Reach Out And Connect With Someone

{Rancho Cucamonga, California}

I’m approaching a new phase in my life by moving on to a new practice, which will be my second job out of residency.  As excited and hurried as I was to leave my first job and move on to the next, with this being the last week in clinic, I’d have to say that I’m quite sad.  I’ve had several friends tell me that they don’t get along with their coworkers, that they haven’t developed friendships with anyone on staff, that they mostly are “in and out” of clinic to see their patients and get all the documentation done while minimally interacting with their peers.  How fortunate am I to have developed a sense of family and strong teamwork with those whom I work with?

I hear that one of the drawbacks of going into private practice is a sense of isolation not having a team of professionals to bounce ideas off of or interact with on a daily basis.  However, I do know that the practice I’m joining will provide valuable experience learning what it’s like to practice psychiatry in a different clinical setting.  And even cooler is that the actions and morale of the group I’m joining have given me enough confirmation to prove that I’ve made the best choice for myself and my career.

If you notice a theme in several of my posts, it’s the concept of “family” and teamwork.  I have several patients whose stress levels and depression gets triggered or exacerbated by a sense of loneliness and isolation due to lacking the friendship, camaraderie, sense of belonging, and the support we as humans need.  Numerous studies have found that social relationships provide emotional support and contribute to stress relief and better quality of life.  The following are some examples of how social support enhances mental and physical health:

• Addiction
  • Recovery from substance use often leads to the dissolution of former friendships that were associated with an individual’s propensity to use drugs or alcohol.  Therefore, recovery-oriented support (such as 12-step programs) are critical early in treatment as someone begins to build and develop a healthier network of support.  Higher levels of social support are linked to decrease in substance use whereas lower levels of social support prospectively predicted relapse.

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • for childhood sexual abuse survivors, a combination of self-esteem and appraisal support (an individual’s perception of being valued by others and that he or she is capable of getting advice when coping with difficulties) was useful in preventing the development of adult PTSD.
• Cancer
  • Supportive group intervention for women with metastatic breast cancer has been associated with lower mood disturbances and less maladaptive ways of coping with terminal illness.
•  Work Stress
  • Social support at work has been shown to have direct benefit on workers’ psychological well-being and productivity.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:  Identifying and building your own support network can take quite some time and effort, but the enhancement on your quality of life will make it well worth it.  Which supports do you identify as being most integral in your day to day life?