# passed meps



## slider (Feb 9, 2013)

if you dont know what meps is go here:
http://www.military.com/join-armed-forces/meps-process-requirements.html

I rank my stress level that can cause a panic attack from 1-10
stress level needs to go above 7 and after that is a chain reaction of holy ****ing ****.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amygdala_hijack

the most imporant pdf you will ever read:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/files/attachments/51483/handling-the-hijack.pdf









Meps is a two day event, the first day is getting to the hotel and getting security briefings then the second day is actual meps. I was taken to phoenix meps and stayed at a three star hotel. It was such a nice hotel, marble was everywhere and the food was quite nice.

The first day was very stressful due to the fact i was around people in my age range 17-25 (me = 25) We travelled with a "battle buddy" and this guy was so dumb i could not even stand him. He would play his rap on his phone on speaker mode and was one of those people that just needs a roundhouse kick to the face. So to preserve my sanity i politely told him to "quit that ****ing **** god damit or i would press a pillow on your face while you sleep" It was very effective i never heard the cellphone come out or play bad ring tones for the rest of the trip. I can say eating in the dinner hall was some of highest stress points of the trip because everyone ate alone who was not sitting at the long table. So i ate quickly and went back to my room and watched shows on my nexus 10 to kill time. At 8:30 every night there is a mandatory briefing about " dont **** anyone, if you see it report it and we hope your say is nice and other bull**** i did not pay any attention too." After being awake for 48 hours now i was wanting to go back to my room and see if i could find some sleep in my bed but that never came. At 3:14am we got a wake up call and me and my battle buddy went down to the lower level of the building to get our breakfast. The dinner was great but the breakfast was so bad. The food seemed to be reheated and cooked hours or even days before. After eating a few potatoes and some cooked meat in strips i went to the front of the hotel lobby to wait for our shuttle to meps. We waited an hour and a half but in that time i thought about how nice the wood in the table was and how thankful i was to be there.
We boarded the largest and cleanest bus i have ever seen and even the bus driver was wearing a white suit. He could tell how fearful everyone was on that dark early morning ride (the sun was not up yet) and only a few cars were out. Phoenix seemed to be almost empty in the early morning. So the man in white made a joke about walmart greeters i really was not paying attention but everyone laughed and i was grateful for the comic relief to cut the stress of what we were about to do.

We arrived at a large glass federal building. Looking at it from the outside you could not have any idea of what went on inside as the glass was tinted black. We made two lines and went and entered the lobby of the building. It reminded me of the lobby from the matix. Everything was covered in white marble and the elevator accelerated so fast it made your stomach drop. When the doors opened we came to a very large room with excessively large flat screen tvs hung on every wall. We were given paper stick on name tags that told what military branch we were from and our name and a three letter code. We got another briefing on how to handle attacks to the building and emergences like fire or biological and to report any thing odd like a backback on the ground that has been there for a few hours.

We put all of our stuff into a small room and i was seperated from my water bottle that cools my stressed out stomach. Drinking a little bit of water is a method of physical and emotional grounding so was worried about having my stress level go too high and having no way to control it. But stress never really went too high because there was always something to do or a form to fill out. We did paper work for an hour then watched tv to kill time then got another briefing.

The first test was a blood pressure test and i passed that with flying colours: 110/70 with a pulse of 80 @ age 25. Looking at my blood pressure read outs my ability to cope with stress was very good. The second test we good was a breathalyser. Now for the fun part we went and did a pee test. Some people could not pee while someone stood over them but since i had to go anyway it was a when in rome moment. Next was a blood draw and i waited on a bench next to a line of girls sweating and not wanting to go next in line. Everyone shook there heads and did not want to go so i said " ah **** it ill go next its just a needle" Sitting on the chair i took a deep breath and made a fist and the medic found my vein and stuck me with the biggest god dam needle i have ever seen. He talked briefly while the needle filled with blood and he was a cool operator when doing the blood draw i was highly impressed. Wondering out of the small cubical where my blood was drawn i went into a room next to two doors and waited to see a doctor. He was very old and used a cane to move around and had a southern accent but for the most part polite with an injection of "jesus christ son" that made me hold back a chuckle when my clothes came off because my back / arms / legs are ripped from all the cardio i do. We did the bend and cough and i did not think much of it. I put on my cloths and he stamped on my record chart that i was in "exceptional health" so we moved to a room with seven other people for neurological testing. This test we used our thumb to touch all our fingers on both hands and back kicked the ground but stopped inches from it and did "the duck walk" along with hight and weight. Everyone in the group passed and we were then sent to a mess hall and got food. We got done at 11:00 am but since the rest of the group was not done we waited until 4:30 for the rest of the group to get done and for our recruiters to pick us up. In that mean time the only show on tv was a news broadcast from the "HLN news" that only showed four different storied on a god dam loop threw the entire day. So after four hours of that throwing myself down a flight of stares looked so appealing. I concluded that since i did not have alzheimer's this was not the channel i should be watching so i went and changed the channel with my cellphone. Not long after our recruiter picked us up and i went home. She told me that i qualified for seal and a few other special operation jobs due to my scores and the medical exam. My response was "ah k lets just get home i got some funny cats to watch on youtube." So i got home and slept for 18 hours i just woke up after being awake for 72 fml.

