But in his highly-stressful job, Mr O'Brien knows exactly how important it is to "stop and smell the roses".

"Everyone deals with stress in different ways but you have got to find coping mechanisms. Stress can affect people's relationships, their work and their life," Mr O'Brien said.

"In the ambos we have trained counsellors to help us deal with the stresses of our job but we also talk to our colleagues who know what we're going through. We joke around a lot too -you've got to have the ability to laugh at yourself and at the situation and realise you can't change things by stressing about them."

Having to attend jobs which often become highly emotional situations, Mr O'Brien said it was important to realise your limits, what you can and can't do and not stress about what could have happened.

"I leave my work at work. As soon as I walk through the front door of my home I try not to think about it. I turn on the TV and watch some comedy or talk to my family," he said.

Last Friday was Lifeline Australia's Stress Down Day which aimed to raise awareness about stress in everyday life and promote ways to cope or reduce stress so people can live happier and healthier lives.

Mr O'Brien said it was vital to remember how much stress does actually affect people and it was important for people to stop and think about the message Lifeline was trying to get across.

Often if people are experiencing high levels of stress they have broken sleep patterns, feel tired, lose interest in activities they used to be passionate about, get panicked easily, feel depressed, increase their alcohol or drug intake to "deal with it", have uncharacteristic mood swings and in some cases thoughts of suicide.

Ways of dealing with stress can often be as simple as spending time with family or even the family pet, making time to do things that make you happy, limiting alcohol or substance intake, taking time out to relax and looking after yourself both physically and mentally.