Committed Quotes

“How many psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb?” He waited. “How many?” I finally asked back. “Only one, but the lightbulb has to want to be changed, and it takes a very long time.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“It’ll be fine. Just do what seems right, and if you don’t know something, look it up or ask someone more senior. Medicine is pretty easy when you approach it like that,” she said. “I like that,” Nina said. “One of the very nice mantras around here, coined by one of our senior faculty, is to never worry alone.” And with that, for the first time all day, all of us relaxed just a little bit.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“stronger bonds to take hold. We will not cure this man’s crisis of identity, but we can hold him up until he finds his footing.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“As a medical student, I had only really been exposed to the positive parts of the field. I never had the opportunity during brief rotations to see people longitudinally get better or worse over time. I had never experienced the sense of powerlessness I was having midway through my first year.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“A patient came up to me in the hallway and told me they were dead and asked if I could help find their body.” “Oh my God,” Miranda said. “Cotard’s delusion,” Nina announced. “Not that common, but it happens.” “What did you do?” Miranda asked. “I had no idea what to do, so I said, ‘Okay, that sounds really difficult,’ and stared at her for a few seconds until the next group session started and I was saved from having to know what to do.” “What I like about your reaction, Rachel, is that you took her concerns seriously and validated her distress. Next time you see her, try asking her what it’s like to feel like she’s dead and just listen for a while.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“The lightbulb has to want to be changed,”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“I became a psychiatrist, which was, at its core, an education in the value of human connection. Psychiatry is the field of medicine aimed at helping patients to find and become the best versions of themselves in spite of, or even because of, the immense challenges they face. Inherent within the field is the assumption that we’re more capable together than we are apart.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“Only after I gave her the space and opportunity to be who she was, and not who I saw her to be, did I create the room for her to change in the therapy.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“I’m still never sure that the choices I make in balancing my personal and professional life are the right ones.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“It’s the same ambition, but I’m going to apply it to my husband and family from now on.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“Wouldn’t it be unfair for you to give up what’s always been important for you without knowing for sure that it would work out?” I asked.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“The entire scene made me feel a certain kind of sorrow for what was lost. Had it always been like this, and I was the one who had changed?”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“the “Never worry alone” slogan that cascaded down the generations of residents coming through our program began to feel like reliable advice.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“to openly discuss difficult cases with negative outcomes including but not limited to death.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“Maybe there was something unique that professional women have to endure, which men are shielded from in this regard.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“They are not going to do anything drastic without a mountain of claims and evidence.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“It’s a necessary reminder that the world is brimming with people suffering through invisible illness.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“this year I would at least get to start with one therapy patient who might be with me for the next three years. That was longer than most of my romantic relationships.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“I was beginning to take on the qualities of the patients I had been treating. I had started to notice the early warning signs of depression and anxiety. Sometimes I couldn’t get myself to eat full meals. At times I felt hopeless and totally isolated.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“felt uneasy sitting with such an honest disclosure of her husband’s unhappiness. Later in my training I would know how to sit with the tension of misery, but I didn’t yet.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“my fear still exists, but it’s more surmountable. Maybe we can figure this out together.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“I felt uneasy sitting with such an honest disclosure of her husband’s unhappiness. Later in my training I would know how to sit with the tension of misery, but I didn’t yet. Miranda stepped in to attempt a redirection.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“Only one, but the lightbulb has to want to be changed, and it takes a very long time.”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training

“Time, Dr. Stern. If we give the young man the gift of time on the unit and hold his despair with him, it allows his self to re-form and for other, potentially”
― Adam Stern, Committed: Dispatches from a Psychiatrist in Training