stuff, obviously nothing smells good, but there is a very distinct smell and that will send me over the edge Also bloody poop.

Warm, bloody poop. You walk into isolation and you've got a parvo dog that had a blowout like that. Not that anyone likes that smell, I get it, but that warm, awful smell that could, if I was on the edge of being irritable, that would probably send me over the edge. So That we need to account in our everyday accumulation, if you will, of the day.

[00:26:00] So all of these things are stimulating parts of our brain, so that can absolutely make us tired, right? Physically and mentally. And the problem is the more fatigued we are, the more effort it takes to manage those sensory aspects of our brain. So we have to work harder to be like, be more composed and maintained.

[~26:00] Allostasis and Allostatic Load

So that's obviously more exhausting, so it's a vicious cycle. Now, there's a couple of terms here that you might hear just with burnout and stress and work. One of them is called allostasis, excuse me. So it's like hemostasis, but allostasis, A-L-L-O. And this is essentially your body's, your body's way of adapting to the demands and keeping everything stable so that there are like minimal to no [00:27:00] physiological changes.

So maybe you're talking to a client who is really nice, but you need to hold their hand for every step. They've got 1,001 questions. Sometimes they ask the same questions, right? And it's taking all your effort to maintain your level of being a doctor and giving them information and not trying to lose your shit.

So obviously that's gonna change throughout the day. So our brain and our body wants to keep some stasis there essentially, right? We're always trying to find the equilibrium. Now, allostatic load, so what that is, it's the accumulative physiological wear and tear that is associated with repeated or prolonged activation of the stress response systems.

So in that example, I know for myself, especially if I had a lot [00:28:00] of appointments or we were busy, and I know that I'm getting behind, and this client's asking me 1,001 questions. My allostatic load, my ability to hang on to that conversation and not lose my shit is gonna become harder and harder.

So that's why though allostatic load is your cumulative. So it's not, "Oh, I walked out of that exam room. I'm good." It's, "Oh, when I walked in at 8:30 this morning, and there was a dog barking, and we couldn't get it to be quiet-" And it couldn't go home, right? We're not accounting for all of that we have to essentially hold during the day.

So that's why by the afternoon, we're, "All right. I'm done. I'm over this," because our allostatic load gets overloaded. So this is something that everyone deals with it, but I do think neurodivergents, highly sensitive people have a more challenging time with having to [00:29:00] navigate and know that allostatic load.

[~29:00] Recognizing Warning Signs Before Overload

I think that is also a huge piece that I want you to recognize is give yourself grace for recognizing when this happens. So sometimes we only see the end result being irritability, exhaustion, and then we're just, "Ugh," "Why am I so fucking tired and irritable?" But we blew by the five red flags our body tried to tell us in that process.

And I know I did this in, clinical practice when I was really burnt out because I just had to keep going and pushing through. But now, if you can recognize some of these things and intervene before they happen, we can reduce some of that allostatic load. We can reduce that stimulation part of our brain.

So that's where the bathroom for five minutes, go leave the building for lunch even if you have 20 callbacks. I used to do that. "Oh, I'm gonna do my callbacks during lunch and type my notes." Half the time I didn't [00:30:00] because I was so exhausted. I'm eating and then having a conversation, and before you know it, afternoon appointment's there and you're just keeping rolling with things.

So I didn't really accomplish anything, so I might as well have just left the building. And just giving yourself those mental breaks are gonna be really important so that we're not blowing by all these red flags. So that, tightness in your chest, stomach issues, headache, all the things that our brain's like, "Hey, we need a break.

Hey, irritability," right? We blew by those signs because we didn't feel like we could do anything about them, or we just feel , "Ugh, if I can just get through the day, then I'll be better, when I get back from my three-day weekend." Hint, you won't be better just so you know. Love you to death, but you won't because you're gonna go right back into the same patterns.

[~30:00] Reconnecting With Your Body’s Signals

And I do find In myself as well, but many of us in [00:31:00] veterinary medicine are so disconnected from our body that we don't see the red flags anymore. We just see the end result, and that can be really tough. There's a process that I do with my private clients called subconscious reprogramming, and we essentially it's kind of like a guided visualization.

I walk you through it, but you do have to connect in your body where you're feeling certain things, and I've yet to find someone that doesn't have a hard time with that is in vet med. Because, and many of us, right? This isn't just vet med, it's just in general, we are so overstimulated with everything, especially phones, everything all the time, that when we do start to feel things, we maybe, "Oh, I'm getting a headache," take a medication, right?

