What I Learned About Health By Leaving My Medical Career
Thirteen years ago I had a panic attack after finishing my last shift as a hospital doctor. I was hyperventilating and shaking. For a few minutes I wondered how I was going to survive without that familiar yet suffocating yoke around my neck that I had been carrying – no, not my stethoscope, but my career as a medical doctor. Then I pulled myself together – and I have never looked back since.
I had spent six years in medical school and three years as a junior doctor. I had witnessed dreadful things, distressing things, without any support from senior doctors. I felt like I was on a conveyor belt to Hell. Something seemed to be missing but I didn’t know what it was. So I enrolled in a Chinese Medicine Bachelor Degree and did not apply for a new job the following year. I sat in lectures about Yin and Yang and learned about the different types of Qi. I spent one year just learning about the hundreds of acupuncture points on the body. I learned about herbs that warmed, herbs that dispelled damp, herbs that invigorated Qi. I had become a Sinophile during medical school, in an attempt to discover my cultural “roots”. Studying Chinese Medicine seemed to be an obvious extension of my journey.
At first it was exotic, but then I began to see the parallels between Chinese and Western medicine. I learned about the influences of the five emotions on the body – especially anger and “over-thinking”. Chinese Medicine taught me to appreciate the impact of lifestyle on health. I also had an introduction to nutrition – a naturopath gave us lectures on vitamins, minerals and wholefoods. I was amazed. Nutrition in hospitals boiled down to serving bacon and eggs for oncology patients, and Sustagen to thin patients.

I realised how unwell I was. I was plagued with hay fever symptoms, constant sinusitis, back pain, insomnia, constipation. My diet was terrible and I did no exercise. But gradually, with the dawning of a realisation that I should be taking better care of my health, and the blessing of free time – not needing to work 15 hour shifts several times a week – I started doing more exercise and improving what I ate. I started running. I slowly gave up junk food. My hay fever improved.
But I couldn’t leave Western Medicine behind. I felt there was something I hadn’t finished. I was accepted as a GP trainee after graduating from Chinese Medicine. Two years later, after obtaining my Fellowship, I joined an integrative GP clinic and I am still there, eight years on.
I’ve been on a journey to discover the answers to true wellbeing since I diverted from Western Medicine. Since then I’ve learned so much about nutrition, lifestyle, and the mind-body connection and how to use it. Taking a different tangent opened up my eyes to new paradigms. It was startling. I learned that there was more to medicine than prescriptions. I learned that every human being is a complex and unique creature, and that curing and preventing disease often required more than a drug order. I also learned that there were many situations where drugs saved lives and prevented complications. My job is to know what the situation calls for. I’ve returned to Western Medicine with a new set of eyes.
Now I find I’m moving away from acupuncture because it’s a passive treatment. I still use it in practice and am passionate about establishing rigorous evidence around its’ possible effectiveness. But I believe that active lifestyle changes will make the biggest impact on health in the “worried well” that consult me. Time and time again my advice is to eat less sugar, do more exercise, meditate, practise positive self-talk, go to bed at the same time every night. If patients did these religiously they would rarely need to see me. The other problems are easily fixed – the ones that require a prescription.
I consider myself very fortunate to have a career in Western Medicine. I took a roundabout way back to medicine, but I certainly haven’t ended up in the same place – or perhaps the same place, but with a new vision. If I hadn’t left for a little while, I may not have discovered my vocation – to teach and inspire others to find the answers to health and happiness. (One of the ancient definitions of “doctor” is “someone who teaches“). Inspiration implies I have to be a somewhat healthy role model myself. Now I spend my days and nights learning about health and wellbeing – about healing and nurturing the body, heart, mind and spirit. It’s an amazing and privileged journey and I intend to share it with everyone who wants to come along with me.
Photo credit: http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6079/6123892769_9fd6451484.jpg
-
0
Overall Score
Reader Rating: 0 Votes
You May Also Like
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
A Love Letter To the Working Mum On the Bus
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Work/Life Balance
The Struggle is Real, and How To Lean Into It
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Work/Life Balance
Seven Years A Mum: Things I Have Learned Since Having Children
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Your Doctor Doesn’t Care How Your Body Looks (And Neither Should You)
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
What I Think About Work-Family “Balance”
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
How To Get Fit At Home (For Free) – A Guide for Parents and Other Busy People
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss, Happiness and Mental Health, Work/Life Balance
Finding a New Running Route and Spiritual Home
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss, Parenting and child health
Date, Oat and Seed Bliss Balls recipe
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Mindfulness for (Working) Mothers: How to free yourself from over-thinking
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Choosing The Moments That Define My Life
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Work/Life Balance
Changing the Narrative on Working Motherhood: “I Know How She Does It”
Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Work/Life Balance
How to Finish a PhD while Raising Small Children, and Keep Your Sanity Part 1: Time Management
Blog, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
What My Career Means To Me (And Why I Will Not Apologise For It)
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
I’m Not The Mother In Those “Letters” Any More; or, The One Thing I Want Mothers To Stop Saying
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
One Day At A Time; or I Don’t Know How I Did It
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
Why I’m Grateful For Crises
Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health, Work/Life Balance
Dear Working Father: Here’s How You Can “Pay” Your Stay-At-Home Wife
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss, Happiness and Mental Health, Work/Life Balance
How Being Overwhelmed Affects Your Health (And What To Do About It)
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health, Work/Life Balance
To My Children: Thank You For My “Career Disruption”
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Lessons in Slowing Down: How I Plan On Managing My Time
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Work/Life Balance
Lessons in Slowing Down: The Ship Metaphor
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
Our Unplugged Family Holiday, and What I Really Want For the New Year
Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
What’s So Hard About Being A Parent Anyway?
