Online Therapy for Physician Burnout: Sunday Blues
The weekend never feels long enough. When Sunday morning rolls around, it hits you. The Sunday Blues. People typically describe the Sunday blues as feeling anxious, restless, unease, and feelings of dread for Monday morning. And what happens on Monday morning? People go back to work. In this blog, I’ll be talking about the Sunday Blues.
The feeling of the Sunday Blues is anticipatory anxiety. All this means is you have a feeling of worry, dread, or fear around things that may occur soon. For my burned out healthcare providers, this means the feeling of dread in the pit of your stomach you get when you think about heading back into the office and having to deal with issues contributing to your burnout. It doesn’t only occur on Sundays btw. For you shift EM workers, this can occur anytime you have work in the upcoming days.
Physicians experience the Sunday Blues too!
I have a client who stepped away from medicine for a while to manage their burnout. Even while they were on leave, they thought about work all the time. It didn’t matter if they had work the next day or not. This client didn’t have work scheduled for the next few months, yet they were still feeling burnt out and anxious. It didn’t matter that they weren’t physically at work. Mentally, they were trapped in the work environment. They thought about patients, charts, and admin. Even though they were on a break, they were never on a break. In their mind, they were still there. The mindset one has when they are burnt out can change.
A tool I use regularly when clients are experiencing the Sunday Blues is grounding. Ground is a skill to use when a person is dealing with stress, overwhelming feelings, or anxiety. Grounding helps keep you in the present and the here and now, versus going down the rabbit hole. A great example of a ground technique is the 5 senses. Think about the 5 senses, which are touch, sound, smell, sight, and taste. To ground yourself using this technique, what is one thing you are touching, 1 sound you hear, 1 thing you smell, 1 thing you see, and 1 flavor you taste? Using the grounding technique can help bring you back to the here and now.
Online Therapy for Physician Burnout
You don’t need to continue to experience the Sunday Blues or the dread you feel when you think about work. You can change. You can own this situation and have a different experience. With many of the clients I work with, that feeling of dread no longer exists when they think about work. My clients look forward to going to work again. This is because they’ve had a mindset shift, can recognize their emotions, as well as the situation they are in, and make active decisions with how they respond. They take their time to notice how they are feeling and respond when they are ready instead of letting their emotions get the best of them.
Reach out for Therapy for Physicians
When you’re ready to start therapy with Chris Rabanera, take the first steps with a free 15-minute consultation. I provide online therapy in California, online therapy in Michigan, online therapy in Nebraska, and online therapy in Las Vegas. As an experienced therapist, I specialize in physician burnout, grief counseling, anxiety, and depression. I also provide mental health treatment for men.
