Photo by Dottie Di Liddo on Unsplash

Stress comes in many shapes and forms whether it’s your daily life or occupational. We all have so much going on. I have conducted an interview with a fire fighter named Dylan Bruton. I figured that choosing someone who deals with high levels of stress daily from his occupation would give everyone a better understanding of how stressful situations can be dealt with. 

For my first question I asked him Since becoming a firefighter would you consider yourself to carry more or less stress than before. (Dylan)  “i don’t believe because of my job that i carry more stress than the next person. So to answer your question, no, I don’t consider myself to carry more stress than before.” Hearing this was very surprising. I figured having a stressful role to fill would ultimately make for more stress but for him that is not the case. 

Then I asked “in stressful situations how have you walked yourself through them” Dylan answered “For myself, I revert back to my training. I do this job because I believe i am capable of it and I know I am capable of it because i prepare myself for the worst situations. So pretty much grounding myself and taking whatever stressful situation is at hand one moment at a time.” From that I can see why he is so confident in himself, he has trained and prepared himself allowing him to tackle any obstacle present. 

I wanted to dig in deeper with a more specific example I asked him “ what is a stressful situation that you can recall” he answered “ Without violating HIPPA; I was recently dispatched to a call where I found myself preforming chest compressions on a patient. Yes, it was a stressful situation (family crying, medication doses being calculated and drawn up, multiple personnel on scene, etc.) to a third party it may have seemed  chaotic. But aforementioned, I (we) have trained for this situation and not to sound desensitized,  but it was a controlled chaos. To be honest I find myself more stressed when it comes to maybe dealing with finances or meeting a deadline or before taking a test.” This paints a great picture, we can imagine what it would be like to be thrown into a situation of pure chaos, Dylan says it to be controlled. He makes a point that finances or tests may stress him out even more. It comes down to preparation, they are ready for almost anything to happen and they are constantly training staying at a high level, so when there is something “crazy” to a citizen may not seem so crazy to someone who is seeing this kind of thing so much more often. 

My next question was “who helped you the most while dealing with immense pressure of your job” Dylan says “ Being with people that have the same experiences as you help tremendously, but sometimes that doesn’t work for everyone. There’re different outlets that are provided to us as fire fighters to talk with someone, a professional, about maybe some stressful situations you might be holding on to.

       For me personally, I like to keep it simple. I try to enjoy the small things. Whether it be eating a meal while watching your favorite tv series or just taking a moment to sit outside and enjoy the sun. And always, just talking or being with a friend.” It seems Having those professionals work along side him was a huge help. Having people close to you that are going through exactly what you are and being able to talk to people who can relate makes us feel less alone 

Finally I asked Dylan “ Was there ever a time you could not deal with the pressure of your job and how did you get through it. “ he answered “There hasn’t been an instance yet where I couldn’t deal with the pressure of my job, and not saying there won’t be in the future. It is very likely that i come to that cross road and if i do and i feel that i cannot preform to a capacity that will help people when it is needed most, then i will tell myself that it is time to move on from the profession and i wouldn’t feel less of a person for doing so.” Such a humble and real answer I love it. Although he has not come to a point where he was unable to do his job he knows that if he did have to quit due to his personal health then he would retire just like that. As someone with a dad in the military I find that to be very reassuring, knowing that if I am ever in danger that someone in there best physical and mental condition can be there to help me. 

Steven Reeves

Student Writer - Spring 2026

I am not the strongest writer. I am interested in making content through forms of art like video or images. I am at the start of getting my digital media and technology degree. I hope to be able to work on some really cool projects or a movie in the future. I spend most of my time at work or at the gym. I have one orange cat, and he’s insane!