For Mental Health Awareness Month, I decided to discuss two books: “Stop Physician Burnout: What to Do When Working Harder Isn't Working” and “Moral Injury: Healing the Healers.” With burnout, depression and suicide affecting too many physicians, it’s the perfect time for us to look into the “why” of dealing with these struggles, and what we can do to help pull ourselves back out.

Some teachers and healthcare workers can’t check-out during challenging interactions with clients, students, and patients. We cannot become a gray rock. What can we do? We can change the way that we think by asking better questions, finding ways to reframe the person’s behavior, and by challenging our assumptions. It’s not easy but once we learn the skill, it helps.

“Passages: A Voyage from War to Peace,” is 2025 novel written by a retired physician, P.K. Edgewater (his pen name.) The subtitle refers to the dual journeys of a troubled Vietnam War veteran re-entering stateside life and the young Greek psychiatrist who emigrates to the U.S. and treats him over the course of several years.

The ancient Chinese healers recognized that some patients were more “difficult.” According to Lisa See in her historical novel, Lady Tan’s Circle of Women, male physicians found the problem of their female physicians to be very challenging to diagnose and treat. It took a determined woman healer to understand and address their unique issues. Modern physicians can learn quite a few lessons from the very real ancient physician, Lady Tan.