“I can do better. We can do better. Please partner with me and advocate for the ability for doctors and residents in our profession to receive medical and psychiatric care without fear of losing our licenses or having to face stigma and judgment….
Category: Psychiatry
The culture of silence works against medical professionals’ wellness
This excerpt is adapted from Stress in Medicine: Lessons Learned Through My Years as a Surgeon, from Med School to Residency, and Beyond. I will never forget the moment when I learned that a longtime physician friend had taken his own life. My friend w…
Stop chasing the eternal search for happiness
I have been searching for something all of my life. Some would call it happiness; others call it success. No matter what I achieve, the goalposts seem to keep moving. Perhaps this sounds familiar. Maybe you realize that it is all an endless chase. Mayb…
Talk to me. Talk to us. Talk about That Topic.
This topic always takes me back. To the time my life stopped and flipped upside down. I never understood how people could drop to their knees in public and have a moment of agony or grief. I guess the pain I had felt up to that moment was not strong…
Reflecting on the tragedy of physician suicide
Recent events in our mid-west region prompted us to bring the topic of physician suicide forward with our residents and fellows. They received this information in a weekly mindfulness email they receive as part of our internal coaching program: Losing …
The Rx we were never taught to write
As a diagnostic radiologist, I could not have imagined anything more amazing than having the privilege of using “x-ray vision” to peer inside my patients’ bodies in search of the etiologies behind their symptoms and illnesses. But over time, I felt inc…
Peer-to-peer support and the second victim syndrome [PODCAST]
“The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted everyone, especially those of us in health care. Our way of practicing medicine has been changed; some would say forever. We find ourselves affected not only clinically but also emotionally. As a result, clin…
Marijuana legalization: an unpopular view
In the mid-1990s, a few pharmaceutical companies made broad claims regarding the safety and efficacy of opioid medications for pain management. These claims were based on limited research that did not fully account for these drugs’ potentially ha…
Emotional support animals for health care providers
Me: “Hey buddy, how was your day?” Salem: “Meow meow meow!” Me: “Really? That sounds so cool! What else did you do today? I missed you so much!” My favorite part of each day is coming home to my sweet boy, Salem. He is a 2-year-old cat that I adopted f…
Physicians are an underserved population about their own mental health care
COVID-19 has shed light on a pre-existing condition in medicine – our health care system has failed to tend to its workforce’s well-being. While generally privileged, physicians are an underserved population about their own mental health care. Nu…
