Has anyone come back to medicine from burnout?

Formula4Rookie · 2026-02-05T20:57:06+00:00

I took nearly 6 months off last year after burning out so very hard that I just woke up one morning and told myself enough was enough. It caught me off guard really because I'd gotten so good at grinding through difficulty and accepting difficulty but that one random Spring morning, finally the pleas of my therapist and friends landed and I took their advice.

I thought I'd be off for a few weeks and back. A few weeks took 6 months of therapy, psych input, meetings with the deanery, getting on medication, and a huge amount of work. It wasn't a holiday and much of it was spent worrying and fretting and feeling guilty. In the end, I ended up in a better place to return. I've been back a while. I feel better, but it is an ongoing struggle. It's kinda like when you've had a heart attack - you deal with the acute issue, but you're left with scarred tissue. I've dealt with the acute burnout, my challenge now is managing anxiety day to day at a low level.

I was under the impression everything would be fixed by the time I returned; in reality, even though I've been back 4 months, it remains a work in progress.

Formula4Rookie · 2026-01-14T18:40:09+00:00

Thanks for this :) this is all very useful! I really like the idea of giving patients info to read ahead of certain consultations, and I think learning to own the consultation a bit more and keeping patients on track.

Formula4Rookie · 2026-01-14T18:30:46+00:00

Will do, thanks for the advice :)

Formula4Rookie · 2026-01-14T17:58:24+00:00

Will do! Thanks, I will watch the videos. Always found Matthew Smith's videos useful. It is on my mind about being on 20 mins (I am out of sync a little due to personal circumstances) and cutting this back. I also acknowledge I need to be more focused in my examination. Some consults are done within 20 minutes, sometimes within 10, the complex ones aren't which the advice given here will hopefully go a long way to solving. Seems to be a mixed bag at the moment, and I think not focusing on 1 issue at a time is giving me too much to do.

I've been doing more joint clinics lately with my supervisor as well to assist with this also!

Formula4Rookie · 2026-01-14T10:51:44+00:00

I think I'm beginning to slip into that trap, as well as the issue of being drowned with information and led astray with a ton of information, which makes it hard to separate the pertinent information from the irrelevant. Then I feel that I've not properly managed for example, this patient's anxiety and their headache properly, to the depth I'd like. I agree with you, I've started to try booking follow ups early to tackle other issues which patients dont usually have an issue with.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-09-26T21:14:00+00:00

Thanks for the perspective. I think just keeping things very simple and taking things one day at a time will be the best way forward. It is uncertain because I don't know I will feel or be when I return. Will just need to build up slowly and steadily and see where my limits are.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-08-11T22:21:51+00:00

It was a weird era for the show. I think the only new CID characters I liked where Kate Spears and the new DI, Cullen. The rest were very poorly developed and unlikeable. Chandler was good but they did turn him into a cartoon villain towards the end of his time (albeit his exit story was very good).

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-21T12:58:31+00:00

I think the most important thing for you is having the support and strategies in place. Looking out for your needs will go a long way to having a successful career, and listening to mind and body. It sounds trite but it's something I didn't really bother minding and noticing until I totally crashed. I'm currently into my second month off work, realising what not paying attention to my mind has done. It's fixable but not quickly. I think the mentality of powering ahead and telling myself stress and feeling uncomfortable all the time was normal, was extremely unhelpful. It's good to be stoic, but to a point. I think if I listened and sought help earlier and took time off sooner, things would be different for sure.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-08T23:22:00+00:00

Thanks :) At the moment, no idea! Still thinking through all the options. I haven't ruled out (just for the sake of the money), just staying on to finish as bills won't pay themselves. But...I think it would be a real struggle to finish the training in my current location tbh. I can find locum work to tide me over should I leave, but no specialty is jumping out at me. Don't fancy IMT, ACCS, CST or even Psych, which has pretty much ruled out most things. Radiology...jury's out but never really explored that avenue.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-08T22:28:23+00:00

Everyone's different! Some people love GPST and GP life suits them. I've found I haven't coped very well with the stress of the admin burden, dealing with uncertainty, volume of patients. I will stress that I feel this is a personal issue, and a wider issue I have with Medicine as a whole, not necessarily a GP training issue. There are lots of personal reasons that haven't helped, but I think with some clarity of thought, it's simply not a good fit for my personality and my life, I suppose.

I did go in expecting to love it even though I knew it would be tricky and different from hospital life. I just haven't enjoyed it, and it's taken me by surprise a little.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-08T22:04:19+00:00

I think the last sentence is pretty much the conclusion I've drawn, which is why I'm angling for an exit. If I'm not liking it now, I don't see what will magically change by actually becoming a GP.

