Grey's Anatomy is the television equivalent to the common cold: once you get it, it just keeps coming back. It is a virus. If you have been lucky enough to experience the rollercoaster of emotions that comes along with this edge-of-your-seat drama, you most likely have contracted one or all of these symptoms.
1. Med-School Fantasies
If you have ever seen the show, odds are, you have at one point or another pictured yourself in the all-powerful white coat and stethoscope. This is true no matter your background, interests, or even knowledge of any medicine at all. This is coming from someone who nearly faints at the sight of needles and has never gotten blood drawn for fear of what will happen after! I can personally say that no matter how short lived it was, part of me told myself, "Yeah, I could be a doctor! Looks like fun!" Although five minutes later, I came to my senses and resumed the episode happily.
2. Irrational, Fictional Relationships
First rule of Grey's Anatomy: DO NOT GET ATTACHED. No matter what you do, do not become completely 100% invested in a character. I'm not here to spoil anything for you, but as a friend, just trust me. At a certain point, you can know so much about a character that it almost seems like you know them in real life. They become one of your favorites. Then they're gone (thanks, Shonda Rhimes). It's okay, let the tears fall. You can always go back to past seasons when you're feeling deprived of a character.
3. Even more fictional relationships...
Don't lie, you have definitely imagined what your life would be like if you could be with a "McDreamy" or "McSteamy" of your own. We all have. I mean, look at them. Shonda Rhimes may be good at plot twists and throwing wrenches into our favorite plot lines, but she is even better at casting! And it's okay; we all feel the same way when we see them:
4. Falsely claiming you are "basically already a doctor"
On more than one occasion, I have believed that I knew more about medicine than I clearly do. The word "hematoma" could randomly come up in a sentence and all I would be able to tell you about it is that I once heard Derek Shepard diagnose a patient with one. I have made trips to a hospital to visit a friend and felt like I knew what her doctors were saying solely because I may have heard the word once before in my entire life. You'll probably see yourself casually shouting "CODE BLUE!! Get a crash cart!!!" with no explanation because suddenly, you're a medical professional! To some people, you'll sound really smart, but little do they know, you have no clue what any of this means.
5. Sympathetic Exhaustion
As the doctors of Grey's work hundreds of hours a week, they sometimes forget just how much they need sleep. We, on the other hand, are exhausted from binge watching season after season. In our defense, the show is currently still airing, and moving into its 13th season. It just never ends!!!! Not that we're complaining, though... BUT regardless of how many hours we spend in front of the television thanking Netflix for finally releasing all 12 seasons, we will still feel like we worked 87 hours this week along side our favorite cardiac, trauma, and neurosurgeons.
