Sir,
It was a very timely editorial by you on brace up or burnout in the last two issues of IJO[1] in which you reinforced my thought on mid-life crisis-burnout syndrome in ophthalmologist turning 50 years of age. This age is watershed in our lives when we look back to see what we have achieved in life and is a multifactorial problem resulting from poor work–life balance that leads to a void in the future.
In ophthalmology, there is a plateau in your practice and your patient flow tends to stagnate with reducing reimbursements. Ophthalmology has rapidly advanced with phacoemulsification, sutureless vitrectomy surgery and bladeless lasik, and SMILE procedures dramatically reducing our surgical time leaves us with more free time at our hands that pushes us to philosophising on life.
There are many avenues that can help us to cope with this burnout syndrome and allow us to change tracks. I have had a passion to teach in medical college for the past 20 years, which is extremely fulfilling to meet, teach, and interact with a fresh breed of students and get an insight into their take on life and medicine. Then I have also started collating my data and have developed an interest to start publishing and get newer perspectives on research modalities and updating my ophthalmic knowledge. Spending more time with your family and getting to know my children better and guiding them in their career options has become my indulgence.
Another very soothing option is religion and philosophy to find a meaning to this mundane existence. I have rediscovered Hinduism as a way of vedantic living by reading and attending discourses. My 1-year stint in Japan for my fellowship got me seriously involved in Zen and Zazen as a way of stilling the mind and entering the state of no mind. Indulging in exercise and getting involved in sports like tennis will help to rediscover yourself and also keep you healthy. Last but not the least, rekindling your own hobbies, mine being Hindustani classical vocal music, which I am re-learning through my guru. I realized how deep, intricate, complex these “ragas” and “khayals” are that make medicine seem like a dwarf.
We are living in exciting times for curing diseases, which had no treatments like gene-therapy for Leber's congenital amaurosis using Luxterna, deep machine learning, and robotic surgery. So updating yourself with the latest technological and scientific updates can keep you occupied and at the cutting edge of medicine with no time for boredom.
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Conflicts of interest
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Reference
- 1.Honavar SG. Brace Up or Burn-out. Indian J Opthalmol. 2018;66:489–90. doi: 10.4103/ijo.IJO_424_18. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]