Here’s the emotional cycle nobody warns you about when you get sued for the first time as a physician.
When you get served, your world is going to be rocked. You’re not going to know what the hell is happening. Almost immediately, you will beginning to scrutinize and question your clinical judgment. You’re going to be thinking about it all the time, second guessing yourself, and wondering if you are doing the right thing on a daily basis.
It’s a jarring, isolating experience. Understanding the emotional cycle of medical malpractice lawsuit stress can help you navigate it. Here is what actually happens after the initial shock wears off.
The Return to an Elevated Baseline
After you get served and the initial panic peaks, what’s going to happen next is you are going to go back to a baseline. But that baseline is going to be completely different than where it was before. Your baseline is goign to be slightly elevated. The reason for that is because you will always have this lawsuit running in the back of your mind. It becomes a persisstent, low grade hum of anxiety that follows you into the clinical and your home.
The Recurring Spikes of Emotions
The legal process can and will drag on. I’m talking about 3 to 5 years of it. You are going to continue to receive new information about your lawsuit, whether they are emails from your lawyers, discovery requests, or deposition dates. When that happens, you will become emotionally activated. Your emotions are going to skyrocket again.
This cycle of being at baseline, having huge and overwhelming emotional spikes, and then dropping back down to that slightly elevated and anxious baseline will repeat until your lawsuit is entirely over.
The Aftermath
Eventually, the lawsuit is over and the cycle stops. Once you reach the settlement or the case closes, it may feel like your are not at the same place anymore emotionally. To be completely honest with you, you won’t be. You’ll never be the same.
After the paperwork is signed, there is going to be a lingering sense of questioning your own clinical judgment. You’ll most likely carry some lingering cynicism about patients, the healthcare system, and your career in medicine.
Protect Your Mental Health During Litigation
You don’t have to ride the emotional rollercoaster entirely alone. I know this cycle iolates you from your peers and presses your clinical confidence. Having a private and confidential space to process what you’re going through can be vital for your mental health.
This is exactly where online therapy for physicians becomes a life saver. Engaging in therapy with someone who understands the unique weight of medical malpractice lawsuit stress allows you to offload that mental burden, work through your uncertainty, and allow you jto process that lingering cynicism before you this experience sours you on medicine entirely.
If you’re in the middle of this cycle right now, take a breath. It’s brutal, but it’s a cycle many physicians experience and survive. You got this.