Yeah, okay get yourself feeling better, but why it... what was the trigger? Side note, headaches could have multiple triggers. As someone who's experienced migraines, that's, very multifaceted. [00:32:00] But it's looking at where does this come up and how does it show up, so that's gonna be hugely important.

[~32:00] Small Changes to Reduce Sensory Stimulation

So if you do feel tired at the end of the day, trying to build in some of these quick mental sensory breaks, like I said, going to the bathroom. Those headphones are really helpful. Leaving for lunch. Also, like dimming the lighting. I was talking before about fluorescent lights. We used to, in pharmacy, turn off one of the lights when we had a euthanasia so that anyone coming into the pharmacy area, if they were in treatment and they didn't know, they saw, oh, the lights dimmed, they automatically knew there was a euthanasia.

We would be quiet. But I used to be , "Can we just leave that off?" Because I can see my computer, it's very bright. It just, feels like someone turned down the volume on, , that overwhelm. So having different lighting, I think, is important if that's feasible for you. So all of these things I want you to realize, [00:33:00] like I've said, is a common theme here.

So recognize what this is costing you. All those things I talked about today we might experience, but we blow it off. We don't give ourselves awareness that it's costing us cognitive and physical energy to regulate what's going on, deal with it, and trying to not lose our shit in the process. If you feel yourself getting irritable at work, take a step back, and sometimes just look at what you were doing the last 10 minutes, and then go back a little bit further, right?

Was it I was good until this client came in, and they're just loud, and they have a lot of cologne on, and it smells awful? Right? It's little things like that can send us over the edge. And again, we tend to see the end result or feel the end result, maybe in this case irritability, but we don't know what got us there.

If we don't know what got us there, we're gonna have a harder time fixing it, so recognizing that. The other thing I wanted to [00:34:00] mention with, maybe lighting or moving a desk or the noise-canceling headphones is having a conversation and not a, "Oh, we're in pharmacy area, and our first appointment's here," talking to someone quickly for five minutes.

[~34:00] Talking With Management About What Helps You Work

Having an actual sit-down conversation that is planned and scheduled with management, with leadership, and expressing "Hey, it's really challenging when I have to you know, get on the phone in the middle of appointments to talk to a client or when there's a barking dog, whatever it is. Because I do think this is beneficial for neurotypical people as well, so it really should just be straight across the board.

But having the conversation of it would be really helpful if I can use noise-canceling headphones during, this little block of time during the day when I'm doing records. I'm not trying to ignore anyone. It just allows me to filter [00:35:00] out all the other stuff that honestly probably most people can filter out, and it'll allow me to be more efficient.

... And if you've ever worn noise-canceling headphones, most of the time, depending on where I'm at, I don't even put music on. It's just putting them on helps to dull out any of the other noises. So sharing that "Hey, I'm not sitting here ignoring people. It's just really turning the volume down on all this other noise so that I can focus."

And I feel like having that conversation before you're whipping out the noise-canceling headphones and someone's , "Oh, you're ignoring us. You're, listening to music just chilling." No. There's a, there's a need for it . So stating that before that happens so that way everyone else can be aware of that and what the use is for you.

[~35:00] Share Your Experience and Sound Triggers

So that's why having that conversation ahead of time is really important. So that is what I've got for you today on this episode. So I'd love to know if you've experienced any of [00:36:00] this, especially the, the misophonia, and tell me what is the sound that drives you crazy. I need to know. It's gonna be, like I said, a little bit different with everyone, and, but send me a DM on Instagram.

If you don't follow me, you should. So you can find me @ D-R, for doctor, period, A-M-B-E-R-P-A-R-K-S, so @dramberparks, and send me a DM. Make sure you follow me because if you send me a DM and you don't follow me, it might go get lost into the spam folder. So make sure you're following me. The other thing I wanna mention too is if you're listening to this, I'm trying something out.

[~36:00] Send a Coaching Question for a Future Episode

If you would love to get some sort of coaching around a situation that you're maybe currently experiencing or you don't know how to navigate it as it relates to, like work, vet med, burnout, chronic stress, follow me on Instagram and send me a DM because [00:37:00] what I'd love to do, and I can do this anonymously, is you can send me your like, "Hey, this is a question I have."

I might ask you a couple questions just to get clarification, and make sure there's no identifying information, but share it and answer it on the next podcast episode. So if you would love that, again, go ahead and follow me on Instagram at dr.amberparks. Send me a DM and you might be featured on the next podcast episode.

So I hope you guys have an amazing rest of your day, and I will see you on the next episode