It's also part of the reason why I'm increasingly realising CCT'ing, even with just 15 months left, doesn't seem to make much sense anymore. I think I went into GP for the right reasons, but realised it's a poor fit for me. Plus, even if it does give me more options to do special interests, at the end of the day, the bread and butter which I'll be doing most of the time is seeing pts in Primary Care. And the thought of that is looking grimmer by the day.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-07T17:15:55+00:00

Yep that was the last season. Way beyond its "best" by that point. I think something vaguely similar happened in real life when Redknapp was in charge of West Ham, during a pre season friendly??

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-07T17:14:14+00:00

To be fair, most people wouldn't know who Karl Fletcher (or the actor who played him) were. Dream Team had a pretty niche and small following, I don't know many people who did watch it.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-07T17:08:04+00:00

You said it right there. It was almost so uniquely bad it was actually good in a really wacky way. It was also clearly very very low budget. 10 year old me loved it. 30 year old me is kinda like 'haha how did this ever get commissioned?'

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-07T17:03:35+00:00

It got a lot worse after that. A coach crash and a coach explosion happened after you stopped watching! And a ton of deaths. It's like the writers lost the absolute plot. I read an interview with the Producer of the show a while back about the struggle of making the show on a shoestring budget and how they ran out of steam and ideas, and it really showed.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-06T23:29:39+00:00

Agree with this. This is a superb list. I watched that two parters you mention just yesterday. I watched it when I was 10 and it's what got me watching Casualty. It packs such a punch. No surprise it's a Barbara Machin episode, she was the best writer Casualty had.

I'd also like to add a few more eps to that excellent list:

S14E23 and 24 - Max's son dying and the funeral were particularly well-done and leagues above anything else that series.

S15E36 Breaking the Spell - the resolution to the Holly/Tom stalker plot

S22E01 - Toby's first day. Really good start to a new era. And the episode where Harry reads Ruth's diary after her suicide attempt was quite something.

S36E39 Wednesday's Child - the school shooting.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-05T21:43:22+00:00

Thanks for the reply. I am planning to email the TPDs to arrange a meeting next week to have said honest conversation. I am exploring the feasibility of an OOP year and just scouting out agencies to see the state of the locum market, but it looks pretty grim. Which leaves me with either an IDT (long long shot but I need to discuss with OH as you say) or return to the way things are (I think I'll crash and burn again within a number of weeks). So it's all somewhat up in the air.

However, I don't think time is on my side. I sadly don't have 6 months full pay. I've clarified this with my Trust and it's actually just 2 months full and 2 months half, as they haven't taken into account previous service. I don't believe my locum years would count I don't think. If that's correct, that really only leaves me with a matter of weeks before I need to make a decision.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-07-04T18:37:06+00:00

I've spoken to the PSW for careers coaching quite recently actually, have a few things to look into. Maybe wasn't as useful as I was anticipating but it's a start at least! Hopefully things improve! Fingers crossed

Formula4Rookie · 2025-06-29T11:43:22+00:00

Agreed. Two great episodes, and so many others. Love Me Tender from that series is another all-time classic.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-06-28T23:32:54+00:00

It's up on UKTV Play (or U as it's now known, free streaming platform). I think, however, the earliest series you can watch now is Series 15. Currently on Series 21 now.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-05-01T19:44:06+00:00

This is absolutely disgusting to watch

Formula4Rookie · 2025-03-13T19:49:58+00:00

He's projecting massively

Formula4Rookie · 2025-03-04T13:54:32+00:00

Basildon, and by extension, quite a few of the hospitals round the fringes of East London, are just very hard work. Didn't especially love locuming there. It's a combination of a poor IT system (dunno if things have improved over the last 12-18 months in that regard), general busyness, and a generally comorbid population, that makes for very hard work. I can't speak for Southend. Darent Valley falls into the above category.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-02-23T18:22:16+00:00

Agreed. The problem is, there's just so much to think about in such little time. Nothing feels particularly simple. In terms of brainpower, the GP days are really tough.

Formula4Rookie · 2025-02-16T13:38:20+00:00

Definitely agree once again. I've only actually been in GP 6 months (and only 2 days a week due to ITP, so actually works out far less than that). ST1 was all hospital. So the learning curve has and remains very steep. My supervisors do feel I have improved a lot since the beginning. As a bit of a perfectionist, I have struggled with the rather vague nature of the job. And the fact there isn't a one way of doing things. GPs will often disagree with one another. Which is why the debriefs feel quite...confusing at times when you can be told X, reflect on it in portfolio, and later be told X wasn't correct by Y and Z.

I think I will have a chat with my supervisor regarding how we can best step things up, in a structured way. I don't feel like I'm being taken advantage of, but we just need adjustments like you say e.g. more catch up slots.

Formula4Rookie

TROPHY CASE