From Hazards to Healing with Dr. Andre Schaffer

Dive into Episode #119 of the Psych Health and Safety USA Podcast, featuring host Dr. I. David Daniels, PhD, CSD, VPS, and special guest Dr. Andre Schaffer, MD, a former firefighter and now board-certified orthopedic surgeon. Many occupations are widely believed to be “dream jobs,” These dream jobs often inspire young people to seek to design their lives around the opportunity. Some occupations are so appealing that young people start doing the things necessary to get into a career or job early. Often, these early efforts pay off, and highly motivated young individuals end up in their dream jobs. However, not everything that glitters is gold. For any number of reasons, what may have been a dream changes. How do people respond when the dream is not as satisfying as expected? One option is to give up and descend into depression as a result of your dreams being dashed. Another option is to seek out an even greater challenge. In this podcast episode, we have the pleasure of speaking with someone who has lived the latter. After spending years preparing for one career and entering extremely young, he discovered that there was something that the first career did not satisfy, so he set off to do something that some may have believed impossible. Dr. Schaffer shares his journey from a high schooler interested in becoming a firefighter who decided that he wanted to do more. This desire led him to apply to Cornell Medical School and get accepted on the first try. All this even though he was, while smart, a below-average high school student and was living with ADHD. Dr. Schaffer now helps his patients not only recover physically but also on the road to a healthy mindset.