‘I was in tears when my colleague walked in and gave me a hug’: The psychiatrist who desperately needed therapy
A story of physician burnout, angst and depression that ultimately ended well for Professor Brett McDermott.
Who do psychiatrists turn to when they need therapy?
In Professor Brett McDermott’s case, a fellow psychiatrist eventually came to his aid, but not before a protracted search for someone to take him on as a patient.
“As a professor of child psychiatry who was seen as pretty competent and running a multidisciplinary team at a prominent sandstone university, no one would see me,” he says of this bleak period some 20 years ago, marred by acute depression and burnout.
“Eventually, they dragged someone out of retirement for me.”
