Stigma of Mental Health Treatment for Providers

Author Name: Dr. X (Pseudonym)

Profession: Physician

Submitted On: September 21st, 2020

Trigger Warnings: suicidal ideation

"I am a family medicine physician that practices in a state that is pretty rigorous when it comes to asking about mental health conditions for licensing. If you reveal your disorder, they may dig deeper and request your records.

This is problematic, and I had a colleague that was suicidal recently but didn’t know where to turn because of this fear of being discovered if she went to get help. I referred her to a private practice psychiatrist that I was seeing for years myself. Everything is normal except we pay cash in order to avoid insurance putting it on our records. The psychiatrist was extremely understanding about our situation, and I’m glad we have people like that who are able to help out. I’ve also heard of doctors who self-prescribe medications or have colleagues informally prescribe to similarly avoid detection.

Unfortunately, because of the system, many of us are engaging in questionable practices in order to protect ourselves and our livelihoods. But it’s not that we aren’t able to practice. We’re just human. We’re just trying to get treatment. This is a system that needs to change, so that doctors can avoid doing questionable things like this."

We appreciate the opportunity to share stories like these with our community, with the goal of destigmatizing the struggles faced within the medical field.