The Curse of the Overachiever: RIP - Jovan Belcher

my prayers go out to the Chiefs

One of my friends recently sent me a request for a blog post, which made me realize - I need to start taking requests!  I'm happy to write about most things, especially if they're controversial.  Please email or comment if you have any ideas because on sidenote - we give the people what they want.

Sidenote - When keeping it real goes wrong.  I recently posted a "senior mentor essay" on sidenote, which I submitted for my Fundamentals of Patient Care class.  The objective of the assignment was to, "Write an essay expressing the student's attitudes and opinions about caring for elderly patients."  I figured this meant I should tell them my honest feelings of struggling to overcome my self-centerdness so I could authentically serve other people.  Fast forward a few weeks to my class evaluation - my instructors considered "putting me through remediation (code word for fail) for my writing skills and sending me to the writing center."  I thought this was funny.  

So anyways, back to my friend's request.  She sent me an article debunking the trendy positive thinking movement.  Here's my understanding of positive thinking - overpower any negative thoughts with buzz words like "stay positive."  

Here's my problem with positive thinking.  Serenity now - insanity later (see clip).  Bottling up all your problems and covering it up with warm and fuzzy mantras is only a temporary solution.  

Soceity is too afraid to deal with serious shit like suicide.  It's even too afraid to talk about anything resembling a negative emotion - we have to cover everything up with positive thinking movements.  But when negative emotions are neglected, it doesn't end there.  

As I've talked about before on sidenote - physician burnout and physician suicide is a big problem.  The stats say that ~400 physicians commit suicide every year, giving medicine the highest rate of suicide for any job.  And the hidden curriculum starts early - up to 30% of medical students screen positive for depressive symptoms.  

Young doctors have a lot in common with star athletes - at every stage of life they've been praised for being talented, hard working, and having their life together.  Yet, people like Belcher happen all the time, and everyone screams out - but he had such a good life! 

eat or be eaten

Doctors and athletes are a lot of things - but they are not invincible. I've never been a professional football player - but I imagine it's like medicine.  A world of talented individuals where weakness is looked down upon.

Rugged individualism might work for med school when you need time to cram in fun facts for Step 1, but what about residency - when you're facing the human side of medicine, and patient die for no apparent reason on the operating table?  Is it really right to tell those surgeons to just stay positive? 

Shouldn't we encourage them to keep it real and seek help when life is hard?

See you on the other side,

from ken

now taking requests for future blog posts. please comment or email.