Physician Support Groups (Sundays) | Peer Support for Doctors →

Physician Peer Support (11 am PT) ~ Suffering from bullying, betrayal, exhaustion, medical mistakes, grief, guilt, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? Forced into a PHP? Facing board investigation? We can help. (60 min) $97/mo. Register here.

Doctor Suicide Dream Team (1 pm PT) ~ Intimate group of physicians sharing our suicide attempts and survival. We discuss (hidden) reasons docs die by suicide & effective ways to end physician suicide now. View our free training. (60 min)  $97/mo. Register here.

Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic 101 (2 pm PT) ~ Doctors often struggle with critical self-talk, perfectionism, approval-seeking & self-sacrifice–patterns formed in childhood & reinforced by medicine’s demands. Identify core dysfunctional beliefs limiting your success & begin healing with Dr. Drummond-Webb & guests. 4-week course: April 6, 13, 20, 27 (90 min) $500. 6 hours category 2 CME. Register here.

Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic 201 (3:30 pm PT) ~ Implement concepts from Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic 101 in your daily life. Stop maladaptive self-talk with simple reframes from your inner cheerleader in our intimate group inspired by Dr. Drummond-Webb & guests. 4-week course: April 6, 13, 20, 27 (90 min) $500. 6 hours category 2 CME. Register here.

Business Mastermind (5 pm PT) ~ Master advanced business strategies for your ideal clinic, coaching, or consulting business (no medical license required). Must be Fast Track grad or own your independent practice. (60 min) $97/mo. Register here. Nonmember $100 single-session registration.

 ❤️  Confidential. All healers welcome. ❤️

School of Medical Arts – April 2025

School of Medical Arts - April 2025

(Session nonrefundable once link shared)

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Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic →

Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic Research Results (video above, data highlights below)

What’s an inner critic?

The inner critic is the internal voice that judges, criticizes, or demeans you, often highlighting your flaws, mistakes, or shortcomings.

Why do so many physicians struggle with an inner critic? 

Doctors may have a strong inner critic because medicine demands perfection, punishes mistakes, and rewards self-discipline to the point of self-denial. From early training, doctors internalize high standards and a fear of failure, often pushing themselves with harsh self-talk. Add to that the emotional isolation, burnout, and impostor syndrome common in the field, and the inner critic becomes not just a voice—but a constant companion.

What are common physician inner critic phrases?

Research reveals the most common phrase is “I am not good enough.”  Others are:  “I should know more about this than I do” and “I must not be as smart as my peers.”  Physicians even carry “I’m not good enough” into their personal lives with circulating thoughts of  ” I’m not a good enough friend, daughter, wife, mom, doctor.” Reference video above for categories of statements ranked by prevalence. Selected charts published below.

Why identify our inner critic phrases?

Once we become aware of critical self-talk these voices can be silenced. Hypercritical perfectionism, approval-seeking, and self-sacrifice phrases often stem from childhood, and are reinforced by medicine’s demands. Identifying core dysfunctional beliefs limiting your success promotes personal healing and makes us better doctors.

Physician Heal Thy Inner Critic

 

Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic Research Results

Research results reveal sneaky ways your inner critic can sabotage your career (and entire life!) The good news? You can take your power back. Interviews with 134 physicians by phone, email, and focus group identify common inner critic phrases; when hypercritical voices begin; and how to quiet your inner judge—for good. 

Physician Inner Critic Question #1

Physician Inner Critic Career

 


Pick one (1–13) that best describes your most intrusive hypercritical thought during your career as a physician:

1. I’ll never be good enough.   29 (21.6%)
2. Why can’t I keep up? I’m defective.  18 (13.4%)
3. None. I have no inner critic.  17 (12.7%)
4. Other: (please share) ________  16 (11.9%)
5. I must be perfect.  13 (9.7%)
6. I must know it all.  8 (5.9%)
7. I’m a failure.  7 (5.2%)
8. I’m alone; I can’t trust others.  7 (5.2%)
9. Any mistake means I’m a bad doctor.  6 (4.4%)
10. One error and they’ll see I’m a fraud.  5 (3.7%)
11. My needs are selfish; I please others.  4 (3.7%)
12. Patients deserve better than me.  2 (1.5%)
13. If I’m struggling, I must be weak.  2 (1.5%)

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Hilarious history of Doctors’ Day →

National Doctors' Day Cards and Flowers

𝐓𝐨𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐬’ 𝐃𝐚𝐲—and I’ve been up since 5 am passing out these handmade cards & red carnations at emergency departments & veterinary hospitals. Want to celebrate with me?

On March 30, 1842 ➡️ Back when surgery meant agony, a young man braced for pain—only to feel nothing. Dr. Crawford Long performed the first painless surgery! His inspiration? Victorian ether frolics—laughing gas parties! Guests inhaled ether or nitrous oxide, fell, got bruised up, kept laughing—yet felt no pain. Ever had a surgery? A dental procedure? Grateful to feel nothing?

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Psycho Therapy: Doc gets 74K to label whistleblower “bipolar” →

View 3-minute video above ⬆️ transcript below.

How Delta grounds a top pilot for flying too high

Meet First Officer Karlene Petitt—mother of three, grandmother of eight, author of 15 books, with two master’s degrees and a Ph.D. in aviation safety. In a field where less than 5% of Delta pilots are female, she’s among the most accomplished pilots in the sky!

