Heal Thyself

Abstract

Those who take care of others do not always take good care of themselves. Looking after your physical and mental health is not selfish, but smart. When you enjoy good health you are better able to care for those whom you look to serve.

You cannot reach your full potential as a healer if you do not look after yourself—your physical, social, and emotional well-being. Many physicians I know seem to wear their lack of routine health care as a badge of honor, as if to take time out and have another physician help you with your own health is in some way selfish. It is quite the contrary; it is foolish not to. The practice of medicine is demanding and the toll it can take on a physician is significant and not to be neglected. Dr. Theodore Woodward notes in his book A Time for Sentiment that “the likelihood for suicide, like addiction, is high in physicians” (Woodward, Make room for sentiment, University of Maryland Medical Alumni Association, Baltimore, MD, 1998). He explains how “this is perhaps understandable when one considers the intense need to acquire knowledge, the drive to excel, and the intense worry about decision making and its consequences.” Dentists also have a higher suicide rate than other occupations. Unfortunately, too many physicians—and perhaps their families—go without the same good medical care they diligently recommend and provide to their patients. While fewer physicians smoke cigarettes today than in previous years, many do not follow through on important preventive medicine strategies, such as colonoscopy or hypertension screening. Missing work because of a preventable illness or compromising your ability to deliver care because of disregard for your own health only denies your patients proper access to health care.