Compassion Fatigue

Doctors are people and people get tired, crabby, angry, hungry and frustrated just like all animals and humans. When you put that together with kids, a mortgage, in-laws, different sex drives, money quarrels and child rearing approaches, I can’t believe the divorce rate is only 50% for all couples.

In medicine, there’s a concept we often use with our patients called bearing witness. It exists beyond just listening or holding space for suffering. But sometimes, amidst caring for others, we forget who bears witness to our own lives.