Member-only story
I Had Burnout. Then Grew.
How burnout as a doctor led me to write children’s stories.
I think I was 27 when I started burning out, but I changed jobs regularly enough to keep going. Each new job gave me a boost of adrenaline, and I had just enough time off to maintain my faltering energy levels. Then, about six months into my GP Fellowship training, aged 28, I could no longer escape it. I’d used up all my reserves, and the weekends weren’t long enough to top-up my energy and enthusiasm for the coming week.
I’d wake up with dread for the day ahead, bracing myself for the onslaught of appointments and difficult decisions without much senior help. By lunchtime I was exhausted and would cry on the 4-minute drive home, where I would spend half an hour hunched over a sandwich, willing myself to get through the rest of the day. By Wednesday, I’d had enough.
But this story is not about the burn-out, but about the new growth that came from it.
There were bushfires in 2019 across Australia, turning the landscape from the dry hues of brown to scorched black. I hadn’t been in Australia long enough to see a big bushfire like this and had definitely not seen how amazingly the Australian flora recovers. I knew that they were adapted to it, but I had never seen it. And to be honest, I didn’t really believe it — how can that…
