Yesterday, June 24th, a memorial was held to honor the memory of Johnny Dough, a beloved third year medical resident at Lima Londa Hospital in Southern California. His friends, family, and the medical community in which he was an integral part will miss him dearly.
“I wish I had seen the signs,” said one of his co-residents. “He was so happy until the summer hit.”
Her statement coincides with what little is known about the new disease that plagued Dough. According to psychiatrists with knowledge of the upcoming DSM-6, Vacational Affective Disorder (VAD) is becoming more and more common among adults between the ages of 22 and 30. During this time, graduates of college, doctoral programs, and other continuing education paths are facing a truth that challenges routines that have been ingrained in them since childhood.
The truth: Summer vacation is not a lifelong guarantee.
Considering the schedule of school systems beginning in grade school, it’s no wonder VAD is on the rise. From such young ages, we are all effectively trained to work hard for nine months and then play hard for three. Then as adults we are expected to suddenly adjust to a schedule where we work hard for twelve months straight with minimal intermittent vacation. It is devastating to our established core beliefs.
The truth hit us personally at the start of what should have been the summer after 3rd year of medical school. I was pregnant and coming off a successful year of teaching middle school. Having wrapped up final exams, submitted grades, and sent my students off on their own summer vacations, I came home only to find that my medical student husband would start a new rotation the following week. We had A SINGLE WEEKEND to adjust to the reality that I had chosen a profession that perpetuated my belief in summer vacation. He, like most others, had not. Making it to September without succumbing to burnout would be a daily struggle. We tried not to think about what this meant for us long term. What would it be like to not have a break longer than a week’s requested time off until retirement?
In the name of easing this transition, many school districts are tiptoeing toward year round school. Unfortunately, this solution is short sighted as it does not take into account our biological need and constitutional right to impractically large and concentrated vacation time. The fact of the matter is that even our distant relatives needed months to recover from strenuous labor. Imagine if the cavemen had been required to hunt for food and build fires every day of their lives.
Bears hibernate, and it is no secret that they are a force to be reckoned with. Why should we not follow a pattern that is so obviously natural? In keeping with this idea of mental hibernation, I propose a better plan. A simpler way of life in which the workplace is patterned after the traditional school system, no matter the profession. It seems obvious that if we shut down hospitals for three months out of the year, we would see a significant improvement in the mental health of our medical professionals. And the benefits would not stop with them.
Do we really NEED year-round access to electricians, pilots, and grocery store clerks? How about our overworked military, firefighters, and law enforcement officers? I submit that our world would be much more functional if everyone had access to a mentally rejuvenating few months of straight vacation every year. But I’m just a simple girl, raging agains the excessive American system. You can decide for yourself on which side of the issue you’ll hang your hammock.
