Hurry Sickness, Burnout, and Well-Balanced Remedies

1. Hurry Sickness, Burnout, and Well-Balanced Remedies Dr. Terry L. Correll Chief of Aerospace Psychiatric Consultation Aerospace Medicine Consultation Division United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Boonshoft School of Medicine Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association

2. Teach at medical school, psychiatric residency, variousinstitutions, USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, NATO, Kings College in London… • Work with USAF aviators, special forces, substance-abusing incarcerated individuals, women escaping the sex industry (Oasis House), FAA, NASA… • I am truly humbled and grateful for the outstanding opportunities available in my career

3. As a general/academic/aerospace/forensic psychiatrist, I emphasize • Psychotherapy • Healthy lifestyle • Conservative diagnosis • Conservative medication • Body-Mind-Soul-Spirit holism • I am unfortunately unable to see any extra patients

4. How Common are Stress-Related Illnesses in Primary Care Medicine? • 10-20% • 30%-40% • 50-60% • 60-80% • 99.9%

5. How Common are Stress-Related Illnesses in Primary Care Medicine? • 10-20% • 30%-40% • 50-60% • ****** 60-80% of visits have a stress-related component ****** • 99.9%

6. What is one of the best performance enhancers known and well-studied? • Anabolic steroids • Creatine • Erythropoietin • Adderall • Relaxation Response

7. What is one of the best performance enhancers known and well-studied? • Anabolic steroids • Creatine • Erythropoietin • Adderall • ***** Relaxation Response *****

8. Terms of Endearment • Busyness • Frenetic • Frenzied • Frantic • Frazzling • Hectic • Mad Dash • Time Pressure • Time Urgency • Running in Overdrive • “I am busy as a one-armed paper hanger…” • Hurry Sickness

10. In 2005, researcher Richard Jolly from the London School of Business and Finance noted an alarming increase in a new pandemic: • Hurry Sickness • Hurry Sickness is a compulsive need to do more and to go faster… even when there’s no real need for urgency • For example, in one study it was noted how people using a microwave start to look for something else to do if the food is going to take longer than 30 seconds to heat up

11. Yep… I’ve done that • Definition: • Hurry sickness is the compulsive feeling that you must incessantly hustle or else you will fall further behind, or miss out on something

12. Do you have hurry sickness? • How quickly do you get restless when you have to wait in line? • How long can you go without checking your phone or looking at email? • Are you sizing up this lesson so far to see if you have chosen to spend your time well?

13. Professor Jolly(ironic?) noted in 2015 that ____% of the people he interviewed showed signs of having hurry sickness • 25% • 55% • 95% • ************ 95% *************

14. What Is Hurry Sickness? • Cardiologists Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman coined the term "hurry sickness" after noticing that many of their patients suffered from a "harrying sense of time urgency" • They defined hurry sickness as "a continuous struggle and unremitting attempt to accomplish or achieve more and more things or participate in more and more events in less and less time" • People with hurry sickness think fast, talk fast, and act fast • They multitask and rush against the clock, feeling pressured to get things done and getting flustered by any sign of a problem

15. What Causes Hurry Sickness? • Hurry-sick people are conscientious and work hard • They habitually over-commit • Withour 24/7 state of connectedness, we increasingly suffer from FOMO – fear of missing out – so we're reluctant to disconnect and slow down • Even on vacation • USAFA - “25/8” - $20 bill

16. This need to stay available means that hurry-sick people remain constantly “switched on” • May be running from insecurities, insignificance, boredom, loneliness, or a host of other negative feelings • Once we've begun this cycle of panic, it's easy to get used to it, accept it, and become addicted to it, even though it damages us • Addicted to adrenalin, very similar to cocaine (procrastinators, disorganized/ADHD individuals)

17. What Are the Consequences of Hurry Sickness? • Being busy is usually seen as a virtue, a “badge of honor” • We lose the ability to think clearly, and we become less effective • Errors creep into our work, we lose sight of the "big picture," and the quality of our work starts to fall • Hurry sickness increases our body's output of the stress hormone cortisol, which can cause long-term health problems, such as decreased immunity and depression

18. What Are the Consequences of Hurry Sickness? • It can affect our personal relationships, too • "Go-fast" working habits travel home with us • Our mind stays locked in a state of overstimulation, making us tired, anxious and prone to irritability, but unable to relax

19. Other Clues to Hurry Sickness • We indulge in self-destructive escapes: • Watching too much TV • Eating too much • Abusing alcohol • Scanning the internet too much (porn) • Other addictive behaviors…

20. Other Clues to Hurry Sickness • We rush around in lifeeven when there's no reason to • Speak sharp words to our loved ones • We hurry our children along • We set up mock races ("Okay kids, let's see who can take a bath fastest"), which are really about our own need to get through it • Assure ourselves that everything will slow down in just a week or two  • We flop into bed fatigued

