First Responders & AA- How do we do it?
Hello friends, I (24F) am just short of a year sober and working as an EMT and am struggling to reconcile my two different worlds. This has all come to a bit of a head recently following a crash involving a good friend from the rooms.
I was paged out to a crash and as soon as I heard the address, my heart dropped. I knew it was one of the main AA clubs here in town. Sure enough, I arrive on scene and find someone I know well from the rooms facedown in a pool of blood. Without getting into specifics, they are expected to make a full recovery, but in the moment it was fairly jarring. I live and work in a fairly metropolitan area, so seeing people I know at work is not something I'm very used to.
My issue now is this: I am struggling with who to talk to about this. On the one hand, I'd love to be able to talk to my sponsor about it, but I'm worried I may give her identity away accidentally and be in violation of HIPAA. On the other hand, talking to my colleagues about an accident involving someone I know at an AA club doesn't exactly protect my own anonymity either, and I don't discuss my sobriety much at work.
Part of me knows it's really not an issue of privacy, it's more that no matter who I talk to, I worry they won't understand. After we transported her to the hospital, my partner was making jokes about the whole situation. I recognize he was trying to cheer me up, but I didn't have the heart to tell him I knew her personally. Trying to talk to my sponsor about work has always been met with sympathy but also the recognition that she has no idea what it's like.
I feel I'm hitting a wall, and if you've read this far I really do appreciate it. If any first responders or people in similar lines of work have any advice, I'm all ears. Thank you!