What ‘The Pitt’ Got Right About Addicted Medical Professionals
Written by Emma Nagle, LCSW | May 21, 2025
The character of confident, playful, senior resident Dr. Langdon in HBO Max’s The Pitt, offers a rare, honest glimpse into the hidden struggles of medical professionals dealing with addiction.
While fictional, Dr. Langdon’s story reflects a reality that I’ve encountered many times in my work as an LCSW and Clinical Supervisor in an New York outpatient substance use and mental health treatment clinic.
Over the years (and particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic) I’ve seen a notable rise in professionals, especially those in healthcare, getting connected to treatment. As The Pitt demonstrates, doctors, nurses, and other licensed clinicians carry immense responsibility and are routinely exposed to trauma, high-stakes decision-making, and chronic sleep deprivation. The culture of medicine often demands stoicism and self-sacrifice, leaving little room to tend to one’s own mental health. The show also explores a less talked-about dynamic: the pride that comes from 'doing the most.' There is a sense of validation and identity that can form around being the one who saves lives or works the longest shift, no matter the personal cost. As Langdon describes it, he is connected to the identify of being one of “the bees protecting the hive.”
It’s no surprise that burnout, depression, and substance use disorders are common among this group. Yet, seeking help can be incredibly complicated. Medical professionals not only fear stigma, they fear career consequences. Many face mandatory reporting, disciplinary action including license revocation, or professional monitoring. In New York City’s public hospital systems, the pressure to keep functioning under high patient volumes, staffing shortages, and institutional strain only amplifies this tension, much like The Pitt exposes.
What The Pitt gets right is the complexity. Dr. Langdon isn’t portrayed as reckless or weak. He’s a skilled, committed, senior resident, and quietly unraveling under the weight of his work and unprocessed pain. It mirrors what I’ve seen in real life: professionals who are high-performing, deeply caring, and profoundly isolated in their suffering. In fact, The American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA) reports that approximately 10% to 15% of all clinicians will misuse alcohol or other drugs during their careers. While support exists for these individuals, Caduceus meetings are not enough support and do not encompass all the different types of medical licensure out there and are reserved strictly for doctoral healthcare professionals.
It should be noted that the concept of staff members diverting medication is not unfamiliar.
The Pitt taught us how inconspicuous someone’s addiction can be, even for doctors in an emergency room environment where professionals have a trained eye. The discovery of Dr. Langdon’s diversion of benzodiazepines was an accurate depiction in that a colleague suspected him. Like many other professionals misusing substances, it required a colleague or supervisor reporting them for confrontation about their addiction to occur. The moment Dr. Langdon is cornered about his diversion of a controlled substance, he begins to unravel. He clearly fears not only for his job at Pittsburgh’s Trauma Medical Center, but for his license as a doctor that he has spent a minimum of eight years working towards.
What we don’t see in The Pitt series is what the attending, Dr. Robby, chooses to do with the knowledge that one of his supervisees is stealing medication and appears to be addicted to pills. We heard him threaten Dr. Langdon by reporting him, which leads to:
“30 day inpatient treatment program. Followed by random urine tests - 50-60 a year. Followed by mandatory NA meetings. Three to four times a week for the first three years… Of a five year program.”
This may sound excessive, but it is comparable to the types of consequences medical professionals might face and the process they go through. A medical professional who is caught on the job under the influence, diverting narcotics, or, chooses to surrender their license and seek help, will be connected to their respective Employee Assistance Program (EAP). The Committee for Physician Health (CPH), Professional Assistance Program (PAP) and Office of Professional Misconduct (OPMC) are just a few monitoring sources that become involved depending on the type of licensure.
Given the stigma that exists around addiction, plus the consequences of losing a job and temporarily a license, and five years of intense monitoring, medical professionals are not inclined to seek out help.
Despite awareness of and access to resources, concerns for confidentiality and the impact treatment might have on employment or other responsibilities hinders workers from seeking care before their substance use and mental health issues have progressed and become unmanageable.
The Pitt doesn't offer a full resolution to Dr. Langdon’s story, but perhaps there is more to revealed in Season 2. This show captures how the demanding work in the healthcare field and issues like chronic pain can cultivate addictions to medications. It highlights that addiction does not discriminate. It also exposes the difficult truth that addiction among medical professionals often goes unseen until a crisis forces it into the light. And even then, the path to recovery is long, complicated, and shadowed by professional risk.
In my own work, I’ve seen how deeply rooted the fear of losing one’s identity, license, or livelihood can be for healthcare workers struggling with substance use. The systems meant to protect patient safety often unintentionally deter providers from getting the help they need until their suffering becomes too visible to ignore.
My experience facilitating an “Impaired Professionals” group shed light on just how prevalent addiction and barriers to treatment, really are among professionals. This also includes those not in the healthcare field, such as lawyers and pilots who also risk losing licensure. For better or for worse, many of these professionals found their way to care because they were reported. As part of their healing process, therapy often includes looking at their relationship to their job and discovering their identity outside of their profession. Those that successfully make it back into practicing in the field are required to learn healthier boundaries in the workplace to be able to maintain recovery gains.
Ultimately, what The Pitt gets right are the intricacies of addiction in high-functioning professionals. It doesn’t sensationalize the downfall and thus far, doesn’t simplify the recovery. It shows us how the very qualities that make someone excellent at their job—drive, endurance, perfectionism—can also mask the symptoms of burnout and dependence. And while it leaves us wondering what will happen to Dr. Langdon, it offers an opening for an important conversation about how we, as providers, supervisors, and peers, can better support one another before the unraveling begins.
