Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic Research Results (video above, data highlights below)
What’s an inner critic?
The inner critic is the internal voice that judges, criticizes, or demeans you, often highlighting your flaws, mistakes, or shortcomings.
Why do so many physicians struggle with an inner critic?
Doctors may have a strong inner critic because medicine demands perfection, punishes mistakes, and rewards self-discipline to the point of self-denial. From early training, doctors internalize high standards and a fear of failure, often pushing themselves with harsh self-talk. Add to that the emotional isolation, burnout, and impostor syndrome common in the field, and the inner critic becomes not just a voice—but a constant companion.
What are common physician inner critic phrases?
Research reveals the most common phrase is “I am not good enough.” Others are: “I should know more about this than I do” and “I must not be as smart as my peers.” Physicians even carry “I’m not good enough” into their personal lives with circulating thoughts of ” I’m not a good enough friend, daughter, wife, mom, doctor.” Reference video above for categories of statements ranked by prevalence. Selected charts published below.
Why identify our inner critic phrases?
Once we become aware of critical self-talk these voices can be silenced. Hypercritical perfectionism, approval-seeking, and self-sacrifice phrases often stem from childhood, and are reinforced by medicine’s demands. Identifying core dysfunctional beliefs limiting your success promotes personal healing and makes us better doctors.
Physician, Heal Thy Inner Critic Research Results
Research results reveal sneaky ways your inner critic can sabotage your career (and entire life!) The good news? You can take your power back. Interviews with 134 physicians by phone, email, and focus group identify common inner critic phrases; when hypercritical voices begin; and how to quiet your inner judge—for good.
Physician Inner Critic Question #1
Pick one (1–13) that best describes your most intrusive hypercritical thought during your career as a physician:
1. I’ll never be good enough. 29 (21.6%)
2. Why can’t I keep up? I’m defective. 18 (13.4%)
3. None. I have no inner critic. 17 (12.7%)
4. Other: (please share) ________ 16 (11.9%)
5. I must be perfect. 13 (9.7%)
6. I must know it all. 8 (5.9%)
7. I’m a failure. 7 (5.2%)
8. I’m alone; I can’t trust others. 7 (5.2%)
9. Any mistake means I’m a bad doctor. 6 (4.4%)
10. One error and they’ll see I’m a fraud. 5 (3.7%)
11. My needs are selfish; I please others. 4 (3.7%)
12. Patients deserve better than me. 2 (1.5%)
13. If I’m struggling, I must be weak. 2 (1.5%)
Physician Inner Critic Question #2
Most intrusive hypercritical thought during last 12 months (categories ranked by )
1. Not enough 15 (20%)
2. Underperforming 15 (20%)
3. Other (various) 11 (14%)
4. Not perfect 7 (9%)
5. Failure 7 (9%)
6. Worthless/Undeserving 7 (9%)
7. Dissatisfaction 5 (7%)
8. Lazy 5 (7%)
9. Self-Loathing 4 (t5%)
Physician Inner Critic Question #3
When did your inner critic start speaking to you this way?
1. Childhood 22 (58%)
2. Premed 8 (21%)
3. Residency 7 (18%)
4. Medical school 1 (3%)
Selected Comments
“An A- according to my mother, wasn’t good enough. If I was struggling with my math class, my dad, a math instructor at the community college, would call me stupid. Med School didn’t help. The first day of gross anatomy, the doctor told all four of us at our cadaver table that three of us wouldn’t make it through the first year. Fortunately, he was wrong. Although I barely made it through the first year. I had to retake the biochemistry exam in the summer. That was the year I saw my first psychiatrist. My mental health only worsened from there. I never considered suicide until medical school.”
“After screening thousands of applicants to med school over the years, I’m of the opinion the admissions process tends to select perfectionistic people. Because of the structure of medical school and residency, and the unrealistic expectations of both biomedical science and clinical faculty, this perfectionism often becomes concentrated into a pathological form.”
