Healing vs. Productivity

Why Slowing Down Feels So Wrong (But Isn’t)

Hi 👋 friends,

💡 One Insight

Healing vs. Productivity: Why Slowing Down Feels So Wrong

I had my second therapy session a couple of days before you’re reading this. I’m writing to you after spending two hours staring into space in emotional exhaustion—again. No book in hand, no journal, no deep reflection, just… silence. Nothingness. Rationally, I know this is what is needed after any emotionally charged encounter. Clarity usually comes from reflection after the fact. A lightbulb moment that pings when you least expect it. And still, the guilt came creeping in: "You should be getting something done." "You’re wasting time."

Sound familiar?

Here’s the trap I keep falling into—and I suspect many of you do too: we confuse healing with being productive. We want grief, burnout, identity shifts, or trauma processing to behave like to-do list items: manageable, efficient, preferably with a specified timeline. We want to go to therapy, feel something profound, and then get back to our inboxes 15 minutes later like we’re emotionally bulletproof.

But (sadly?) healing doesn’t work that way. You can’t prescribe a fixed timeline. You can’t confine it to a 50-minute appointment slot. It’s messy. Nonlinear. Sometimes quiet and still, other times erupting when you least expect it. It's not just inconvenient—it’s disorienting, especially for high-functioning people who are used to measuring their days in emails sent and tasks completed (in my case a tool of distraction and thinking to avoid feeling, but I’m a work in progress).

Here’s the paradox: real healing often leads to more sustainable productivity—but only when we stop treating it like a side hustle. Healing is deeper and slower than what the modern world wants from you. But its exactly what you need to do for you. Sometimes, doing nothing is the most honest and necessary thing you can do.

Who am I?

Hi 👋 friends, thank you so much for subscribing to my newsletter. I’m Elliott, a doctor and psychiatrist in the UK I make content about how to use an understanding of mental health 🧠. I hope that you will find this helpful in knowing how to use your mind as a tool of strength.

🧠 One Strategy

The “Minimum Effective Dose” Rule
Ask: What’s the least I can do today and still honour my healing?

🔁 One Mindset Shift

From “endless to-do list = failure” ➡️ “Healing is progress I can’t always see.”

📌 One Resource

"This Is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor" by Adam Kay is a bestselling memoir that offers a raw, darkly funny, and often heartbreaking insight into life as a junior doctor in the UK’s National Health Service (NHS). It’s based on the real diary entries Adam Kay kept during his years working in obstetrics and gynaecology, documenting the intense pressures, emotional toll, absurdities and burnout, that latter of which I can fully related to.

🎤 One Question For You

What’s something restful you could do this week FOR YOU (not for anyone else) that has no goal except helping you feel better?

Let’s Connect

▶️ YouTube: / drelliottcarthy
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👨‍💻 Linkedin: / elliottcarthy
🌍 My website: https://www.drelliottcarthy.com

Before you go…

I’d love to know if any of this resonated with you. Leave a comment if you’re comfortable sharing x

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