“I maybe have a tiny shred of compassion.” A doctor I know wrote this in reference to a person they’d never met, a person who had been verbally abusive to many health care professionals. A person who was a prospective patient. A tiny …
Category: Psychiatry
The impact of war trauma, the challenge of objectivity, and the power of therapy and storytelling in healing
Trauma in the form of war is one of the worst forms of trauma to endure. How do people remain objective about events and the involved nations when they have been directly or indirectly affected by war? For example, how are Holocaust survivors and their…
Unworthiness nearly killed me
In 2016, I sat on a hospital bed in Utah, having flown from North Carolina for specialized medical treatment as my life was slowly slipping away from starvation. During this time, I was in the Air Force and an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident co…
Why doctors should embrace uncertainty for better patient outcomes
Recently, I met a coaching client for her second session. As we greeted each other, it was immediately apparent that her energy and mood had shifted from the first session. She seemed lighter, her shoulders were higher, and her posture was straighter. …
Embracing vulnerability: a doctor’s journey of healing and connection
One doctor I’ve worked with had gotten caught up in the idea of being a doctor. She realized, during her training with us, that she had stopped looking her patients in the eye. In fact, she had stopped making eye contact with her patients when sh…
Breaking free from denial: Embracing the truth
I understand it well. You persuade yourself that everything is fine. And then you persuade others that your marriage is perfect. You’re facing a terminal illness, but you’re the exception because it surely can’t happen to you. YouR…
Venture-backed telemental health care companies are creating a new opioid epidemic
More Americans are seeking mental health care than ever before, but many people receiving treatment have never met their psychiatrist in person—or even at all. Telemedicine has been growing in popularity for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic sent tele-h…
Embracing imperfection: strategies for growth and self-compassion [PODCAST]
Subscribe to The Podcast by KevinMD. Watch on YouTube. Catch up on old episodes! Join Caissa Troutman, an obesity medicine physician, as we delve into the intricate relationship between self-perception, mistakes, and personal growth. Caissa shares insi…
Youth are changing perceptions of death: Here’s what they want you to know
There is a diary entry of mine (Sparks) from when I learned that the pandemic would last longer than we initially thought. 17 years old at the time, I described my feelings of fear at the thought that I may die. “I don’t know if there’…
How psychiatry fails trauma survivors
Psychiatry has a duty to be trauma-informed, given that 50 to 60 percent of the general population, and around 90 percent of people with severe mental illness, have a lifetime history of at least one traumatic event. Yet the mental health system often …
