The Physician Marriage, and the Calendar That Protects It
Call schedules, late charts, and unspoken resentment. What long married physician couples say they did differently.
Medicine asks a great deal of the people who practice it and just as much of the people who live with them. Many physician couples describe the same pattern, a slow drift driven not by conflict but by exhaustion.
Protect time like a procedure
The couples who describe thriving marriages talk about treating shared time as non-negotiable, scheduled as firmly as a surgical case. It sounds unromantic. They say it is what keeps the romance possible.
Dr. Lindqvist is a psychiatrist focused on clinician wellbeing, moral injury, and sustainable careers in medicine.
This article is for professional education and does not replace clinical judgment. Treatment decisions should be based on the individual patient and current guidelines.
