143. What it Takes to Heal the Healers with Dr. Andrea Austin

Yeah.

That is so powerful, right? Like you noticing that you were attracted magnetically to something else and you following that and then because it is so intense and that's probably also what attracted you to it is because it's so intense and it like sucks the life out of you and you're like, yes, let me do that.

And then it sucked the life out of you and there was just nothing more to give over and over again.

I wonder if you'd speak to how relentless burnout is, regardless of what profession we're doing, what we're doing at home.

Burnout isn't just a one and done thing.

No, I burned out multiple times.

And every time I burned out, I learned something different.

You know, the first time was towards the end of residency and it was kind of the superficial awareness.

Like, okay, I need more sleep.

I say superficial, but it seemed like easier fixes.

Okay, sleep, clean up your nutrition, work on your finances and you'll be okay.

And then I was for a little bit.

And then life has a way of like ratcheting things up and there's different stressors once you're a new attending.

And then I was also in the military and getting ready to deploy to Iraq and being honestly kind of ripped away from everything that I'd ever felt tethered to in my life.

You know, your home, your partner, your friends, your career even, because you're being pulled out to do this military deployment.

And so that was its own level of trauma, stress.

And then I come home and the military tells me, hey, we're going to move you.

So just when I feel like I'm going to be stable, I'm not.

And I'm having to move to Los Angeles and start a new job with the military.

And then COVID happens.

So it's just like one thing after another.

But the most profound thing, the third time I went through burnout was... taking a pause, doing a sabbatical.

And honestly, the thing that got me through it was this quote from Dr. Michelle Woolhouse.

And she said to use burnout as your teacher.

And What I had been doing before was trying to get it off of me.