Stress
My Stress-Induced, Life-Threatening Wake-Up Call
Personal Perspective: Healthcare workers—take action today to mitigate your stress.
Posted February 4, 2025 Reviewed by Michelle Quirk
Key points
- Chronic stress and stress-induced burnout must not be ignored.
- To take care of others, healthcare workers must first take care of themselves.
- Keep stress mitigation efforts simple—watch a sunset today and see how much better you feel.
First, let me say that this will not be my normal post. But there is a reason for that. I spend a considerable portion of my professional life speaking and writing about stress and burnout from an evolutionary psychological perspective. As I do consider myself to be quite knowledgable about the psychoneurological underpinning of stress reactivity, I recently was humbled to realize that I need to take my own advice.
Two weeks ago, I had a severe deep vein thrombosis (DVT) that required surgical intervention. As a result of the DVT, I suffered a life-threatening bilateral pulmonary embolism. My physicians told me that this was exacerbated by stress and that I am lucky to be alive today. Wow...
How could I miss this? Why did I not recognize the signs leading up to the emergency? Why did I ignore my own advice that I preach so passionately?
As healthcare providers, we must make a commitment to prioritize ourselves. If we don’t take care of ourselves, chronic stress will invariably catch up—as it did with me. It is well-researched that front-line health care workers report burnout rates of 50 percent, and healthcare leaders report burnout rates of up to 85 percent. As I have written extensively, burnout is a longitudinal, unmitigated, chronic stress-induced condition that exacts a tremendous toll on us psychophysiologically.
Taking care of yourself is not selfish. It is important for your own health, but it is also necessary for you in taking care of your patients, organization, employees, family...everyone in your life. Most importantly, do not wait, ignoring the signs of stress and burnout—make a plan and take actions right now. The actions just need to be meaningful to you— they do not have to require excessive commitments of time or energy.
Early in my career as a hospital CEO, my mom gave me the best advice I've ever heard for managing stress. She simply said to make time to enjoy the sunset every day. I cannot think of anything more effective than this simple advice for reducing stress. I have come to believe in my research, writing, and speaking, that it truly is the little things, the simple things, that make the greatest impact on stress.
Enjoying a cup of coffee with your spouse, walking with your dog, volunteering, listening to music, reading a meaningful book, doing a workout you enjoy—the list is endless. Engaging your imagination and creativity in finding the little things can be healing in and of themselves.
To my fellow healthcare workers, please do not wait until your acute stressors become chronic in nature, causing burnout and leading to life-threatening allostatic loads. Research is overwhelming that chronic stress directly causes all psychological disorders and exacerbates most physiological diseases (Comer, 2020).
Most importantly, please realize that chronic stress and burnout do not go away on their own. They cannot be ignored, suppressed, or rationalized away. Look at my other posts for tips on how to help address your chronic stress and return your mind and body to homeostasis. And stay current and informed with relevant blood tests, including those that can help you monitor your stress levels as I have previously described (Blood Tests for Stress and Psychological Issues).
I am humbled to know that I could have died two weeks ago. And I am humbled to realize that I must take care of myself by addressing my chronic stress and burnout. Everything else is secondary and will follow.
I can honestly say I am fortunate to be here today. This is a sobering and deeply personal statement to make, which is admittedly hard to declare to everyone in this post. But I sincerely do not want any of you to be in the same situation in which I found myself. I hope that by opening myself up to you that you will take steps today to address any lingering stress you have.
So, truly do as I say but not as I have done! Take care of yourself now.
References
Comer, W.J. (2020). Mindfulness-based treatments for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder: A systematic literature review. Doctoral Dissertation. California Southern University, Costa Mesa, CA.