Going through my own journeys of Burnout, I didn’t have words to describe what I was feeling when I was feeling it. It wasn’t until 2019/2020 after Dr. Bicker’s suicide that I started to read about burnout/moral injury/ and physician suicide. I was appalled. The way chronic stress/burnout could manifest….that was what I had felt.

-Irritability: I didn’t want to talk to anyone at home. When I got home from work, I didn’t even want to talk to my dogs. As silly as it sounds, I didn’t want to talk to the most nonjudgmental creatures.

-Insomnia: Though it has been an old friend throughout the years, it became worse. I couldn’t shut my mind off.

-Muscle tension: Mostly in my shoulders and neck, the muscle tension would increase by the end of the week and on call weekends, but lessen on vacation, unless I got called.

What is not mitigated emotionally, psychologically, etc. will manifest physically.

What are your symptoms? Where are you on the burnout scale?

Label it. Address it. Get help.

Originally Published on https://www.theworthyphysician.com/blog

Sapna Shah-Haque Internal Medicine Physician

Dr. Sapna Shah-Haque, MD is a board certified Internal Medicine physician. She was born and raised in Kansas, and attended medical school at the University of Kansas [KU] School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at KU-Wichita as well. After experiencing burnout herself, and watching other physician colleagues burn out, it became a passion of hers to look into different aspects of burnout. While the system does need to change, as it is broken, this podcast is a way to reach physicians and possibly shed light on what is not an isolated situation.