James is a tall, lanky Caucasian man, well into his 40s. He has brown curly hair and is not a bad looking fellow except for the vacant look in his large brown eyes. He is a pacer, which is a manifestation of his illness, and a consumer of excessive amo…
Professional burnout is widely identified using the Maslach Burnout Inventory, which defines it along psychological lines: emotional exhaustion, a feeling of depersonalization and cynicism, and a low sense of personal accomplishment. Accordingly, the p…
Stress is one of the epidemics of modern-day living—especially work-related stress. At a basic fundamental level, it’s just simply a chemical reaction. Your adrenaline and cortisol levels shoot up in response to a stressful stimulus, the primitive “fig…
If my hypertensive patient develops orthostatism and falls and breaks her hip, I fully expect the orthopedic surgeon on call to treat her. I may kick myself that this happened, but I’m not qualified to treat a broken hip. If my anticoagulated patient h…
Mr. Fine is in for the eleventh time in less than a week. I work as a social worker in a hospital emergency psych unit. Mr. Fine is suicidal again. It is kind of late in the evening when I see him, although it is my first time, I am the only social wor…
Eighteen months out of residency and into outpatient psychiatry private practice, for the first time since before medical school, I’m coming home actually feeling a surplus of energy to put into my life outside of clinical practice. Sure, I did m…
An excerpt from Long Walk Out of the Woods: A Physician’s Story of Addiction, Depression, Hope, and Recovery. As a young child’s heart rhythm faded to a stop, I walked off the hospital floor and got in my car with a plan to end my own life. For w…
An excerpt from Long Walk Out of the Woods: A Physician’s Story of Addiction, Depression, Hope, and Recovery. As a young child’s heart rhythm faded to a stop, I walked off the hospital floor and got in my car with a plan to end my own life. For w…
Recently, a fellow physician mom ended her life. While outwardly, a very vibrant, lively, and happy woman, she fought her own internal demons for some time. From what we know, she struggled with depression but was still committed to being a good mom, p…
An excerpt from Fallible: A Memoir of a Young Physician’s Struggle with Mental Illness. Jason had an entire group of voices in his head that he called “the committee.” They talked nearly constantly, sometimes in a flat roar but often escalating t…
