I tend to size people up pretty quickly. Adult ADHD? I can diagnose it in about two minutes. Borderline personality disorder? About one minute. Bad actors on the Dr. Phil show? About 30 seconds (with the benefit of Dr. Phil’s preamble). I can’t help it. I attribute my habit of analyzing people to my training and practice in psychiatry. After a 40-year career in medicine, I can no longer delineate …
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When I decided to leave practice and explore non-clinical career options, I found no shortage of opportunities, ranging from the pharmaceutical industry to the health insurance industry and many points in between. I chose to work in the health insurance industry because jobs were plentiful, and the focus of work remained on the patient.
A typical entry-level job in the health insurance industry is that of utilization …
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Anniversaries are usually joyous occasions to celebrate – a wedding date or a date of independence, for example. Other anniversaries invoke solemn occasions, such as the end of a war or 9/11 after the bombing of New York. But there is another type of anniversary some of us in the medical profession commemorate because each year it reminds us of a traumatic experience we endured earlier in our career, often …
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When the greatest-of-all-time gymnast Simone Biles withdrew from the Olympics to focus on her mental wellbeing, most observers applauded her decision, viewing it as an act of courage and bravery, an eye-opener for breaking the stigma around mental health. Many felt it was a positive step (no pun intended) because it reignited conversations about elite athletes and other high-stress professionals and their ability to perform under psychological adversity. However, does the …
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