You’ve spent your career caring for other people, a commitment that can make it remarkably easy to neglect your well-being. Sacrificing sleep, skipping meals, and using your downtime to catch up on documentation may make you feel virtuous, but Self-Care Awareness Month is a vital opportunity to challenge that assumption.
Genuine self-care is not selfish, and it isn’t something you only “deserve” to do on your days off. Often, the most valuable act of self-love is twofold – accepting you have a problem and asking for help.
Why Physicians Put Themselves Last
Many health providers are proud of their ability to tolerate long shifts and endure challenges like insomnia, grief and loss, and compassion fatigue. However, your ability to continue functioning while enduring discomfort isn’t the same as being well.
Self-care is nonnegotiable. Restful sleep, nutritious food, exercise, meaningful relationships, hobbies, and opportunities to decompress maintain the physical and psychological resources required for your demanding career.
Healthy boundaries are also crucial. Protecting your free time, taking vacations without constantly replying to work emails, and saying no when you’ve already reached your limit can preserve space for a life beyond medicine. These habits are most effective when you proactively incorporate them into your routine rather than emergency measures you deploy only after you’ve become burned out.
Pay Attention to Your Coping Strategies
Effective self-care demands self-awareness. Unfortunately, many physicians recognize symptoms of burnout, depression, anxiety, trauma, substance use, and emotional suppression in their patients while dismissing the same warning signs in themselves.
Perhaps you’re drinking more often after difficult shifts. Maybe you need medication to sleep and stimulants to function the next morning. You’re increasingly irritable with your family and friends, or you dread work you once thought was rewarding.
Recognizing these changes and giving them the attention they deserve is a powerful act of self-care. You wouldn’t tell your patients to ignore their worsening symptoms – you’d encourage them to get an objective assessment and appropriate care. You deserve the same consideration.
Sometimes a Weekend Away Isn’t Enough
Time off can be restorative enough to temporarily reduce stress, but it cannot necessarily resolve severe burnout, depression, trauma, complicated grief, or a substance use disorder. If your symptoms never fully resolve or return almost immediately when you go back to work, your problem may require more than additional downtime.
Effective self-care means responding to your real-world needs instead of choosing the path of least resistance. For some physicians, that means making the difficult decision to step away from medicine temporarily and focus seriously on recovery.
Give Yourself the Care You Would Recommend to Someone Else
At The Practice, physicians have an opportunity to put their responsibilities on pause while they receive focused attention. Our confidential, exclusive environment addresses substance use, burnout, trauma, grief, and co-occurring mental health concerns while recognizing the professional realities physicians face. We offer comprehensive evaluations and evidence-based treatments, complemented by nutritious meals, intentionally small peer groups, and individualized aftercare planning.
If you’re a physician accustomed to taking care of everyone else, accepting help may be one of the best gifts you can give yourself. Reach out today if you have questions and need experienced guidance.