“I Had To Go To Group Therapy Sessions During My Internship”

My intern year at Mount Sinai Beth Israel, we had to go to weekly group therapy sessions. This was because two interns had committed suicide in the year above us.

No one in group therapy felt comfortable saying anything meaningful in front of their peers for fearing of appearing weak

At the time it was the type of program where you were seen as less than by your colleagues if you showed any sign of weakness and this could negatively affect your chances of matching for fellowship. So no one, including me, wanted to say anything that would make them seem like the “weak intern”.

While we may not feel comfortable asking for help at work, it’s still important to ask for help. There are far more people than we realize with anxiety, depression, and other mental health diagnoses because so few people feel comfortable talking about it openly. Here are three things to consider:

• Privacy. There are several options for therapy online these days that can help us and give us the privacy we may desire if we don’t want others to know we’re going to therapy
• Comfort level. It may take a few tries to find a therapist or psychiatrist that we feel comfortable with the first therapist or psychiatrist we go to it’s OK to switch to another one
• Cost. Not all therapists and psychiatrists take health insurance these days and even if we have one that does, it may still be expensive for us. The best way to think of this is that an investment in our mental health is an investment in our health. It can help us live more productively and live longer because it can help us with other things, for example managing stress that can negatively affect our heart health

LAMSA’s note: Some of medical schools in Lebanon have introduced mandatory free individual therapy sessions during internship/residency

To know more about this initiative: Stop Stigmatizing Mental Health: Our Stories, by Women In Medicine