According to the latest survey, journalists who write about burn out will all be burnt out by 2020.
‘I used to take pride in my work,’ admits Steve, a burnt-out journalist from Croydon.
‘I would spend my working day drinking, smoking and lying. But now I just don’t care. Rather than using well crafted sentences and intelligent metaphors I resort to using well worn clichés like “the profession has gone into meltdown”, “it’s a house of cards” and “domino effect”.
‘When things were at their worst I would roam the early morning streets with my jacket turned inside out putting googly eyes on dog turds.
‘I only knew I’d hit rock bottom when I wrote something I thought Orwell would be proud of only to discover I’d written the word “Shed” thousands of times.’
Steve is now in therapy and his case is typical of many.
The great irony though is that journalists like Steve who burn-out after writing articles about burn-out will be better supported by their colleagues than doctors ever will.
Dr Kevin Hinkley is a GP in Aberdeen.
