MANY providers (MD, DO, NP, and PA) are feeling empty, and that has been occasioned and made 1000x worse by the pressure they face to toe the COVID line, even though it is manifestly ridiculous. No one feels good when they are forced to live a lie!
And they are killing themselves.
About 400 U.S. physicians commit suicide annually, with the rate for female physicians four times higher than among other female professionals. A 2015 survey reported that 13% of male physicians and 22% of female physicians suffered from alcohol abuse or dependence.
These people have been put in a position where they have to go along with the COVID nonsense in order to pay their mortgages, make their car payments, and live in the style to which they (and their families) have grown accustomed. They bought a practice for $1,200,000.00. Little Jane made the dance team and has to buy costumes (and the very best lessons), Bobby turns 16 this year and wants to drive–he found a 5-year-old Honda Accord that he thinks would be just perfect for him, and brilliant Martha will be a college Freshman next year…
These providers were always the wonderfully “smart” person in the class growing up, and then they went to college and medical school and residency. Now all those years of hard work and the current hard-won financial security have been put at serious risk.
They have faced an amazingly hard thing–and they crumped. And I get it–I may well have crumped, too. There but for the grace of God go I…