The Highly Sensitive MD

Are you a doctor or doctor in training who’s found yourself more emotionally affected by your patients, more startled by your pager buzzing, more overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells of the hospital and more obsessed and exhausted by the desire to get everything right? If so, you may be a highly sensitive MD.The Highly Sensitive MD Podcast explores what happens when highly sensitive people (HSPs) become doctors - why we choose medicine, how our sensitivity shows up in training and practice, why we are more prone to burnout (but also make the best doctors), and finally, how we can thrive in medicine by better understanding and embracing our sensitivity. The podcast is hosted by Dr. Sonia Singh, a board-certified internist, HSP and author of “Morning Report” (NEJM, 2017) and “Open Letter to a Burned Out Intern” (Annals of Internal Medicine, 2020). Her mission is to show other highly sensitive doctors that they are not alone, there is nothing wrong with them, and their sensitivity is one of their greatest gifts.

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The Highly Sensitive MD

Trailer: Introducing The Highly Sensitive MD Podcast

March 08, 2022 • Sonia Singh MD • Season 1 • Episode 1

0:00 | 2:33

This is a brief introduction to the podcast: what it's about, who it's for and why it matters.

So you cried at the code or after a crazy call day or when a consultant yelled at you for that 4pm consult. And I bet after that happened, you started to tell yourself a story. A story about how maybe you’re just not cut out for medicine, maybe you’re too soft, maybe something is just fundamentally wrong with you because you can’t seem to hold it together like everyone else. This is the story that I told myself in residency and it led me down a path to burnout, imposter syndrome, anxiety & depression. And it took me several years to realize the story I was telling myself wasn’t true. I want to offer you a different story.

If you’re a doctor or doctor in training and you’ve found yourself more emotionally affected by your patients, more startled by your pager buzzing, more overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and smells of the hospital and more obsessed and exhausted by the desire to get everything right, you may be a highly sensitive MD.

Highly sensitive people (HSPs) are those with the personality trait of high sensory processing sensitivity (SPS). This correlates with increased central nervous system reactivity and deeper cognitive processing of physical, social and emotional stimuli. Put in simpler terms, HSPs tend to feel and experience the world more deeply than those around them. And yes, there is some data on this. HSPs are thought to make up 15-20% of the population, and many of them are drawn to helping professions like medicine.

The Highly Sensitive MD Podcast explores what happens when highly sensitive people become doctors - why we choose medicine, how our sensitivity shows up in training and practice, why we’re more prone to burnout (but also make the best doctors), and ultimately how we can thrive in medicine by better understanding and embracing our sensitivity.

The podcast is hosted by me, Sonia Singh, a practicing internist, writer and highly sensitive person. My mission with this podcast is to convince my fellow highly sensitive doctors that you’re not alone, that nothing is wrong with you and that your sensitivity can be one of your greatest strengths.

I hope you’ll listen.