Physicians have the highest suicide rate of any profession in the United States — roughly 300-400 physician suicides per year, the equivalent of losing an entire medical school class annually. Burnout affects approximately 42% of practicing doctors. Depression, anxiety, and moral injury are endemic in a system that demands perfection while offering little space for vulnerability.
The stories in this collection are about physicians who hit their breaking point — and found a way back. A psychiatrist who spent decades helping others while silently drowning in his own depression. A surgeon who sat in the hospital parking lot every morning for six months, unable to open her car door. A family doctor who lost her first pediatric patient and discovered that medical training had taught her everything except how to grieve.
These are not stories of weakness. They are stories of the extraordinary courage it takes for a physician to say three words: "I need help." And they are stories about what happens when someone reaches back.
The stigma against physician vulnerability is not just harmful — it is lethal. By sharing these stories, we aim to create space for physicians to be human, to struggle, and to heal.
A high-performing surgeon's life unravels not in the operating room but in the parking lot, where she sits for two hours every morning unable to open her car door — and what she learned about the epidemic no one in medicine talks about.
A psychiatrist confronts the devastating irony of spending decades helping others with their mental health while silently drowning in his own.
Read the stories that physicians were afraid to tell — and that may save someone's life.
Distribution across 26 physician accounts
Percentage reporting each feature (van Lommel et al., 2001)
Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 stories that will challenge what you believe about life, death, and everything in between.
Buy on Amazon — 4.3★ (1,018 ratings)
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Over 200 physicians interviewed. 26 true stories of ghost encounters, near-death experiences, and miraculous recoveries that will change the way you think about life, death, and what lies beyond.
By Dr. Scott J. Kolbaba, MD — 4.3★ from 1,018 ratings on Goodreads