Anxiety Is Unavoidable: Suffering Is Optional On February 8, 2013, I was a highly anxious and burned-out fifty-two-year-old physician. That night, as I left my clinic in my usual chronic state of anxiety, I wondered if life was worth living. But I had to be onstage as a stand-up comedian an hour later, so killing myself would have to wait. However, I never got to the comedy club. I suffered an injury that night that would end my medical career.