Ending Physician Overwhelm

Send us Fan Mail In this episode of Ending Physician Overwhelm , we dive deep into the real reasons behind our struggles with setting boundaries as physicians. It’s not just about finding time for lunch or stepping away from work—it’s about uncovering the deeply ingrained patterns and thoughts that keep us stuck in cycles of guilt, overwhelm, and exhaustion. Dr. Melo shares personal anecdotes, lik...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, I explore the concept of Human Giver Syndrome, a term coined by Emily Nagoski, PhD, and Amelia Nagoski, DMA, in their groundbreaking book Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle. This deeply ingrained societal expectation pressures women—especially women physicians—to be endlessly selfless, cheerful, and giving, often at the expense of their own well-bei...

Send us Fan Mail Connection is something most of us are lacking. Which is weird, because most of us are surrounded by people daily. But it’s not just people that give you connection. It’s being able to show up, be yourself, ask for help, be vulnerable, and support others that creates connection. We need a balance of give and take. Period. And most of us aren’t getting that, but we need that. If yo...

Send us Fan Mail How do we take care of ourselves when we have BIG feelings, when we are used to taking care of everyone else. I’m not talking politics today, though I acknowledge that I, and many of you, have some big emotions right now, which are not limited to disappointment, but too numerous to mention. If you struggle with hard times, like most humans do, this is one to lean into. I’m sharing...

Send us Fan Mail Feeling a bit fiery today, but I want you to sit with this one. I am done believing that I should look, work or speak a certain way, based on internalized norms passed down from generations of patriarchy in medicine. I don’t want to practice that way, I don’t want to speak that way, and I don’t want to receive my care that way.  But in order for us to change the dynamic, WE are go...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when you clean up other people’s messes? They don’t get to solve the problem (and learn) They don’t get to experience the consequences (and learn) You feel exhausted, and internalize that you SHOULD be the one who fixes ALL the problems. In today’s episode, I’m going to walk through what this can look like, and invite you to think about these challenges differently. Y...

Send us Fan Mail Ok, who else here likes to feel in control? Likes it too much, I mean. As in, tries to take control of every situation and then wonders why she feels so stressed, tight and yell-y. Today I’m talking about the idea that you can have complete control or complete freedom, but not both. Although this too is an illusion because we can’t actually control much of what we try to control....

Send us Fan Mail Trauma responses are very real, and very challenging for us as humans. Especially if you are judging yourself for experiencing them. Today I am talking about how trauma shows up in our lives, including in ourselves and people around us. We’ll talk about seeing trauma as “too much, too fast,” and often with too little support/resources, and the ways that can manifest in your life....

Send us Fan Mail Were you a great resident? Me too Were you the one that was kind, flexible, accommodating, hardworking? Me too Were you the one who left residency and worked and worked and worked, looking for validation, wanting to hear that you could take a break, that you could get the help and support you needed to take care of patients exactly the way that you wanted too, and not the way that...

Send us Fan Mail Do you struggle to get your notes done? How often have you told yourself that you “just need to be more efficient” or “just need to be better at time management?” How’s that working for you? Today I take a deep dive into why procrastination, with *special* attention to our notes and inboxes, is not a simple math problem. If it were, a timer would help you 100% of the time. Instead...

Send us Fan Mail What if you could use your medical expertise differently? Today I sit down with Dr Amy Fogelman, Board-Certified and Harvard-trained Internist and the CEO and Founder of High Rock Experts. Dr Fogelman shares her journey through burnout and how it led her to recognise how she could use her medical expertise in more sustainable ways as a Medical Expert Witness and a business owner c...

Send us Fan Mail We think of stress as this thing we carry. But what IS it? Stress is an emotion; a feeling. It probably gives you some physical sensations in your body (headaches, eyelid twitches, stomach upset). And we try and treat stress by getting organized (journals, planners and apps, oh my!), doing yoga, promising that we’ll meditate (“I’ll just download this app and start meditating every...

Send us Fan Mail “I should exercise more” This episode is not for those of you who already LOVE exercising. Those of you who are runners, for example, and strongly identify as such. Or Cross-Fitters. You are welcome here, and yet this episode might not make sense to you. Because today, I’m talking to those of us who were not athletes, who put exercise on our calendars and then don’t do it, who thi...

