Physician Suicide

Yesterday's article in the USA Today has brought some needed attention to the issue of physician suicide but I am not sure they get the point fully. There are "special" reasons why doctors are being pushed to the brink and subsequently take their lives. I had written about this when Dr. Jonathan Drummond-Webb killed himself years ago. We work hard every day as patients come in with monkeys on their backs who want to put those same monkeys on our backs. They leave with a lighter load but by the end of the day we have 25 monkeys on our backs and no where to put them. This doesn't even count the monkeys we have on our own! Add to this a touch of loneliness and you have the recipe of disaster. Only by opening up and sharing with each other will we survive in this very difficult occupation. A little humor couldn't hurt either.