21. Reflection - Does this apply to… • Your friends • Acquaintances • Loved ones • Colleagues • Go ahead, look to the right and the left • Yourself

22. More ways to know if you’re suffering from “hurry sickness”: • Sunset Fatigue • This is when we come home from a full-day’s work, but have nothing left for those we love the most • Unable to Love • “Love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible. Love always takes time and time is one thing hurried people don’t have.”  John Ortberg

23. Hurry-Sickness = Margin-less Living

24. Rate Yourself • On a scale of 1 to 10, please rate your own “hurry sickness” where 10 is the maximum

25. Please Allow me to Interject - For The Health of It… • Everybody wants to improve themselves • Especially with the new year • Lots of great intentions • Rarely are limited in “know how” • Limited results • That are often demoralizing and guilt-producing • Wouldn’t it be nice to make significant improvements in our lives with only a few moments of attention at a time? • Let’s be open-minded and try this “For The Health of It” technique

26. For The Health of It… • Basic premise is that our sympathetic nervous system is “amped up” too much to our detriment • Parasympathetic nervous system (which causes calming) is under-utilized • Adrenalin and cortisol are flowing – we “stew” in “stress juices” • We are routinely in sympathetic overdrive • Would you agree? • What if we could calm our sympathetic nervous system more effectively than with Xanax, alcohol, heroin… • An easy fix • Something you already do • Quicker, better, stronger, faster… • Enhance our ability tocope with stressors and build our overall resilience • Sounds almost too good to be true, right?

27. For The Health of It… • Couplesympathetic calming (AKA parasympathetic activation) with a healthy thought or behavior • Powerful one, two punch • Slowed deep breathing is the best way to calm the body and mind • Breathing is like an energy dial for calming or activation • Slowed deep breathing slows heart rate, body, and mind • Rapid breathing energizes like a cup of coffee (better than coffee – don’t have to pee as much) • Rapid and shallow breathing common, especially when we are “keyed up” • If you haven’t already done so, please focus on your breathing • It usually works unnoticed • It is one of the rare involuntary body systems that we can consciously control

28. For The Health of It… • Paced breathing (3 part breathing) • Utilized by premier athletes, special forces, snipers… • Breathe deeply into lower abdomen first • Fill and expand rib cage and then lungs until full capacity next • Pause for few seconds • Then exhale air from “top down” in reverse order • Upper to lower lungs, rib cage, then abdomen

29. For The Health of It… • Counting slowly is helpful while doing this to keep mind clear of other thoughts • 10 count during inhalation • 5 count pause • 10 count during exhalation • Modify count as it best works for you • When do you think snipers take their shot? • Some prefer to think of meaningful word or phrase • Peace, wholeness, the Lord is my Shepherd…

30. For The Health of It… • Paced breathing (breath practice) on a regular basis can be enormously helpful (all by its self) • Pair this sympathetic calming with a healthy idea/action • Think holistically • What simple healthy thing can I do right now for my body, mind, and/or spirit • What little healthy thing can I do, think, or imagine right now? • Be grateful, thankful, prayerful, hopeful, optimistic, reframe a negative feeling or situation, allow deep breathing to reduce my stress and blow out toxins…

31. For The Health of It… • Utilize free association • As you think about this, what is the first healthy thing that comes forward in your mind? • Life Change through Relaxation Response paired with Healthy Idea/Action • One small step towards health – repeated often • Helps to rebalance our lives • A little more health to offset unhealthy conditions

32. For The Health of It… Healthy Pause… • Do this on a regular basis and change will happen • Reminders from phone, Apple watch, One Moment for Meditation app, carry a token in your pocket, Post It note • We make ~10,000 decisions daily • Making a few more healthy decisions regularly can revamp our entire lives • The Israelites asked God how they were going to take the land that was promised to them • God let them know that they would do so little by little… • In our retirement accounts, we invest money on a regular basis to allow compounding interest to help in grow • Personal growth is like this

33. For The Health of It… Healthy Pause… • Let’s practice – this is safe – no tricks – no “trust falls” • High strung boss who “guaranteed” my catch( eliminating “trust”) • Quite helpful for my big body • This will last only 60 seconds • Close or downcast your eyes • Notice your breathing • Allow it to go deep into your belly • Count slowly as you fill your abdomen, rib cage, and then lungs, from the “bottom up” • Count during your pause • Exhale and admire how easily the air from upper chest to the lower abdomen

34. For The Health of It… Healthy Pause… • Continue counting while breathing if that is helpful to you • Repeat this several times • Notice the calm space at the end of the exhale before you draw more air in • Permit your mind and body to be calm • Relax • Allow distress and tension to drain away • Continue breathing and calming until I call your attention at the end of 60 seconds • How was that? • How long did that feel?

