“Many families still prefer their providers to wear a mask. I have no way to know who carries what political or health views around their mask-wearing. Their masks were off, and mine was on. When I asked them for their preference of whether they feel comfortable with me wearing a mask …
A psychiatrist presenting emotion [PODCAST]
I am a former associate director in a state physician health program (PHP). I also hold faculty appointments at Baylor College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School in ethics and psychiatry. I started writing about PHPs a decade ago. Almost immediately, I started receiving emails and phone calls from physicians and their lawyers that had a disturbing theme. They’d been referred to their state PHP for a relatively minor issue, …
The extortion of physicians: If doctors don’t pay up they don’t work
“The email on your account was changed. If you didn’t change your email address, you can secure your account here.”
I saw this email from Instagram and immediately had a sinking feeling in my stomach.
I clicked the link, but it was too late.
My Instagram account was hacked, and I lost access to everything.
I have heard stories about people getting hacked and never paused to think that it could happen to me.
Until …
What I learned after being hacked on social media
“How does it work? We teach people to speak to one another’s values. Have you heard of listening to answer vs. listening to understand? Well, we take that one step further. We teach first to use personality science to find the values of everyone around you, then listen to, and speak …
How to solve burnout with communication [PODCAST]
Despite a popular embrace of self-care and the growing awareness of trauma-like symptoms stemming from COVID, one facet of mental health remains widely overlooked: the way our emotional state affects our skin.
Although most of us don’t think about it regularly, our mental state impacts our bodies from head to toe, and the skin—the largest, most visible organ of the human body—is not an exception.
Over the last …
Want your skin to look better? Then consider your mental health.
The practice of medicine goes beyond treating bodily wounds or electrolyte imbalances but also involves understanding and holistically helping patients. To ensure that the health care system functions well, physicians work tirelessly around the clock to provide care, support, and hope. Our focus is on delivering the best possible care to our patients, often putting aside our own needs and wants to complete the never-ending daily scroll of to-dos and …
Creating and promoting a culture of wellness in medicine
On April 12, 2022, Day One of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard civil defamation trial began. In the days that have ensued, more than 330 million viewers from the United States, Canada, and the U.K. watched the televised trial. At the core of the trial is the issue of intimate partner violence and its aftermath. Depp and Heard have each claimed to be victims of intimate …
Depp v. Heard and uncovering the truth about intimate partner violence
In a world where we are constantly bombarded with bad news, it is easy to forget the manner in which news is reported can impact and cause harm to vulnerable individuals. The topic of suicide is one such sensitive subject, and there are guidelines for the appropriate reporting of deaths by suicide to help mitigate potential risk. Despite these guidelines, sensationalized stories about death by suicide are often splashed across …
How the Judd family has honored their mother
I have been privileged to work with and learn from some of the best. Skilled, talented, giving, compassionate human beings who support their patients and each other. I have been pulled up by nurses who saw more in me than I saw in myself. I have been mentored by them and am a much better nurse practitioner because of what I’ve learned from them. I’ve also had the privilege to …
It’s time for someone to show up for nurses
“As physicians, we are masterful at suppressing so many of our emotions, and the thoughts and memories associated with them. However, trauma has a way of impacting us in great big obvious ways (as we saw with Will Smith), and not such obvious ways (perfectionism, workaholism, lack of boundaries).
I’m not suggesting …
Will Smith’s slap is a trauma response [PODCAST]
During the pandemic, the already significant number of people living with substance use disorder increased. According to data gathered by the CDC, in June 2020, 13 percent of Americans surveyed said they had started using substances (not including alcohol and tobacco) or increased their use in response to the stress of the pandemic.
The number of people who died as a result of an overdose …
Factors to weigh when choosing substance use disorder treatment
The first time I heard the song “Truth Be Told” by Matthew West, tears welled up, and I cried. I was driving home after a long day at the clinic. The song resonated with me in more ways than I could soak in.
Lie number one: You’re supposed to have it all together
And when they ask how you’re doing, just smile and tell them, “Never better” …
I had this mental construct …
It is time to end the stigma of mental health. Let us all talk about it.
The leaked Supreme Court draft opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization has produced mixed emotions, including amongst health care providers. If the Supreme Court does indeed strike down the rights afforded women in Roe v. Wade almost 50 years ago, it is expected that many if not most states will ban abortions outright or significantly limit women’s access to abortions. If this occurs, as physicians, we should have …
Women’s mental health in an America without Roe
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A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.
Recent data from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has shown a sharp increase in drug-related overdoses attributed to fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, deepening the tragedies of the already challenged opioid epidemic and COVID-19 pandemic.
Unraveling the snowball effect of these public health …
3 solutions to combat rising drug overdoses during COVID-19
Primary care is a field that is both highly rewarding and highly challenging. Those who enter into it quickly find that they are rewarded with the satisfaction of knowing they are playing a vital role in the lives of their patients. However, they also soon realize the immense responsibility of the job. There are always more patients that need to be seen, more phone calls that need to be returned, …
Physicians owe it to themselves to take care of their health and families first
In 2017, I was medically discharged from the military due to an exacerbation of an eating disorder. At that time, anorexia nervosa (AN) provided relief from the depression that I had developed secondary to the multitude of stressors that came with being in the Air Force and an oral and maxillofacial surgery resident. Years later, I have made major career pivots to regain my health. However, military and medical culture …
Military and medicine: 10 shared risk factors for eating disorder development
I will tell you why health care professionals feel they need to be superhuman, without needs or vulnerabilities.
Because that is who we want to be, why we got into the field, and then our training reinforces those very ideas. We exist to take care of others, not be taken care of.
I am a health care professional. I also struggle with major depressive disorder (MDD) as well as an eating disorder. …
Our vulnerabilities, when treated and acknowledged, can become our biggest strength
Our profession often sends the message that we are invincible heroes.
Here’s my vulnerable and honest admission: I lapped that up. There was something so seductive about denying pesky human requirements, like sleep, regular exercise, and time to decompress. I liked being needed more than I liked having needs.
I sublimated mine under my superhero cape right up until the time I hit a kryptonite wall. There …
We are humans first and inspiring, gifted healers second
Like many fellow Americans, I had my first psychedelic experience in the middle of the pandemic, in a place where the use of psychedelics is decriminalized.
I grew up in a Communist country, and the ban and stigma against psychedelics were tremendous. There was no plant medicine available, and I didn’t know even one person using anything other than alcohol and prescription drugs.
I read Michael Pollan’s book How …
Are psychedelics the heroes or villains?
We have probably heard this saying with different permutations many times about someone showing “their true colors.”
As physician and best-selling author, Tess Gerritsen, shared: “There is no better test of character than when you’re tossed into crisis. That’s when we see one’s true colors shine through. So, I try my best to make my characters personally involved in the plot, in a way that stresses them and tests them.”
It made …
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