Our stories

Sir Dominic Corrigan was so busy 180 years ago that he had a “secret door” made in his consulting room to escape his eager patients.

Corrigan’s Secret Door and Other Stories

If you’ve not heard of Corrigan’s Secret Door, you’re in for a treat. Based on a legendary Irish physician, the Secret Door denotes a metaphorical escape route for busy physicians from their hectic clinics.

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Fear: of disclosure, losing my license, and losing face. This is my physician burnout story as a founder of Physicians Anonymous.

A Physician Burnout Story (Part 1)

My career and life crashed to a halt after 25 years in clinical medicine. I was at one point “suicidal with planning and intent”. Medical knowledge in the hands of a suicidal physician can be deadly. As an affluent, respected physician, confident in my position, well-liked and admired by society, yet suffering inside, why did I not seek help?

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physicians seek help

Why don’t physicians seek help?

Physicians are sick, and it’s getting worse. Yet too few doctors seek help or reach out when we are struggling. Record numbers of us are burning out, becoming mentally ill or addicted, retiring early, and leaving medicine.

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Effective physician resilience programs

Effective Physician Resilience Programs: what works?

In this article, Part 2, I concede that there are some excellent principles differentiating ineffective from effective physician resilience programs. We hope that colleagues and medical leaders designing such programs will find the guidance useful, and further grasp the nettle of addressing the root causes of physician burnout.

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Sick physician portrait 2024

Sick physicians – sick system

Practicing medicine is making us physicians sick. Physicians in the US have some of the highest burnout, mental illness, addiction, and suicide rates in the world. Medical student and physician burnout and suicide are a “silent epidemic”.

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First day as a doctor

My first day as a doctor

“Welcome to the Trauma Surgery Unit” said Prof. “As it’s New Year’s Day we’re expecting a quiet one.” Prof’s sense of irony (i.e. sarcasm) was legendary. That night (first shift) a young man came in. “Stabbed chest. Resus!” came over the PA system, and everyone moved.

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how to get sober if you’re addicted to medicine

How to get sober if you’re addicted to medicine

In Part 1, we made the case that a career in modern medicine meets the diagnostic criteria for addiction. Medicine can be unhealthy, yet we carry on or feel unable to make healthy changes. In Part 2, we explore how to get sober if you’re addicted to medicine.

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addicted to medicine

Addicted to medicine

Are physicians addicted to medicine? in this article I will argue that medicine can be so intoxicating, even if it’s bad for us, that doctors can become addicted to it. Before too long, a medical life becomes a way of life until we don’t know any different.

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physician rehab

Empathy in Recovery Part Two: Rehab and beyond

“For the first time in ages, I didn’t feel alone anymore that night. Despite the craziness that had happened in the days prior, I felt calm.

In this, our second Guest Physician blog by Dr Henry Harris, surgeon, alcoholic in recovery, and proudly Approved Physicians Anonymous Mentor, Dr Harris shares his experience of rehab as an alcoholic physician.

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Physician coaching

Physician coaching and wellbeing: the evidence base

In this article, we examine the evidence base for physician coaching and wellbeing, how to find a good coach, and how to tell if they’re right for you. We also note a caveat around the need for systemic change – a white coat revolution if you will – to address the underlying toxicity of modern medicine causing so much physician distress, burnout, and moral injury.

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normalize physician mental health

A charter to normalize physician mental health

Imagine a world where no doctor needed to fear sanctions or discrimination for struggling mentally, particularly when the modern practice of medicine is so fraught with conditions causing moral distress. Here’s how to normalize physician mental health.

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Solve physician burnout

Solve physician burnout

This article explores how we can solve physician burnout by changing the toxic healthcare system while also providing physicians with tools to help them recognize and treat burnout and other mental health challenges.

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physician burnout tests

Physician burnout tests

Here we have curated a series of validated questionnaires that will at least assist you in screening the commonest psychological problems in doctors, including physician burnout tests, depression tests, and scales for self-compassion and moral injury.

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UK doctor burnout

UK doctor burnout

UK doctor burnout has been impacted by the pandemic, too. This article explores the UK situation with particular reference to doctors working in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS).

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The global physician burnout pandemic

The global physician burnout pandemic

Long before the COVID pandemic, doctors across the world were suffering from ‘a pandemic of physician burnout’. In this article, we explore global physician burnout statistics and root causes from around the world.

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