Are Doctors Happy?

Like medicine, happiness takes practice. But when it comes to happiness, some say the deck is stacked against doctors. Left unchecked, physician unhappiness can lead to major problems, including disruptive behavior, burnout, medical errors, health problems, addiction, depression, and failed relationships. It takes ambition, perfectionism and drive to make it into — and out of — medical school and while those qualities may be very useful for achieving goals, they don’t tend to foster happiness and satisfaction.

Being a doctor also calls for critical thinking and a degree of pessimism, O’Connor says: doctors aren’t trained to look at the sunny side of life. They look for what’s wrong with a patient, not what’s right.

While the people who choose to become doctors may have an abundance of these qualities, “Medical training sharpens them to a needle point,” he says. The result: physicians often graduate from medical school with a degree, a tendency to be brutally hard on themselves, and a profound inability to relax.

So how’s a doctor to find happiness? The same way everyone should, says O’Connor: work on it. Find a way to be happy in the now.

I’m still working on ways to relax. It’s odd that even in this very relaxed fourth year of medical school, I find ways to fill all my time. I have become very used to being busy and utilizing my time efficiently, that it’s often difficult to just do nothing.

I certainly hope that I will be happy at work and outside of work.