35. Re-rate Yourself • On a scale of 1 to 10, please rate your own “hurried feeling” where 10 is the maximum

36. For The Health of It… Healthy Pause… • That was one minute to “reboot your computer” • Doing a mini reset (moments and seconds) multiple times daily can have enormous benefits • Please practice this throughout the rest of our time together (and this conference) • Invoking the relaxation response that Herbert Benson studied at Harvard • Relaxation response calms down the sympathetic system and enhances performance

37. For The Health of It… Healthy Pause… • Relaxation Response is known by many names… • Meditation, mindfulness, deep breathing/relaxation, autogenic training, self-hypnosis, prayer, solitude, doing nothing… • Pair with healthy thought or action • Focus, intentionality, goal seeking, prayer, personal investment, reset yourGPS, personal investment time…

38. For The Health of It… • Pair deep breathing with another healthy thought or behavior that you want to work on: • Reduce stress or a feeling of “dis-ease” • Reducing tension in your muscles • Increased focus or energy • Feeling peaceful or calm • As a substitute for a negative behavior • Biofeedback

39. Quick Review – For the Health of It • Become aware of your breathing • Slow it down • Breath deep into you abdomen • Slow heart and mind • Notice increased focus and many other benefits • Pair with healthy thought or action • Consider making this a daily anchoring habit – a very healthy habit • To reset your health focus and compass • For rebalancing • For wholeness – body, mind, and spirit

40. Love Impaired by Hurry Sickness • The most serious sign of hurry sickness, though, is a diminished capacity to love and be our best selves • For love and hurry are fundamentally incompatible • Love always takes time, and time is the one thing hurried people don't have • We become relationally distant…

41. Hurry Sickness “Hurry is not just a disordered schedule. Hurry is a disordered heart.” -- John Ortberg, The Life You’ve Always Wanted

42. Hurry is Silently Ruining the Life We Want • Research has now revealed a disturbing dark side to all this go, go, go… even beyond the physical toll it takes • In fact, the effects of busyness are actually MUCH WORSE than we think … if we desire a life of greater impact and significance • Here’s why: It is actuallypreventing us from living the life we really want

43. How Our Busy Life is Crippling the Life We Want • Sense of urgency is undermining the very priorities and values we embrace • Princeton University social psychologists John Darley and Dan Batsonwanted to see the effects on a person who is being hurried • The unknowing test subjects were conscientious, caring Princeton Seminary students • They were asked to prepare a sermon from the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37) • Then, they would deliver the sermon to their professors for evaluation

44. The (Clever) Experiment  • The students were brought into a room to prepare their messages • At some point, they were given one of three time impacting instructions: • A high-hurrycondition: “You’re late. They were expecting you a few minutes ago…You’d better hurry. It shouldn’t take but just a minute to get there.” • An intermediate-hurry condition: “They are ready for you, so please go right over.” • A low-hurry condition: “It’ll be a few minutes before they’re ready for you, but you might as well head on over. If you have to wait over there, it shouldn’t be long.”

45. The (Clever) Experiment  • As each student was heading from the preparation room to the auditorium to present their message, they encountered a “victim” in a deserted area • This victim (who was part of the experiment) appeared destitute, slumped over and coughing, clearly in need of assistance • Hmm… that sounds coincidentally just like the wounded traveler in the parable of the Good Samaritan

46. The (Clever) Experiment  • Here’s the test • The seminarians, who were not only familiar with the story (and the lesson Jesus applied about “loving your neighbor”), they were about to teach it (thus, it was top of mind) • Bottom line • Would the values they know, embrace and be top of mind be impacted by hurry?

47. What do you predict happened? (What happens when we are hurried?)

48. The Disturbing Results • 10% of the students in the high-hurry situation stopped to help the victim • (90% ignored/dismissed the need right in front of them) • 45% of the students in the intermediate-hurry stopped to help • (Note: Even in a moderate rush, over half of the “caring” pastor types did not stop) • 63% of the students in the low-hurry situations helped the victim

49. Conclusions • A person not in a hurry may stop and offer help to a person in distress • A person in a hurry is likely to not help • Ironically, likely to keep going even if she is hurrying to speak on the parable of the Good Samaritan, thus inadvertently confirming the point of the parable • “Thinking about the Good Samaritan did not increase helping behavior, but being in a hurry decreased it

50. The Deeper Implications This Experiment Reveals • Here’s why this experiment is so troubling… • We can embrace a priority or value (“I want to live this way - this is important to me”) • We can even be thinking about that priority or value (top of mind awareness) • Yet, in the heat of being even moderately rushed - what we affirm (even deeply), can get pushed aside by “the tyranny of the urgent”