“I think a lot of the phrases started in med school, especially the feeling of not belonging and having to do perfectly on everything to keep up with my peers. I felt like I was under a microscope both then and now and was the problem student in my class.”
“The drive to look/seek for other answers, deeper answers, not accept the conventional explanations or understanding of most everything started as a child. But, hearing it as a critic started with comparison to others, being tested and graded and judged or criticized—then at some level accepting or believing that. Clearly, our profession and maybe society in general does not encourage or celebrate out-of-the-box or non-conventional thinking.”
“Working with my childhood trauma therapist has really helped dull the edge of these comments however, I think the message was there from early childhood. Mostly from my Dad, but a little from mom/her side of family. My maternal grandfather was a factory worker, ww2 vet ‘pull up by bootstraps’ kind of guy, and I internalized that message. Any time I wasn’t keen on doing chores I was ‘lazy’ and it perpetuated itself from there. Never enough.”
SOLUTIONS
Physician Success Stories 😍 Taming Your Inner Critic
1. Get therapy.
“Therapy therapy therapy. Be curious about why you make choices. Work towards truly enjoying your life. For me, creating a direct primary care practice in my mid 50’s was key. Love what I do and do what I love.”
2. Love your job.
“Getting out of mainstream vending machine medicine.”
3. Do meditation.
“I have meditated 15 minutes morning and evening for 12 months and find that now I don’t have inner criticism, just an inner curiosity about what I am feeling.”
4. Enjoy learning from “mistakes.”
“I’m an older physician and in my training we were told we were life long learners. I really believe I escaped the inner critic because of that mantra. The voice that told me to strive to learn what was new was not a critical voice and it was more a gentle motivating reminder.”
“Now in the ‘wisdom’ of retirement and older age, I think what ‘saved’ me in medicine was having low expectations because I was not a science major (degrees in writing, anthropology, minor in biology). I applied to medical school to say I’d tried and because the humanitarian aspect appealed to me, but never expected to get accepted, as only 1 in 10 students were female at the time. I anticipated going into a medical librarian career. And I admit I still wonder if I would have been happy with that! So I never expected to be a top student or, more importantly, to know everything. I approached medical questions expecting to have to search and dredge for answers all my career, to always seek help. I also quickly saw that many “top” students and attendings had flaws in empathy and relationships, and that they were not as happy as one would expect with their status. Long story short, I think being less ego-invested in the physician role was key to my sanity.”
5. Be human.
“I have never been hypercritical. I do admit mistakes, errors whether related to my work or in my relationships but I do not berate myself on an ongoing basis. I have never thought I was a fraud. Generally my perception entailed being a human, a physician who is doing her best and I know that it is never perfect and it is unlikely to ever be perfect.”
“Surprisingly, and a blessing that I was never hypercritical of myself as a practicing physician. Somehow I always knew that I was human, not perfect, not a superhero. I set unapologetic boundaries early in my career and I know that is how I survived.”
“I am doing a good enough job. This I apply to all my areas of life. I am good enough wife, mother etc. Being a Buddhist I do practice middle pathway and ‘good enough is good enough.’ Always there will be a better person than you and a worse person than you. Middle path in everything.”
6. Practice self-compassion.
“In my 50s I learned greater compassion for myself and mostly learned to shut that voice down.”
7. Find your true self.
“No inner critic any more. Years of correcting thoughts, convincing myself that I am fine the way I am, that I make moral decisions, and that society brainwashes us to all believe we are pieces of crap and it’s a lie. Then the subconscious starts operating from this faulty programming. Started a meditation practice in 2019, lots of agonizing thoughts about the past and current state came up when my thoughts calmed down. Had to deal with each as it came up, digging deep to find my true self under the lies. Took 5 years for this to stop. I don’t remember the last time I had a self-critical thought.”
8. Explore self-inquiry.
“I reflect on the day’s events by asking four questions: 1) What brought me joy today? 2) What brought me desolation? 3) What was my role (if any) related to this joy and/or desolation? 4) What can I do to increase the joy and decrease any desolation tomorrow?”
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