Delta’s Christmas gift

On Christmas Eve 2016, Karlene opens an envelope from Delta. Not a holiday bonus—a letter ending her career.

Months earlier, Delta grounds her, ordering a psychiatric exam by their hand-picked doctor—who today declares her “unfit to fly.”

Why discredit Petitt?

A year prior, Delta CEO urges employees to speak up on safety. Petitt follows orders.

Perfect timing! She’s writing her Ph.D. thesis on aviation safety.

So she presents a 43-page safety report to her supervisors, detailing pilot fatigue, inadequate training, falsified records, and near-catastrophes. Basic stuff you’d think an airline would want to fix.

Instead of thanking Karlene, her supervisor files a Section 15, alleging she’s mentally ill, referring her to Dr. David Altman. Delta pays Altman $74,000 for Petitt’s bogus bipolar diagnosis—barring her from flying forever. Read more ›

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How one simple question saved a surgeon’s life →

View video above ⬆️ transcript below.

My friend used to be a plastic surgeon. He used to be rich and famous. He was in San Diego and got turned over to the medical board. He could have killed himself. But you know what he did instead? He decided to make a bucket list of 100 things that he wanted to do before he died.

You are one cool dude!

Hi everyone! I’m here to give a little hope! Not only physicians, but all health personnel. There was nowhere to go to. I couldn’t trust my colleagues. In residency they take 30 people and two make it to the end. People are always spreading rumors and gossip.

Once I “made it” and became a plastic surgeon and started earning the big bucks. After the first four years the lawsuits started to come. Frivolous lawsuits. No support from anybody. Worse than that. My so-called colleagues (that I go to meetings with) were saying bad things about me. “Well I think somebody died in his clinic” NO. “I think he might be doing some inappropriate things.” NO.

It was horrible. Just horrible. I had nobody to talk to, go to. I didn’t want to burden my own family with this. So I really wanted to die.

Like all of you we work so hard and give up all those parties and fun things to get through and become a doctor and I wanted to be a doctor since I was four years old.

Once I completed my 16 years of training I thought that was it. I’m all set now. I’m here to serve the world and oh my God things that happened . . .

So I wanted to die. They locked me up for 72 hours. Of course, severely depressed at that point. Really wanted to die. Planning all the details.

Then it hit me. I can’t do it. I just cannot do it. It would be a betrayal to my mother who risked her life and raised me as a single mom for years and went through hell. I couldn’t do it. I thought okay what’s the opposite of killing yourself. It’s to have the most incredible life ever lived by a human.

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Dear Suicidal Surgeon, we love you, please keep breathing . . . →

View 25-minute video above ⬆️. Transcript edited for clarity.

Dr. Pamela Wible: We are gathered here today to help a suicidal surgeon (and any health professional) who has written me a comment my blog. I got this yesterday right before boarding a plane, and it says:

I’ve been in healthcare my entire life. Surgical services. Because I spoke up against wrongdoing, stood up for myself, I’m out of a job and can’t get a job anywhere now. I’m 60 now. I don’t know what to do. I’ve had a hard life and I buried all the pain in work. Now. Alone and nothing, but time on my hands all of it has surfaced. I have been thinking about ending my life every single day for a long time. Some nights the urge is very strong. I cry myself to sleep almost daily. Every day. I don’t want to live anymore. There is no reason to. I just exist. Serving everyone but myself for over 25 years. I have been single for 24 years. Raised four kids by myself. Took care of mom when she passed. Then dad for seven years before he passed. Lost one son to an overdose. I’m so alone. I can’t take it anymore. God knows. I’m sorry for my weakness. I can’t pick myself up anymore. Nothing is working and my career is over.

Then I had a layover at an airport on the way home. And another comment came in 30 minutes after the first one. From the same person. I can’t respond directly, so we’re making this video. To help Anonymous, who further stated:

After reading what I wrote, it just sounds like a pity party for myself. But why does it feel so overwhelmingly strong? Why is the belief and the rationalization of ending my life so present in my mind every single day? And some days so strong, the pain has become so overwhelming that taking a knife or fork and scraping my arms helps relieve some of it. The pain of my life has overcome all faith. Strength I once had.

We have three guests from our peer support group—doctors determined to help other doctors not die by suicide. We help all medical professionals, even medical students, nursing students, any health professional who is suffering. Of course, we don’t want anyone to die by suicide. We have a lot of expertise in our group. We love helping physicians who are suffering (confidential care so no med board involvement or EMR!). Amir, what advice would you give this person who’s out there struggling?

Dr. Amir Friedman: Thank you for having me, Pamela, and hello to everybody here. I had the privilege of reading the comment that Pamela shared with us from Anonymous, What really resonated with me is that you had to take care of your family members. You took care of your mom when she passed and then your father for seven years before he passed, and you lost a son to an overdose. The reason that resonated with me so strongly is I have also had a similar experience in my family. I’m a physician. I’ve also been investigated, prosecuted (and imprisoned for insurance fraud). The loss in my family dramatically really outweighed the loss in my professional life, though. At the time, the two seemed to be equal in terms of loss. Read more ›

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