Dealing with comments about psych

[medstudent234]

I'm an MS4 who recently matched into psych. I'm really excited about my future career, but some comments I've gotten lately are bumming me out and I'd love some advice about how to deal with them. I have previously gotten the usual "are you psychoanalyzing me?" and "what psych disorder do I have?" questions, which seem pretty harmless and I usually just answer with a laugh and say "I haven't learned psychoanalysis yet but I'm excited about learning therapy techniques" or "I'm on my leisure time now, but if you have concerns you can come see me in clinic in a few years."

On my current rotation the comments I've gotten were from non-psych attendings, and I've had to work with that attending for the rest of that day which made me pretty uncomfortable.

Today I was being pimped about some neuroanatomy on my patient's brain MRI, and whenever I'd get a question right, attending said, "Great, now why don't you decide to be a real doctor instead of a psychiatrist?" This happened several times in a row. I just laughed but would like some advice about what to say in the future.

Additionally, another attending a few days ago said to me: "All of the psychiatrists I know either went into the field because they couldn't hack the science or because they are crazy. You seem pretty smart, so what's wrong with you?" I just laughed it off but pretty soon after he repeated his question and asked "what psych disorder do you have?"

Anyway, just looking for advice on how to deal with these comments in the future. I'm trying to reassure myself that I'll hear less of these comments in the future since I'll be working with other psychiatrists and mental health clinicians, but I know I'll get them from time to time and need to get used to them. Thanks so much!

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[Psychotic]

I have never heard of this sort of BS from attendings, etc.

Not sure I believe you. Sorry.

 

[Devpsi]

Smile while realizing that these comments come from a place of insecurity

 

[sloop]

"Because it is what I love to do."

I mean, really, there isn't much more to it than that.

Psych is not a field you go into because you want the world to tell you you're awesome. It's a field you go into because it is a point of personal pride to work with the disempowered, stigmatized people that other people write off and to help them achieve their potential (or to at least be functional).

I don't care what random people think about me. I know that I am among a small, select group of people who are at once intelligent enough to be a physician, well-adjusted enough to bear the heartache of working with the mentally ill, empathic enough to care deeply about them even when they self-sabotage, and patient enough to work with them towards a better life. This gives me deep pride—much deeper than the criticisms of the ignorant can penetrate.

If others want to judge, let them judge.

 

[OldPsychDoc]

...

Today I was being pimped about some neuroanatomy on my patient's brain MRI, and whenever I'd get a question right, attending said, "Great, now why don't you decide to be a real doctor instead of a psychiatrist?" This happened several times in a row. I just laughed but would like some advice about what to say in the future.
...

Welcome to psychiatry.

The next time this "real doctor" quizzes you on neuroanatomy, rattle off half a dozen psychiatrically-relevant neuroscience findings relating to that region and drop the mic.

 

[wolfvgang22]

I've had the odd attending do this when I was a student. I just laughed as you do while thinking to myself how much happier than them I will be making money doing what I love doing. People that joke like this all the time over and over are both socially inept and very unhappy people. Usually their personal and family relationships are terrible because they are self centered bullies. Just take what you need from them educationally (including how NOT to behave) and forget them as you move on to better things. Use this opportunity to treat these people like the mentally ill patients you will have going forward that can and will say hurtful things - with kindness, compassion, and a thick skin, knowing what they say comes from a place of illness.

 

[nitemagi]

Keep in mind that the extent of experience/training that most of these ppl have in psych was on their med student rotations. And they've often internalized the biases of their attendings during their own residency.

So they don't really know what they're talking about. We all generalize from our experience. The key is recognizing we don't know what we don't know.

And frankly, when you get into more sophisticated non-medical crowds, you will get as much street cred for being a psychiatrist as you will a surgeon, if not more. The key is that if you really understand psychiatry (the full spectrum, not just severe mental illness), and therapy, then you're a much more interesting person to have around at parties

 

[dl2dp2]

I have never heard of this sort of BS from attendings, etc.

Not sure I believe you. Sorry.

i second this. the latest comments from med school students about psych seems to be of this flavor: "all the attendings told me you'll have a great life style if you go into psych"

 

[sloop]

i second this. the latest comments from med school students about psych seems to be of this flavor: "all the attendings told me you'll have a great life style if you go into psych"

To be fair, most of the comments I have gotten from attendings have ranged from "we need more of you" to "thank God someone wants to do that sort of work."

I wouldn't be terribly surprised if there are people who get negative comments, though. I recently had to bite my tongue and nod when a neonatologist decided to tell me about how ADHD was made-up and psychiatrists these days are recklessly doping our kids for profit.

 

[Rogue Penguin]

i second this. the latest comments from med school students about psych seems to be of this flavor: "all the attendings told me you'll have a great life style if you go into psych"

I heard some negative comments about psych during my surgery rotation, but they weren't quite as brazen as what OP describes.

Recently, one of my classmates did post on social media that psychiatry is not real medicine. That was a mess.

 

[clausewitz2]

Recently, one of my classmates did post on social media that psychiatry is not real medicine.

To be fair, one of my interviewers at a fancy place this year told me that as well. So not just a hostile opinion from outside the field.

