Dr Danielle Dondiego

In 2016 Dr Danielle Dondiego was burnt out and exhausted. She was working 80-hour weeks, dealing with the stress and emotions that come alongside experiences on the front line, and at home, she was dealing with an abusive relationship. After losing several colleagues, Danielle began to ask herself if this was all worth it. Fast forward five years, and she is working in telemedicine while running a successful coaching business; she is a published author, and her bad relationship is a thing of the past.

Dr Danielle DonDiego is a board-certified Family Physician and Obesity Specialist. She also studied business at Virginia Tech and earned an MBA. We caught up with her to get advice for other doctors looking to advance their careers or change their lifestyles by taking locum shifts.

1. What tips could you give other doctors who want to advance their careers?

Be creative! You CAN and SHOULD use what you are naturally good at in your career. If you see a gap you want to solve, just do it. In most cases, you don't need permission or another degree to be bold and start something of your own.

2. What advice can you offer doctors working full-time on manifesting and securing their dream jobs?

My ultimate advice is to create it. However, if creating a job from scratch feels too risky, look for jobs exactly what you envision. SteadyMD was that for me. Not many colleagues understood what I was doing when I started working in telemedicine 4 years ago. Could we really doctor online? Was I going to lose my skills? It turns out that 2020 showed us the need and gap we could easily fill, having already been doing this for years. It's ok to work unconventionally and let go of whatever others may think of you - your happiness is still the number one priority.

3. You mention the importance of creating a positive relationship with money on your website. Can you provide some steps doctors can take to achieve this?

Yes! I love discussing money with other doctors, mostly related to mindset. We have a unique situation where most of us graduated with a LOT of debt and feel frantic about paying it off. We also want to live our lives, and maybe never had a finance course in our educational past. Maybe our households didn't discuss money in a healthy way either. All of this plays into how we spend, save, and invest. There are a lot of broke doctors living paycheck to paycheck, and this greatly contributes to mental health issues and feeling locked into a job they may not truly feel aligned with. We have to stop making money a taboo topic.

4. From a medical industry perspective, can you provide some tips on turning burnout into workplace inspiration?

From my experience, our personal story perfectly sets us up for what we are capable of accomplishing and are called to create. Use what you know, what you see, what you've personally experienced. There is no way your experience won't help someone else out there silently going through the same thing. Releasing my story in "Self-Care Rx" was one way I was able to do that. Rejecting the 80-hour work week is another. I radically put myself before anyone else, and that has been very taboo in medicine.

5. Can you provide some tips for doctors interviewing for their dream role on presenting themselves and creating their brand?

Personal branding is so important! Don't be afraid to discuss your interests outside of the job you are after. I always loved hearing about residency applicants' interests outside of work. Who are they? What do they stand for? Is this someone I want to be on call with for 24 hours? This may be more radical advice, but if you end up at a job where the culture is not welcoming of WHO you actually are, you will be unhappy no matter the salary. So don't hide who you are. Go where you are celebrated, not what you think the world wants to see.

6. Can you provide some tips for doctors on harnessing a mindset for success?

I would first ask them how they personally define success. The world may say one thing, but you may have an entirely different definition deep down. If you aren't happy, external success is really meaningless. I choose to live in an apartment instead of buying the big dream home because I define my personal success differently than the world sees. I know what I value and what I don't. If you don't know your personal core values, success will be hard to define, so start there.

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Globally, 1 in 3 women have experienced domestic violence, and lockdown has seen cases escalate. This means, sadly, doctors may likely experience patients who have suffered abuse at the hands of their intimate parters, or be experiencing it themselves. 

We caught up with Dr DonDiego, who experienced domestic abuse whilst working the long hours of a doctor.

In 2016, Dr Danielle DonDiego was burnt out. She was working 80-hour weeks, dealing with stressful experiences on the frontline, and at home, she was in an abusive relationship. Now, she has the career and life of her dreams.

Her book Self-Care Rx: A Doctor's Guide to Transformation After Trauma provides advice on the road to recovery after suffering abuse.

"Death by internal self-destruction only begins to show mercy when we have left that abusive relationship or job, stopped turning to food, drugs, and shopping carts to soothe us, and stared the culprit in the face with the determination to fully overcome. And start over," said Dr DonDiego.

