We all choose our own path in life, and we usually go with what we love or at least what we are good at.
There exists a profession in the world that is the exact opposite of ours, and that's stressful to our brains.
We simply cannot fathom how those people do it every day.
u/MisterTorchwick asked:
What profession makes you say "how do they do it?"
Here were some of those answers.
The Highest Of Stakes
GiphyReporters that go into dangerous and hostile warzones. They're not even allowed to carry a weapon. No amount of money could compel me to enter a warzone just to tell the people that are safe in their homes half a world a way about the situation they'll never have to experience.
Why I'm An AVID Pedestrian
Maybe this is just from my non-driver perspective, but I've been at a bus station and watched drivers reverse bay park giant double decker buses PERFECTLY in between 2 other giant double deckers, in one smooth, swift, move.
Pretty impressive.
Emotions Swirling
Nurses, specifically psych nurses. Some of the sh*t they deal with is ridiculous and would never be tolerated in any other job. Someone racist slurs at you? Grabbing you? Verbally sexually harassing you? Part of the job, those patients are exactly where society wants them but they still need people looking after them. Hats off to the people who can handle that.
Animation Time
Animators. I can't draw, so i can't imagine how did they manage to draw multiple drawing that flow flawlessly from one to another.
Years of practice, trial and error, study of anatomy and other fundamentals, and training yourself to be an active observer of how people (or animals or whatever) move. Plus, I don't think any of us get it just right on the first go, you start with rough drawings and refine refine refine.
I know people who draw beautifully but cannot get the hang of the acting part that brings life to animation, and people who are average at drawing but just have the knack for bringing those drawings to life.
Failure IS An Option
Physicists. How the heck do they come up with their theories and spend their whole lives trying to prove them, even though they could be badly mistaken?
Being badly mistaken is still a result if you can prove it. It stops others from attempting to do your work, and allowing them to focus on other venues. You normally learn more from failure than success.
Working With The Youths
Elementary school teachers! I like kids but nothing could compel me to have to be in a room with 20 - 30 kids every day. Not only do you have to keep them in one place and safe but you also need to teach them important skills.
Cave-Diving
Dental hygienists and dentists. The idea of picking around in people's mouths, where they might have old, nasty food stuck in teeth, bad breath, gunk on their tongues, and who the hell knows what else. I'm sure for every patient they get with decent teeth, there are ones that want to make them run away.
The Bull Is Nuts
Teachers. The amount of administrative overhead they have to deal with is insane. Furthermore, it's precisely the sort of thing you'd inject into the profession if you were trying to deliberately repel the kind of person who's likely to be infectiously enthusiastic about the subject matter.
I'll Stick To My Spreadsheets
Any profession in the food/drink service industry. Constantly being in a crowded, warm room having to talk to people you don't know and having to deal with difficult customers. It sounds like hell to me.
Especially professional cooks. I love cooking, but as an organic chemist I always think "cooking professionally is like doing what I do but everything has to be done at the same time and you have customers". On the other hand what they make doesn't cause cancer quite as quickly as what I make, so there's that. And they don't get to work with cool cool spreadsheets as often as I do.
It IS Brain Surgery, Actually, Meghan
GiphySurgeons.
The body is so complicated and delicate. I'm always baffled how they can slice someone open, carefully pick around every little tiny thing that they don't want to touch, and then operate on just one thing without accidentally killing the patient (or well usually not). Like with the precision necessary, I'm just amazed that surgery is practical. Especially when you get into REALLY delicate surgeries, like say brain surgery.
Redditor notViperX was curious to hear all the things people believed every modern teenager needs to know, leading them to ask:
"Adults of Reddit, what is something every Teenager needs to know?"
No Means No!
"It's ok to say no to anyone."
"Don't let anyone in your life guilt trip you into doing something you don't want to do or are uncomfortable with."- Purpleraven01
What Constitutes Being "Cool" Is Debatable...
"It's exactly as lame to not do something you want to do because it's too mainstream or popular as it is to do something only because it's cool and the cool kids are doing it."- itsacalamity
Pay Attention in Gym And Spanish Class!
"Learn a second language."
"It's good for your brain, and it's a lot easier when you're young."
"Get active and fit; make it a habit."
"This is one of the most important ways to stave off cognitive decline as you get older."
"Plus, it's great for managing mental health during the transition to adulthood."- HappyHappyKidney
will ferrell anchorman GIFGiphyPut Those Pennies In The Bank!
"Start trying to save money now."
"You will definitely thank yourself later on."- Lastnight97
Sometimes Being Wrong Is The Only Way To Learn You're Right
"Failing is okay."- 2Graves1Ashe
People Are Always Willing To Help!
"When you make a mistake, own up to it."
"People are more willing to help you when you admit you did a dumb thing."
"This goes for school, work, and personal life."
"Forget to make a payment on a loan?"
"Call and talk to the finance company."
"Mess something up on a school project?"
"Tell your teacher and ask for a bit of leeway, Etc."
"People will be more likely to help you if you communicate."
"Start your retirement fund as early as possible."
"Doesn’t matter if you can only afford $5 a week, it’s still $5 more than you would have had otherwise."
"It WILL add up and you’ll thank yourself later."- GreenOnionCrusader
help me 80s GIFGiphyFollow Your Dream, But Have A Safety Net
"Get a marketable skill, unskilled labor sucks."
"You need something that’s going to pay you, it doesn’t have to be your life’s passion, contrary to what my peers were saying at that age, but you do need to be able to tolerate it."-sweetperdition
"If you don't have a passion, learn new skills."
