We secretly know this is not healthy. It is not the way we advise our patients to handle their interpersonal lives. We have all seen the statistics about the rates of suicide, impairment with drugs or alcohol, and divorce being more common in doctors than the general population. Yet we are in denial. It couldn't happen to us.
Friendships take time to develop and maintain.
They don't happen automatically. Women, as a rule, do better at this than men-who tend not to confide in anyone. Granted, the case of suicide is the extreme-but the benefits of developing a few close friendships can be tremendous for all of us. Studies have shown, for example, in a group of patients undergoing coronary angiography, significantly more coronary blockage in those who lacked regular contact with friends. In an epidemiological study of Japanese residents in Alameda County, California, those with the fewest social contacts had mortality rates two to three times higher than those with more social contacts.