Blog, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
To The Dad Who Made His Toddler Give Up The Swing Today
Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
Things I Can And Can’t Blame My Children For
Blog, Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Pimp My Workstation – or How Not To Have A Pain In The Neck From Work
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Confessions of a Recovering Runaholic: Reinhabiting a New Body, and Letting Go
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Best Workout Times for Working Mums (or anyone, for that matter)
Healthy Doctor Sleep Challenge
Are you getting enough sleep? The Healthy Doctor 30 Day Sleep Challenge
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
Four months of Musings on (Working) Motherhood: My journey so far
Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you could use your left brain to ease mummy guilt?
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Australia’s Health Budget 2014: You want a cure? I’ll give you a cure.
Happiness and Mental Health, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you could learn to let go?
Musings on (Working) Motherhood, Parenting and child health
Why my daughter can be a princess if she wants to
Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: being vigilant at the checkpoints of your day
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
The Healthy Doctor Cholesterol Challenge: a Mediterranean Diet makeover
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Why you should eat chocolate (plus my favourite chocolate cake recipes)
Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you could truly love unconditionally – starting with yourself?
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss, Parenting and child health
Ten diet and lifestyle traps for mums to avoid
Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you could receive as well as give?
Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if there was enough, and you had done enough?
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Blog
My presentation as an Early Career Researcher at the Women In Medical Research Colloquium, University of Melbourne 2012
Blog, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: Putting Gratitude into Practice
Blog, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you were grateful for every single day?
Blog, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
A Letter from a Working Mother to a Stay-At-Home Mother, and vice versa
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss, Menopause
Could High Intensity Interval Training be the answer for menopausal weight gain?
Blog, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you had a big enough Why?
Blog, Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Five ways the Year of the Horse will inspire you to have a healthy and happy New Year
Musings on (Working) Motherhood
Musings on (Working) Motherhood: What if you could do less housework?
Blog, Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Ten fabulous things that drinking coffee does for your health
Blog, Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Sleep deprivation and its effects on training, exercise performance and other important things
Blog, Exercise, nutrition and weight loss
Here’s a cracker of a workout to get you through Christmas!
Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine, Master, Musings on (Working) Motherhood
My fifteen seconds of fame… on Channel Ten news
Exercise, nutrition and weight loss, Work/Life Balance
I enjoyed reading this post. Thanks sharing your story – so interesting to hear about your journey – and learnings – so far!
I agree that lifestyle changes have the potential to have a major impact on health and wellbeing. But I wonder how many doctors have time and/or capacity – to be able to raise these issues in a sensative and meaningful way (I don’t intend to blame doctors here – I think it may be a cultural issues). Likewise it may be hard for patients to raise these topics, particularly as they are often areas of shame and reflective of other psychological pain.
I remember hearing a doctor reflect that it is very hard to talk to patients directly about being overweight/obese, particularly if the presentation is unrelated (that said, one doctor is not representative of everyone!). My research is looking at how to how doctors might have conversations about protective and risk factors with adolescents…so I guess I think about this a lot!
(sorry, I’ve gone off-topic!)
Hey Marianne! This is something I struggle with a lot. It’s often easier to connect and feel like I am making a difference if patients are on the same page already. But if not, then it’s often very difficult to bring up lifestyle issues in a sensitive way. Sometimes it’s just not appropriate at the time. Sometimes suggesting that this has helped other people might open up a conversation, perhaps not with me, but within the patient. My own journey took a very long time, and I’m supposed to know about all this stuff! From a wider perspective, there may be a role played by public health authorities etc. Changing habits takes three things: knowledge, ability and desire – and I think a fourth one, empathy from others. I am trying hard to work on this – my “real life” experiences at clinic help me with this!! Have a great week!
Thank you for this article. My favorite part – that you realize you have to be a role model and practice what you teach! I have been turned off by medicine in general, both western and natural medicine, mostly because those that I have encountered that practiced were not healthy themselves. “If you cannot believe what you see, how can you believe in what you cannot see?”
We need more doctors like you…I wish you were my doctor. Your journey reminds me of Dr. Alejandro Junger’s journey and his pursuit of being healthy. My only stays in hospitals had been because of the births of my children and I found it to be overrun with processed food and drug-pushing bullies—I couldn’t wait to get home and rest and eat something. Cheers to happy, healthy living!
Just saw this, thanks for the lovely comments! You look after yourself and your babies x