Send us Fan Mail How much of your day do you feel is in service to Epic and the almighty EMR? The tech is supposed to serve us, right? Today I am thrilled to be joined by Dr Michelle Flemmings, an ER Physician with past Hospitalist Experience, who moved into the technology space, helping to shape medical technology to fit the users, not the other way around. She shares her journey from pre-EMR med...

Send us Fan Mail Food is complicated; I know it, you know it. Today, I invite you to consider how you are fueling your body, and how it’s working for how you feel? Do you fuel your body often enough, and with foods that help you feel good in terms of energy, and overall effects? Or are you eating on the go, grabbing whatever’s easy, eating so quickly you barely taste anything and soon after having...

Send us Fan Mail Yes, yes, you know. You should sleep more. And most of us WANT to sleep more; or at least feel like we have slept more. Today is part of my “4 Pillars” or “Back to Basics” series for September, and today we are talking sleep. But rather than give you a prescription, literally or figuratively, I want to talk about what’s getting in the way of you getting to bed, what it’s costing Y...

Send us Fan Mail Do you get stuck in “right way” energy? Today I'm sharing a little bit of my own anxious internal environment and talking about “right way” energy. IT’s that internal voice that tells you that there is only one right way to do things. We'll talk about where this kind of energy comes from, what it creates for us in our lives, and what it keeps us from having in our lives....

Send us Fan Mail We do hard things. As physicians, we are trained to diagnose and treat complex medical illness and to be present with patients through illness, loss of function and loss of life.  But how many of us are equipped with the skills, grace and compassion to deal with a devastating diagnosis in our own families? Today I’m joined by Dr Crystal Nelson, a board-certified Psychiatrist who s...

Send us Fan Mail Let’s really talk about burnout, shall we? Today I’m diving deep into the emotional exhaustion component of burnout, and centering our conversation around the excellent book, Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle by Emily and Amelia Nagoski, a must-read. If emotions are tunnels with a start and a stop and we are supposed to move through them, emotional exhaustion is us...

Send us Fan Mail “Anxiety is the combination of uncertainty plus our lack of trust in our ability to handle it”                    Becky Kennedy, PhD Clinical Psychologist aka “Dr Becky” Ah COVID, here we are again. Welcome to a very special, (mild) COVID edition of Ending Physician Overwhelm.  But really it’s a perfect background to explore this framework of anxiety, and talk about how instead of...

Send us Fan Mail Does perfectionism bleed over into your physical appearance? Today I sit down with Dr Mary Alice Mina, a double-board-certified Dermatologist and Dermatologic Surgeon to talk about…you guessed it, skin. And appearance, and perfectionism, and how to make it all easier. In this conversation, we talk about how complicated thoughts and beliefs get around our skin, and practical advice...

Send us Fan Mail “I’m so behind” I thought.  Uh oh… Join me today as I dive into a well-worn thought pattern in my mind, and probably one that shows up for you as well. I share a little of how the name of this podcast came to be, my experience of a sensation of chronic overwhelm, and a deeper dive into how to use “The Thought Model,” which is a wonderful coaching tool from Brooke Castillo, the fou...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever found yourself at the bottom of a bag of chips and don’t know how you got there?  Blame “The Bliss Point;” a high desirability combination of flavors/crunch/textures that make us want to keep eating, without feeling fully satisfied. Sound familiar? Today we talk about how profitable industries manipulate us to keep doing more of what makes them money; for the food in...

Send us Fan Mail Disordered eating, including eating disorders, are more common in physicians than you know.  It’s yet another area of silent, shameful struggle for many people. Today I am thrilled to be joined by a leader in this area, Dr Siobhan Key, a fellow Family and Obesity Medicine Physician, as well as a Physician Coach who specialized in helping physicians end their weight loss struggles....

Send us Fan Mail We’ve all heard of death by a thousand paper cuts; today I’m talking about “papercut” statements from patients. “You weren’t available so I couldn’t get seen” “Why can’t she just order me malaria pills!” “That means I will have been in pain for 16 months” There’s lots of things that patients say/write to us that sting. And, many of us internalize these in such a way that we carry...