Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! For our May Day Mental Health

Argus/AdobeStock

PSYCHIATRIC VIEWS ON THE DAILY NEWS

One of the special meanings of today’s annual May Day, May 1, is as an International Workers’ Day that grew out of the 19th century labor movement for the rights of workers, Currently, it is an official holiday in many countries, though less recognized in the United States, where our official Labor Day is the first Monday in September. Why the difference? Probably because the international labor movement got connected to communism.

Generally speaking, May Day refers to blue-collar workers, or work that involves physical labor in factories and the like. White-collar workers generally refer to business professionals who have more education and make more money.

Historically, physicians were not thought to be either, but if we think about it, with the increasing recent domination of business in medicine, it seems like we could actually fit both.¹ Many physicians do manual work, such as in surgery and physical examinations, but are also still highly educated and paid relatively well.

Perhaps due to the changes in the workplace for psychiatrists and other physicians in this century, one of the repercussions of more business control is our high epidemic rate of burnout, which shows no evidence of abetting. Hence, our mental health continues to be at risk, but our usual high resilience allows us to keep trying to plow through the systems’ obstacles for the needs of our patients and our calling.

Given the apparent normalization of burnout, perhaps it needs to be proclaimed as an emergency despite lasting so long. The international traditional call for an emergency has been “Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!”

Without directly connecting it to burnout, there is an increasing emphasis on lifestyle in psychiatry. “Lifestyle for Positive Mental and Physical Health” is the theme of the upcoming American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting. Although the focus of lifestyle psychiatry is on our patients, with emphasis on exercise, diet, meditation, and the like, it is certainly relevant for ourselves.² While it will not directly change the controlling and oppressive systems that have the major etiology in physician burnout,³ it can at least shore up our well-being in the meanwhile.

There are May Day rallies scheduled for around the world today. Will we be there?

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.

References

1. Moffic HS. The Ethical Way: Challenges & Solutions for Managed Behavioral Healthcare. Jossey-Bass; 1997.

2. Merlo G, Sugden S. Lifestyle psychiatry: evidence-Based lifestyle interventions for. mental and physical health. Psychiatric Times. June 25, 2024. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/lifestyle-psychiatry-evidence-based-lifestyle-interventions-for-mental-and-physical-health

3. LoboPrabhu S, Summers R, Moffic HS, eds. Combating Physician Burnout: A Guide for Psychiatrists. American Psychiatric Publishing; 2018.