Bert,
We all have to deal with burnout at some point in our careers--I have faced it a couple of times.
I'm glad you can recognize the problem--that's half the battle. You've taken the most important step--not taking new patients. Like you, I feel an obligation to care for my patients. If I don't limit the numbers it quickly becomes a monster. I've been doing family practice for almost 30yrs either in a small group of three docs or solo--the last 10.
Besides limiting your number of patients, here's a couple of other suggestions: get to bed at a reasonable hour (sleep deprivation will create burnout in a hurry), get some exercise on a regular basis, de-caffeinate, be sure you're eating well, get a checkup if you're overdue, take some time off (vacation, etc), look at your total workload (not just seeing patients) and see if there's some non-essentials you can cut back to have more time to relax and recharge.
A few years ago I got really burned and had to really cut back. I took two afternoons a week and went up to St. Josephs's Abby and "stared at the wall" for a couple of hours. It took about 2 months to get back on track. Thank God I had a couple of partners who were willing to pick up the slack for me for a little while.
Don't sweat it if you have to lay low on ACUB for a while. There are 5000+ old posts of yours we can enjoy re-reading! :-)
