07/22/2026
What happens when being a veterinarian stops feeling like something you do, and starts feeling like the measure of your worth as a human being?
In this week's Research Recap, we're following up on Monday's carousel with a closer look at a new study of 201 practicing veterinarians on self-dehumanization, feeling more like a machine than a person, believing you're only as valuable as your latest success, or losing touch with who you are outside of the job.
About 10% of veterinarians in the study reported comparatively high levels of self-dehumanization, and it was tied to more burnout, more secondary traumatic stress, more anxiety, and more depression. Even after accounting for burnout, the link to depression held.
This was a cross-sectional study, so it can't tell us exactly what causes what. But it raises something worth sitting with: are we asking veterinary professionals to be so capable, so composed, so productive and self-sacrificing that they no longer feel permitted to be fully human?
Well-being can't just be about teaching people to cope with unhealthy expectations. Workplaces need to protect rest, autonomy, emotional expression, boundaries, and identities outside of the profession. Being a professional should never require being less human.
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