Trauma is a far more pervasive issue in medicine than anyone is talking about. We know physicians live highly-stressed lives, but we are reticent to talk about the trauma inherent in the field. Many are afraid to talk about living in secrecy with Post Traumatic Stress, because it can be a career killer if you acknowledge your suffering. Physicians joke about OCD, anxiety, burn-out, rarely admitting that they are REALLY struggling with PTSD. Time to tell the truth. There are strategies to heal.
Once you are ready to acknowledge your trauma history, what should you do?
- Don’t keep it a secret.
- Use centering and grounding practices.
- Slow down the trauma response.
- Differentiate the physical versus the emotional.
- Disrupt the trauma cycle with tangible interventions.