Matthew GilloglyCEO & Founder, Mavrix Profit System · “I help doctors remember why they became healers — and build a practice that finally proves them right.”

Why Suicide Rates In Medicine Are So Concerning Now?

3 Jan 2025 · 2 min

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2:15

In this monologue, the speaker raises alarm about the hidden crisis of suicide and mental‑health struggles among physicians and other healthcare professionals. He explains how medical culture trains doctors to appear superhuman and to suppress emotions, which hampers help‑seeking. He cites the lack of resources and the punitive stance of many state medical boards that may view disclosures of mental illness or suicidal thoughts negatively, even leading to license suspensions. The speaker shares a personal anecdote about his former wife, an ER nurse, whose emotional suppression worsened over years of trauma exposure. He then highlights Dr. Carrie Cunningham—a surgeon, former professional tennis player, and past president of the Association of Academic Surgery—who publicly discussed her own battle with substance abuse and called for mental‑health initiatives after a respected colleague’s suicide. The speaker is attempting to arrange an interview with Dr. Cunningham and urges anyone with contacts to assist. Throughout, he emphasizes that the issue is under‑discussed, stigmatized, and urgently needs attention.

Chapters

Suicide in our industry is not being talked about enough. There's not enough resources available. In many states, the medical boards will view you negatively if you admit that you are having mental illness issues or suicidal thoughts. This is not a topic that a lot of people want to talk about. Why? Well, you are trained to be superhuman, right? You are trained not to make mistakes. That's actually one of the biggest challenges that we face with doctors as they make this transition into being in having their own business is you're trained to not make mistakes and you're trained to basically bury your emotions. Okay. My first wife was an ER nurse and to watch the transformation of her and burying her emotions even deeper after working in the ER for 5 and a half, 6 years was astounding because you can't confront them, right? And these things just get buried deeper and deeper and eventually they're going to come up and bite you in the in the keister. So I want to talk about Dr. Carrie Cunningham. And Dr. Carrie Cunningham is a surgeon. She's actually also a former professional tennis player. She has served as president for the Association of Academic Surgery. Now, I'm working on getting an interview set up with her. If anybody has a contact, it'd be great. I'd love to talk to her and interview this. But her speech that she gave at her association's annual conference in 2023 candidly shared her personal battle with and substance abuse as the need for initiatives to help those in the medical field with mental health issues and suicide within the profession. And as her story goes, one of her friends who was highly respected surgeon took their own life. The medical boards will view you negatively if you admit that you are having mental illness issues or suicidal thoughts. I have heard stories. I don't know of any directly, but I have heard stories through networks of doctors having their license suspended because they said that they had suicidal thoughts. Now, I don't know the context of this. This is— I don't have a specific case to give you, right? So please understand that that's, you know, coming from directly from my client sharing it with, you know, friends of theirs. Okay.