The wounded (burnt-out, addicted) healer may initially have great difficulty finding a safe forum in which to find Recovery. The resources available for sick healers may still not be adequately publicized in medical/nursing classes or in internship/residency or indeed at any time in the professional careers of sick health care providers. This situation is certainly improving, but the perception that there is little support available is still felt by many untreated health care providers suffering from mental health and addiction issues; unfortunately, this perception may impede a timely intervention.
Health care providers are at greater risk for mental health problems and addictions, particularly if they experienced trauma as a child (see Blog 70). In addition to childhood trauma, workplace trauma is another risk factor in an overstretched health care system (witness the Covid crisis).
As healers, we are selected (one might almost say, PRE-selected) to be “eager to please”. We don’t seem to be able to say “no” to people, even if it means ignoring our own health and welfare. Treating others often distracts us from looking after ourselves. Before we came into Recovery, we often had a pathological need to be needed, to be admired and praised, to the detriment of our well-being.
We the healers also often suffer from perfectionism, which is also a contributing factor for the development of addiction.
How does the sick healer heal himself/herself? Well, she/he certainly can’t follow the adage “heal thyself”: the first thing to understand is that this can’t be done on one’s own!
The wounded healer, first and foremost, must find a connection with others who understand, people with whom personal problems can be shared. Empathy from other health care professionals in Recovery is, generally speaking, one of the most powerful and effective interventions available for the sick healer. Empathy, not sympathy, is what is required. More and more, suffering health care professionals, through their medical and nursing associations, can access professional support groups where this empathetic support can be obtained. Of course, Twelve Step groups, Smart Recovery and other community support groups should be accessed in conjunction with professional support groups.
Sick healers (and perhaps healthy healers as well) must learn to say “no”: “no” to unreasonable requests/demands, excessive hours, sudden and unexpected additional shifts, dangerously high patient loads, unrealistic goals and expectations imposed by hospital administrators and governments. My addictionist has often said that if our health care personnel were suddenly replaced with employees from any other field, the health care system would collapse overnight. The reason is obvious: workers in any other field would never put up with such abusive work conditions. As sick healers, we must learn to accept help from others and to put ourselves first, if we are ever going to be able to be useful again to our patients.
We should not be afraid of making mistakes. Without mistakes, we do not acquire experience, we do not develop, we do not grow, we stagnate. Mistakes are great teachers. They improve us.
Likewise, we should not be afraid of asking for help. We should not avoid asking questions for fear of appearing foolish or ignorant. The greatest progress comes from asking questions.
In other words, we need to shed our destructive perfectionism.
We need to acknowledge our feelings around death and our limitations in preventing it. (See Blog 70). The difficulty some of us have in dealing with our limitations is of course another facet of our perfectionism. In those suffering from substance misuse and dependency, these issues must be addressed in Recovery. They can be dangerous triggers.
Finally, a career change may be necessary in some cases. A chronically stressful and underfunded environment, a toxic workplace, easy access to addictive drugs, post-traumatic stress experienced in the carrying-out of one’s professional duties – all this may conspire against a successful Recovery. A career of caregiving in the face of real risks to one’s life needs to be carefully re-evaluated. One’s life should always come ahead of one’s job (See Blog 46). Viable alternative career options should be considered in some cases.
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