Physicians routinely make crucial decisions, deliver devastating news, and manage emergencies without allowing their emotions to interfere with patient care. Your ability to remain calm and level-headed in a crisis may define your professional identity, but it doesn’t automatically make you a healthy, well-adjusted person.
Since October is Emotional Wellness Month, it is an ideal opportunity to consider what qualities characterize emotionally healthy physicians and why it’s a career goal to strive for.
Naming Your Feelings
The mental health realities of being a physician include psychological strain, cumulative grief, and ongoing trauma. You can’t respond constructively to these issues unless you are aware of them, but many health professionals become so accustomed to compartmentalizing that they tune themselves out. The collective effects of unacknowledged feelings such as sadness, guilt, or resentment can make you irritable and drive a wedge between you and your loved ones.
Complex emotions don’t make you less capable of practicing medicine. Instead of automatically denying or suppressing these uncomfortable feelings, periodically check in with yourself and acknowledge what’s happening.
Responding Instead of Reacting
Emotional regulation is an essential skill for physicians. You don’t have to immediately react to stressful interactions with your colleagues or patients. It’s OK to pause and collect your thoughts while you carefully choose how to respond. The 24-hour rule is a worthwhile practice because it gives you space to avoid saying or doing something thoughtless or rude when you are frustrated or upset.
Healthy regulation often involves practicing mindfulness, reframing unhelpful assumptions, and being honest with people you trust. The goal is to eliminate negativity rather than allowing it to control your behavior.
Making Room for Vulnerability
Medicine can be a lonely calling because it makes you a person everyone else depends on, but your self-worth should extend beyond your ability to solve problems or care for others.
Healthy relationships provide opportunities to express yourself honestly, receive support, and maintain perspective outside your professional responsibilities. They also remind you that you are human and deserve mutually beneficial relationships. A willingness to display vulnerability is a vital component of your emotional health.
Developing Psychological Flexibility
The best physicians are resourceful and pragmatic. However, sometimes you must accept what you can’t control. A patient’s health may decline despite the excellent care you’ve provided. The impact of lawsuits, complaints or professional investigations might affect your career in ways you never anticipated. Decisions made at the corporate level could conflict with your values.
Psychological flexibility involves adapting to the unexpected instead of getting bogged down in self-criticism, resentment, or rigid expectations. You don’t have to accept choices that seem unethical or fall short of your high standards, but you should recognize the difference between independence and isolation and learn to tolerate uncertainty.
Knowing When to Ask for Help
Physicians sometimes reject the idea of seeking professional help with mental and behavioral health challenges such as burnout, depression, anxiety, or escalating substance use issues, fearing that others will interpret it as a confession that they cannot handle their responsibilities.
If you’ve noticed that your go-to coping strategies are ineffective or actively harmful, use the same sound judgment you’ve developed over years of working with your patients. For example, if someone in your care told you that they’ve developed a daily drinking habit and have unsuccessfully tried to quit or cut back, you’d take it seriously and suggest they pursue specialized treatment. Don’t you think your warning signs deserve that level of compassion, respect, and follow-through?
Prioritize Your Emotional Health at The Practice
At The Practice, we understand that people outside medicine don’t always appreciate the unique emotional demands a career in medicine can introduce. Our confidential, physician-only retreat provides a supportive structure where doctors can hone the awareness and flexibility to handle the realities of practicing medicine – without losing themselves in the process.
We help our clients address burnout, trauma, depression, substance use, and other challenges through comprehensive assessments, evidence-based therapy, small peer groups, and individualized care. You devote extraordinary energy to caring for your patients, but now it’s time to focus on yourself and request help today.