<a href='https://shift.ms/community/people/strawberrygirl/' rel='nofollow'>@strawberrygirl</a>, as far as I'm concerned, stress to MS is like a red rag to a bull, so it needs to be avoided. You mention patients so I might assume that you work for the NHS, who believe that cost efficiencies come from under-staffing. I can understand the pressure you're under. Try to manage the stress as the stress itself doesn't add anything to the job at hand, Try and take 10 and deep breathe. Then go back to it. You can only do so much in your allotted time. if it doesn't get done, it's not your fault/responsibility.

To my mind, there are two types of stress: the acute type that comes with any sort of crisis (whether at work or in private life) and a more generalised sort - coming from living at a certain pace, with certain expectations. Any crisis (for me)brings on symptoms, sometimes not immediately, but they always creep up. I don't have any ideas about what you can do to protect yourself from job stress. (I was lucky - my excellent employer gave one of his staff a role in being my support. I was always able to offload onto her, and she kept a weather eye on developing situations, tipping me the wink if a problem was likely to land on my desk). But I do think there are ways to 'live better' in general. The space of my home has become incredibly important to me and I can relax fully, shut out everything and SLOW DOWN. I also find that doing exercise gets rid of a lot of stress, the more vigorous the better. As <a href='https://shift.ms/community/people/Stumbler/' rel='nofollow'>@Stumbler</a> says, the stress doesn't add to the job, so perhaps it's better to concentrate on life outside work. Big hugs, xx