I got home at 8am after a rough one and realized I have developed an entire ecosystem of weird coping mechanisms that I never talk about out loud. Last night I sat in my driveway for twenty minutes blasting true crime podcasts because my brain was too loud to go inside. Then I ate cold leftover salmon standing at the kitchen counter while my husband slept upstairs. Sometimes I deep clean the bathroom at 9am because the physical motion shuts my brain off better than anything else. My teammate from soccer keeps telling me about her ice bath routine which sounds like actual torture but she swears by it. Another ICU nurse I know reorganizes her entire closet after every third shift like clockwork. I tried the whole guided meditation thing and just ended up planning my grocery list in my head for twenty minutes. The only consistent thing I have is my trail running shoes by the door and the vague threat that I might use them eventually. What does your actual postshift wind down look like? Not the ideal version you post about, the real one. I need to know if the driveway thing is normal or if I am just slowly losing it to night shift.   submitted by   /u/Educational_Safe_942 [link]   [comments]