So the four methods i used to stop stress from elevating:
combat breathing
name the trigger or emotion
being thankful at the opportunity i was being given
thinking positivity.

ill just go back to sleep now brb


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## Steve French (Sep 17, 2012)

Right on, congrats man.

I probably couldn't have hacked it. Lack of sleep, forced proximity to others, doctors, needles, the hernia test, would have all had me freaking. Man, I sound like a total pusscake.

Those links were pretty good as well. Definitely going to have to buy that On Combat book.

I've often thought that being put in a stressful and disciplined environment with few escape routes like the military could potentially be quite helpful to a person with a lot of anxiety. Quite the exercise in exposure therapy. Can't knock all the life experiences and the potential free education either.


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## HappyFac3 (Jul 13, 2014)

Great job on getting through MEPS. Man, I was really anxious there lol. What branch are you going into? I'm guessing Navy since you qualified for seals? I'm in the Navy myself, been in for 9 months. One of the reasons I joined was to get rid of my social anxiety. I'll say all the social exposure has helped me quite a bit.


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## slider (Feb 9, 2013)

HappyFac3 said:


> Great job on getting through MEPS. Man, I was really anxious there lol. What branch are you going into? I'm guessing Navy since you qualified for seals? I'm in the Navy myself, been in for 9 months. One of the reasons I joined was to get rid of my social anxiety. I'll say all the social exposure has helped me quite a bit.


Navy  
Well I'm getting away from family as they live in my house right now so i can get enough money to buy a new one and rent this one.



Steve French said:


> Right on, congrats man.
> 
> I probably couldn't have hacked it. Lack of sleep, forced proximity to others, doctors, needles, the hernia test, would have all had me freaking. Man, I sound like a total pusscake.
> 
> ...


Yes meps was really stressful but since your doing so much random stuff you dont have time to stress out. This was one hell of a life experience. Just love that hurry up and wait.


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## pollutedessence (Aug 18, 2014)

Ahhh! I remember that, "Oh my god, how the hell did I pass?" feeling. "They don't think I'm a total freak!" hahaha This post is super awesome. Much respect! Congratulations on passing!  I went to the Atlanta MEPS. I joined the AF to get rid of my social anxiety and get away from home as well and it definitely helped. I've been in since June 2011 and I'm getting out Nov 2015. Good 'ol Turkey. Good luck in basic training!!! You'll do awesome.


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## AndreaXo (Mar 22, 2014)

Hi. Just curious but are you enlisted or in the officer's program?


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## Live Through This (Aug 24, 2014)

HappyFac3 said:


> One of the reasons I joined was to get rid of my social anxiety. I'll say all the social exposure has helped me quite a bit.


I'm glad to read that. I'm going into the Air Force myself and I'm looking forward to the forced interaction. I'm hoping I'll gain self-confidence from being in the military.

To the OP: MEPS flew by for me. I found it more boring than anything else, except for the part where I was almost disqualifed for a misunderstanding about a medical issue. I also had to get my ears cleaned out or I would have been put on hold. So I had to call a taxi, went down to Patient First, waited for what seemed like hours (was probably like 30 minutes), then had to get back to MEPS before it closed for the day. My recruiter and I had a laugh about that afterwards.


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