Dr. Alexis Polles, MD The title phrase no longer takes us to first remembering the 1974 Ace song with a similar title, (“How long has this been going on,” Five-A-Side, 1974), but rather to the ongoing experiences related to the COVID pandemic. Are you at risk, even post-pandemic? As the global crisis abates, many sources, including the Centers for Disease Control (CDC. org) and the American Veterinary Medicine Association (AVMA. org) emphasize that the risk of the physical and emotional stress of the pandemic will not soon disappear in the rearview mirror as you “drive on” with your life. Unfortunately, the results, sometimes catastrophic, of burnout, stress, anxiety, depression and addiction are not new to veterinary professionals. This article will focus on veterinary medical doctors, but much of it also applies to other veterinary professionals.
24 | FVMA Advocate
STRESS AND BURNOUT
There are distinctions between stress and burnout. With chronic stress, emotions may be over-reactive, resulting in a sense of urgency and hyperactivity with a loss of energy over time. Anxiety disorders are a result, and there may be physical damage associated with those disorders, such as development or worsening of hypertension. Burnout, on the other hand, produces feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, along with a loss of motivation, ideals and sense of efficacy. This leads to detachment, numbing, depression and even thoughts of suicide. The damage is mostly emotional. Both stress and burnout can produce sleep problems and heightened perfectionism. Shockingly, 85% of veterinarians surveyed at the 2018 AVMA meeting endorsed having “stress and burnout” (Am Vet News, 10/11/18). Contributors to these conditions include intensive use of technology, regulatory and competency maintenance requirements, social media attacks
