Oh no, It’s another full moon
August 16, 2007I am absolutly convinced that full moons play a part in the human psyche, you can guarentee that when it is a full moon outside you will get an influx of psychiatric calls and overdose’s.
Or maybe it’s just one big conincedence, either way it’s very frustrating. I dont really have much time for people who have nothing better to do then take an overdose and then ring 999, the majority of such people are attention seekers, occasionally you get a genuine cry for help, when someone really has lost all hope and taking an overdose is a drastic conclusion for them. Then you get the idiots that take overdoses every day and abuse the 999 system.
But there is something about a full moon that makes normal people go that step further, maybe they are close to the edge and the influence of a full moon pushes them that little bit further?
Anyone who is reading this who works in the control room or on the road, just make a note of the amount of overdose’s and psychiatric jobs next time there is a full moon.
Perhaps the full moon has an affect on the barometric pressure. I know when there is a shift in that pressure, I get major migraines.
I’ll take your last sentence one step further - if you work in ANY job where you have customer contact, check your calendar for moon phases. When you see it’s a full moon, track your whack attacks! I was a supervisor for a local cable provider for many years and I used to keep a tick sheet to track daily call volume and on days when there was a full moon - or tropical storms were coming, whew boy the number of looney bin candidates would soar through the roof!!
Thank you for your input Briggie, I am glad to see it’s not just the emergency services that get harrasses by the lunar calender!!
You’ve definitely got a point. I volunteer for the samaritans and my branch are convinced our calls fluctuate with the weather and lunar cycles - a large majority of our calls are crank calls and calls from people with mental health problems who we just can’t help, but we get a lot more of the crank calls and psychiatric calls when it’s a full moon, and we’re also much quieter when the weather’s nice.
One question - do you notice TV and major events have any effect on your calls? (with the obvious exception of people having heart attack during major sporting events, I’d expect that!) The reason I ask is one of my samaritans colleagues mentioned this to me, and I think she’s right - we’ll be desperately quiet between 7.30 and 8pm (the soap half-hour), but you can guarantee the end credits of coronation st start rolling and our phones start ringing!
TV does have an effect and so does the radio and billboard ad campaigns, recently the government ran an ad campaign for chest pain, it was allover the TV and radio and billboards, that if you have any chest pain phone 999, the amount of calls we got for people with trapped wind and heartburn trebled.
Big football matches have an effect, during the game the phones are quiet, if the team in question loses, there is normally an influx of assaults!
not only the industries you speak of, but retail too, the crazies come out in the full moon. there is an easy scientific explanation in my book. the moon pulls the tides right? we are 70% water, that has to be part of it.
I don’t usually notice when there’s a full moon (unless it’s particularly bright when I’m driving by the sea) but I’ll make sure to take note for next time - maybe it will affect the residents in my care home?
As a Paramedic for 10 or so years, i’d have to agree that when ever there was a full moon it did bring an influx of psychi patients,
having said this, such occurances are nothing new ! the word ‘lunatic’ stems from the early thoughts of the medical profession that the moon did in fact influence a persons behaviour !!