In the book, she reminds us domestic abuse is as common in white-collar-wearing couples as it is in the blue-collar world. She wants to ensure that every reader can spot the earliest signs of an abusive predator-partner, leave before their sanity is disrupted, and live a rich life that is sealed from entering another toxic relationship pattern.

What was it like for you, working as a doctor but also dealing with an abusive partner at home? ‍

It was very stressful, but I am not sure I fully realised how much I was dealing with. I dove into my work and training but only reflected a little on what else was happening. I didn't have the time or bandwidth to acknowledge what was going on at home fully, so I ignored it longer than I may have in less stressful work circumstances. I knew my medical training was the top priority, so I ignored everything else.

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Jealousy is often a trait of an abusive relationship. Did you experience this when you had long night shifts? How did it affect your mental health? 

Definitely! I am typically a very outgoing and friendly person with everyone, but I found that if I became this way towards any male, I was met with insults or manipulation to keep me from being friendly. I became much more reserved over time, always being careful not to upset my partner for my own sake more than anything else. But this ultimately wasn't who I am. Not every interaction a female has with a male is at all based on attraction, and I've had to remind myself those thoughts were placed in me by someone else and not by my intentions. 

Could you talk with your colleagues about what was going on at home?

Not at the time. Everyone was just as busy as I was, and I wasn't sure how to communicate it. A few times I tried, I could just feel people didn't know how to respond or help. I think I knew it was bad, but speaking it out loud made it more real, and I wasn't quite ready to face leaving yet. When things were absolutely awful at the end, I eventually confided in a few close friends at work who helped keep me safe from stalking and threats that ensued afterwards. I ended up getting multiple protective orders while trying to start a brand-new job as a new doctor. It was a chaotic time, and I couldn't have functioned without that support.

How did you get out of the relationship, and how did it feel when you finally left him? 

I felt really liberated internally, but I lived in fear for several years.

I had a lot of help leaving. The most dangerous time in an abusive relationship is when you take action to leave. I had to get multiple protective orders and was almost run off the road on my way to work after being stalked. The security team at my apartment was aware of the situation, so I moved several times and got a different car to make it less noticeable. I moved a lot differently. The court system helped to an extent, but not to the place that I really needed at the time. I also started therapy, which was the best thing I ever did.

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Can you tell me a bit about your healing process? Is this what your book Self-Care RX is about? 

Yes! Self-Care Rx discusses my process of healing. The book really isn't about the relationship so much as it is about my journey of taking action in my own life. I discuss some details of events that occurred for context and to bring awareness to narcissistic abuse. Still, I wanted to be completely transparent about how resilience can work against us. I was too strong, too numb, too busy, too unaware until everything came to a halt. I remember thinking I wouldn't survive the relationship, and that lightbulb made me leave. It just took me a while to acknowledge it. Therapy was the best thing I ever started. I still see my therapist weekly; I'm still evolving. They say those in therapy are because of those who aren't, which sums up my journey. I also regularly have a spiritual and yoga practice I nurture. I have invested in a lot of personal and business development groups, and being able to speak about my experience to help others has also been healing. I've actually been able to help several other women out of their own abusive relationships, and that has been pretty cool. Self-Care Rx also has stories of similar situations for other women. The psychological patterns are very recognisable. 

Do you have any advice for other women in the industry who could be suffering domestic abuse at home? 

Find a therapist that specialises in narcissistic abuse. I've met several over the last few years, and there is more awareness of how intricate and manipulative that rabbit hole can go. You need a professional to be objective, walk you through your situation and help you assess your risk and psychology. Friends are great support, but it isn't the same as a professional therapist. Second, invest in yourself and take care of yourself. Healing is a full-time job. You have to give it the energy and merit that you would any other life-changing long-term goal. Third, find other survivors you can relate to. Unless someone has experienced what you have/are going through, they won't fully understand. It's an isolating time, so finding a tribe of other survivors can really help the healing process.

‍You can buy Dr Danielle DonDiego's book Self-Care Rx: A Doctor's Guide to Transformation After Trauma on Amazon here.

Instagram: @drdondiego

‍Main photograph by Alessio Filippelli @ale_ssiofilippelli and Manuel Pergugini @manuel_perugini

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