Leaving Work at Work

Who else has problems leaving work at work? I have found myself not able to stop checking in with work, thinking about work, and talking about work when I'm away from it. This can be difficult enough when you have "regular", less emotionally draining job. But when you work in a direct service field, and abortion specifically because it's so intense and controversial, it's pretty difficult when work permeates your personal life.

I will go in bits here and there where I'm good about not checking in with my abortion work in my non-abortion work time. But then I'll go on a bender where I can't stop - meaning I'm checking e-mail , talking about it, thinking about it, etc when I told myself I wouldn't.

I think I'm safe in speaking for all of the abortioneers in saying that we care and love what we do. We're not ashamed of it, we don't have to hide it, but like with anything, you need time away. You need your own time. Time to be yourself where you don't have to give something to others, be constantly thinking of others, or be thinking about what someone is going to say to you about what you do. Basically we, like everyone else, need to leave our work at work.

I have friends and family that have no problems with this. They talk/vent/complain about their jobs when they're away, but they don't feel tied into them. They aren't compelled to check in constantly. It's not on their minds. So what's my problem? Why can't I detach like them? Is it me, is it the work? I ask my fellow abortioneers reading this blog to comment about your experiences of not being able to detach, or better yet give me and other advice on how you do detach.