Burnout
Recovery from burnout is takes time. Time to focus on ourselves for long enough to reconnect with all the individual emotions that have overwhelmed us, connect them with the events that caused them, come to a new understanding about what has happened, and then put them back into perspective.
Easy isn’t it…..Well not really.
The problem is that the emotions have accumulated because we have ignored them, and when they build up, they often appear in an instinctual form that is very frightening. This is why we often need another soul to allow us to unburden ourselves and then return the emotion in a less toxic form. This requires someone who is familiar with these emotions and less frightened of them. Someone who is maybe more experienced and hopefully can help us to find a different answer from the one that caused us to get stuck. With practice, we can manage to do this ourselves.
If we can manage to allow time for self reflection before these emotions become too overwhelming, maybe we can avoid further accumulation. However, as doctors, we are much better at focussing on others than ourselves, and for some reason often feel guilty taking the necessary break.
The more overwhelmed we are, the longer it takes. As a rough rule we probably need at least 3 weeks once a year to properly unwind and begin to relax before we can look inwards. Yet most often we take holidays going to medical seminars or busy excursions with our families.
Trauma
Trauma is more tricky. My definition is that we become overwhelmed by an events or series of events that cause our emotional levels to rise beyond the point where we can process them. That is, to the far right of the Yerkes-Dodson curve, where our efficacy plummets to zero. At this point it seems that our emotions separate into a bubble by themselves, often allowing us to manage temporarily without feeling. But if this trauma is life threatening, it may cause a catastrophic reaction inside of ourselves, splitting us in two, often without memory.
This split seems to remain like a scratch in the old vinyl record, that can cause us to jump out of the groove when replayed. Many years ago they used the analogy of a plow jumping out of its furrow, and so the Latin term of “Delirium” was born. Technically, however, delirium is now used to describe events caused by medical conditions like fever, and the correct Latin term is “Dissociation” for this split, and the condition is called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when the event
PTSD is not easy.
PTSD takes even more time, maybe a lifetime, to understand. It always requires others to help, especially those who know the depth of the blow and requires trust. It often requires people to tell their story, and often needing to go back to the scene of the crime, But there is no one answer, and it depends on the nature of the person who is traumatised. And medication or mental exercises rarely help.
Doctors also become traumatised, and face life threatening situations every day. We are now beginning to accept PTSD in soldiers as a result war. Maybe doctors face a different form of war.
Help requires a healing relationship.
Please talk to someone, or do something with a person who may help.
And keep searching to find someone who can.