"You might find your passion or something you're good at."- checkmatelocked
Better Safe Than Sorry
"Cashiers don't care if you buy condoms."- induceddaftfan
Safe Sex Love GIF by DUREXGiphyLooking back at things we wish we knew or had done differently will never end up doing us any good.
But giving this advice to young people could save them a world full of trouble.
Rather than mope about the past, we can help improve the future.
"Doctors of Reddit, what's the biggest case of 'faking it' you've ever seen?"
That's One Large Pain Threshold...
"Taking trauma call during surgery residency, had a prisoner come in after a fight and claimed he couldn’t move or feel his legs."
"All the CT scans and MRIs were normal, but we would shield his legs so he couldn’t see them and poke them with needles and other sharp objects, with enough force to cause pain- he never flinched or moved his legs at all."
"He was diagnosed with SCIWORA, spinal cord injury without radiographic abnormality."
"He stayed in the hospital for a week, no improvement."
"Always had one guard with him."
"One night they were down in the lobby watching some television but the guard needed to use the restroom."
"The patient said, 'where could I possibly go?'"
"I’m paralyzed!'"
"Guard left him alone for two minutes."
"Patient last seen sprinting down the road, naked butt cheeks flapping in the breeze."
"Made it to a city four hours away by car before he was caught again."
"I have never seen anyone fake it so well."
"Truly playing the long con!"- Wine_and_sunshine
season 8 episode 23 GIFGiphyYou'll Have To Do Better Than That...
"Dermatologist here."
"Patient was convinced she had a melanoma and needed a biopsy and would need to be on workers comp."
"I told her it looked like ink from a marker."
"She demanded a biopsy."
"I wiped the area off with an alcohol swab and showed her the ink and that there was no spot on her skin anymore."
"She stormed out threatening to sue."
"I'm just glad I cured her melanoma."- Richter915
No Complaints Here...
"Had a patient come in for a fall who now couldn’t move their legs at all."
"Did a bunch of tests, didn’t find anything."
"The patient was not at all phased by suddenly being paralyzed which was the first red flag."
"Didn’t really believe anything was wrong but the patient was still not moving their legs."
"My options are to admit for a huge work up or get them to walk."
"So I update them saying everything is fine, tests are negative, you can go home."
"Patient gets up, gets dressed and walks out without a word."- meropenem24
There's Clearly One Issue She Wasn't Faking...
"Not a doctor but worked in health care for nearly 20yrs."
"While taking a break from the ICU, due to it being emotionally draining, I worked in home health for a bit."
"I had a patient who clearly had Munchausen syndrome."
"On a daily basis she would call her insurance to see what things would be covered if she was diagnosed with this or that."
"She called her Doctor's office an average of 5x during my shift with her, she would report all kinds of non real symptoms."
"She pestered the doctors into doing exploitive laparoscopic surgery, of course nothing was found."
"One day I walked in and she was rubbing her incisions with rotten cabbage trying to get it infected."
"She wasn't seeking pain meds, except to sell, really she was just as happy with antibiotics or stool softeners, anything, as long as they wrote her a prescription and she got to go to the pharmacy where she did a whole song and dance for them too, claiming allergies and reactions."
"She always increased the exaggeration of her story too."
"One time she fluttered her eyes, after making sure I was looking, and said she lost consciousness in that half a second."
"She called the doctor and claimed she lost consciousness for 5mins, she called the insurance and claimed it was 10min, she called the pharmacy and claimed it was 30min, then she called 911 and told them she woke up on the floor after losing consciousness for 4hrs."
"The worst thing about her was she was a mom."
"Her son was 28 at the time and by all the stories of his childhood illnesses and all her saying how he is severely disabled I knew she basically f**ked up his childhood with Munchausen by proxy."
"She portrayed him as being severely disabled and that's why he would never find a wife."
"I met him, he was healthy and of average intelligence."
"He wasn't looking for a wife, he was gay, but she refused to accept that."
"Working with her was so miserable that I took a couple years off from any and all healthcare after that."- invisible_for_this
GiphyShe Only Thought She Was Faking It.
"Young, 18-20, Woman went running into small rural hospital ER pretending to have abdominal pain."
"Police officer had tagged her going 40+km over the limit which was ‘stunt driving’ as per the new law in Ontario, impound and licsence suspension automatic."
"Cop followed her into ER and apparently said he’d be waiting for her when she left."
"Locum staff such as myself were housed at a small B&B about 15 mins away, and the ER had pre-printed order sets to be done before we arrived."
"When I arrived she flat out admitted that she just came in because she freaked out and didn’t stop."
"I told her we’d give her 45 mins to call her parents/family before I booted her."
"Except, bHCG came back positive, and subsequent ultrasound came back showing extremely early ectopic."
"Officer figures out something is up when he hears air ambulance call come in over radio."
"She was completely asymptomatic and just worked out that she dodged both charges and a life-threatening issue by accident."
"It was definitely a WTF moment."
"A little more info, small rural hospitals in Northern Ontario often service areas from more than an hours drive away and still only have a catchment area of 2000-3000 people."
"When on-call it was just that, we would do our days in the community clinic, then maybe hospital rounds, then go home and be on call; we wouldn’t be at the hospital, there wasn’t an on-call room where you would stay for example."
"There were lots of times that you’d go a full night without being woken up, or maybe just a call from the acute care inpatient wing."
"Locums were short term contracts for places that didn’t have full time medical staff for whatever reason."
"It’s hard to attract clinicians if you don’t even have broadband internet in the community."
"They generally pay very well."- Graigori
It's hard to blame someone for faking illness to get out of something that they really don't want to do.
But when you actually try to get doctors involved in your deception, you might want to question if it's really worth it.
After all, let's not forget the story of "the boy who cried wolf"...
