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Topics - Chad Harris

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The Control Room Floor / Skittish about a return
« on: January 20, 2018, 07:17:49 PM »
Folks, some of you might remember me from a similar topic awhile back. Now I honestly feel a bit like I'm crawling back with my tail between my legs. I've always struggled with finding an ATC home, in part because long-undiagnosed anxiety made me very sensitive to criticism, and I easily gave up -- especially when that criticism came from myself. Most recently, I was a member of Denver, and one night in the middle of a depressive episode, a fellow contoller rubbed me the wrong way during a training session through no fault of his own, and I disappeared and didn't look back.

But now I want to come back, but I'm afraid whichever ARTCC I choose will look at my record over the last 14 years and think I'm a troublemaker.

I guess my question is, how do I approach my on-again, off-again relationship with VATSIM/VATUSA since 2004? And how do any fellow controllers out there with anxiety/depression (which, in all honesty, I'm now on meds for, but still have my bad days...) deal with their struggles?

I'm a good guy, really...even if I don't feel like it sometimes. :/ And I'm sorry if this is TMI, but it's how I best process things.

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The Control Room Floor / Returning after a LONG absence, bringing my "companion", anxiety...
« on: September 19, 2016, 09:26:17 PM »
I've been a member of VATSIM for a long, long time and have decided once more to try and take up the challenge of controlling. One of my problems has always been that I've always suffered from severe anxiety -- something that I was formally diagnosed with last year. As a result of the anxiety, I always struggled to stay with my training or to feel like I was in the right spot. I'd get frustrated with myself and just let my account go inactive, or I'd think I'd have better luck and focus in a different ARTCC.

Net result: I'm a decade-and-a-half veteran of VATSIM, and I'm still an S3. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course...mainly I'm just frustrated with myself. On top of it all, I don't really remember the higher-level stuff I learned to get my S3, so I know I've got some catching up to do.

Anyway, that's all a long-winded way of asking if anyone might have some advice for me on how to best approach things now that I know what my struggle is and it's more manageable with medication -- though definitely still difficult sometimes.

I've been taking my time mulling over which ARTCC to approach, because I worry that my long absence will lead to some training headaches or feel like I'm taking up valuable training time from other folks, simply because I struggled to stay focused, calm, and engaged during my last attempts -- and failed miserably. :/ Still something I'm considering; I'm not in a hurry to pull the trigger yet, until I can really evaluate where my best fit is going to be.

I guess I'm just worried that I'll be seen as a "troublemaker" or "that guy who can't stick with it...ugh!", and I want to be an asset to an ARTCC, VATUSA, and VATSIM's users as a whole. I certainly don't want to frustrate fellow controllers -- or the pilots!

Any advice, folks?  ???

Thanks in advance for your insights or thoughts.  :D

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The Control Room Floor / How to find/evaluate the right ARTCC for me?
« on: May 12, 2011, 09:45:05 PM »
I've been a member of VATSIM for many moons, and SATCO before that, and I've taken numerous stabs at really getting into ATC training, trying to find the right training approach for me, and more importantly, the region and ARTCC/FIR that provided the best fit. It's been tough, to say the least. Now, I'm back, looking at diving back into the world of virtual ATC, and more determined than ever to not let my past struggles trip me up.

What I am struggling with right now, however, is trying to figure out which ARTCC is the best fit for me. I know back in the olden days, there had been a really nice overview of the various ARTCCs, their traffic levels, their training programs, and the like that was on the VATUSA website. Redesigns and updates no doubt rendered it obsolete, which no doubt led to it no longer being available. I get that...but it's also sad. I'm in need of a little insight and guidance, and a setup like that would've been great.

Failing that, though...is the best way to get a feel for an ARTCC to simply peruse the websites? Like I said, I'm just having difficulty figuring out where I want to really dive into controlling -- I'm bound and determined to not let myself give up this time, but I also know that I no doubt need to do a solid review of the basics that would normally be presumed to be "mastered" by the presence of my current S2 rating.

So I guess this has all been a long-winded way of asking: how did you settle on your ARTCC and discover it to be the right fit? I've got a "short list", based on things I've gleaned from reading the forums and from watching traffic levels in Servinfo, as well as just being places where, for one reason or another, I kinda feel like I'd be "at home" controlling. I just need to figure out which direction to go, and thought I'd ask for a bit o' insight on how y'all ended up where you are.

Thanks in advance.

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