 

[chicagochildpsych]

You could say "most academics docs take the low salary because they can't hack it in the private sector where you actually have to work", but chances are this kind of attending is an epic douche who can and will hurt you if you make them look foolish. Laugh it off and ignore them.


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[J ROD]

I was asked why I wanted to waste myself on doing Psy and not practice "real medicine" by my clinical 3rd/4th yr director.

My answer was simple. I am not as smart as you think I am. So, I figured I should do what I like.

 

[Bartelby]

Today I was being pimped about some neuroanatomy on my patient's brain MRI, and whenever I'd get a question right, attending said, "Great, now why don't you decide to be a real doctor instead of a psychiatrist?" This happened several times in a row. I just laughed but would like some advice about what to say in the future.

Additionally, another attending a few days ago said to me: "All of the psychiatrists I know either went into the field because they couldn't hack the science or because they are crazy. You seem pretty smart, so what's wrong with you?" I just laughed it off but pretty soon after he repeated his question and asked "what psych disorder do you have?"

I think this type of bullying is dying out, but sadly it still exists (and I've experienced it myself as a medical student). Here's the good news: in my experience they don't pick on people their own size. If I encountered this as a resident I would explain in a non-joking manner that that type of thinking is actually making things more difficult for patients to get treated, but honestly it has never happened. There will be negative comments about psych from other providers at times, but most (all?) specialties have to deal with that kind of thing from time to time.

As a medical student laughing it off is a fine move. I went with something like talking about what I find fascinating about psychiatry and once I started giving a serious answer it cut that line of questioning because they don't actually care.

 

[Blitz2006]

While I'm sure these comments do occur, anecdotally, this is pretty rare.

Honestly, when I tell other residents I'm considering sub specializing in specialties such as sleep, neuropsychiatry, pain, etc, they are pretty 'impressed' and are somewhat jealous (for lack of better words). They have no idea that psychiatrists do procedures like ECT/rTMS/VNS/Ketamine.

I'm still baffled by people who say this (obviously my opinion is bias). But I mean, if taking out a gall bladder or dumping norvasc for HTN makes you feel more of a doctor than eliminating auditory hallucinations with risperdal, then all the power to you. I honestly believe we are lucky, privileged to be able to prescribe medications that can literally alter a person's mental status/cognition (hopefully for the better, but obviously in unfortunate cases for the worse).

I still think that schizophrenia/dementia are the 2 scariest illnesses to be diagnosed with.

Just my 2 cents,

But sloop said it best. If you love what you do, who cares at the end of the day. Plus, just tell them psych has seen the largest increase in residency apps over the last 2 years

 

[eli20]

Just ignore them.

Personally I haven't gotten that much of this, maybe Psychiatry is just in particularly good standing at my school, but most attendings love the consult service which is probably what they interact with most.

 

[splik]

I have previously gotten the usual "are you psychoanalyzing me?"

answer: "are you paying me $300 an hour?"

and "what psych disorder do I have?"

answer: "I require $500 in cash up front to perform a diagnostic evaluation. Hourly. And by the looks of you it could take a while."

and "Great, now why don't you decide to be a real doctor instead of a psychiatrist?"

answer: "I'm not a real doctor...in fact I'm not real at all...you have schizophrenia and I'm just a hallucination"

and "All of the psychiatrists I know either went into the field because they couldn't hack the science or because they are crazy. You seem pretty smart, so what's wrong with you?"

answer: "asshat! d***wad! motherf***er! ....sorry my coprolalia's a b***h today, f**kin' Tourette's!"

 

[675015]

I once went out with a group of orthopods. One of them asked me:
"So what do psychiatrists think about orthopods? Like, what's your analysis?"

I responded "this has always been a really important question to us. In fact, it was they keynote panel topic at the last APA meeting. The general consensus is that you are narcissistic."

He laughed and responded. "yeah! We ARE pretty awesome and important!"

 

[OldPsychDoc]

@splik wins the Internet again.

 

[sunlioness]

The only time this happened to me was fairly mild. I was on call in the ED and had left my stethoscope upstairs in the call room. I was admitting the patient and needed to do an exam, so I asked the ED doc if I could borrow his.

"Do you know how to use it?" He asked while handing it over.

"I think so . . ." I answered. *tap the diaphragm*. "Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?"


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[Dionysus007]

During my 3rd year OBGYN rotation, one of my attendings said she was "disappointed" in me and thought I was "better than that". These comments do happen.

 

[WingedOx]

The problem with being a med student is you have to sit there and take it.

Anything beyond that and the appropriate answer to "real doctor" comments is "well when the 'real doctors' on your team stop needing to consult me for their inability to recognize textbook delirium in their own patients, I'll get back to you on that."

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

I know I've used this before, but when someone teases psychiatry, just say:

 

[smalltownpsych]

You need to work on your disbelieving "are you kidding me"/"you are a *****" face
This kid's got it down.

 

[lockian]

"what psych disorder do you have?"

Look them in the eye and say Borderline or Antisocial Personality Disorder in a deadly serious voice. Alternatively, look up some obscure psychiatric diagnosis that they've probably never heard of.

What rotation are you on, if you don't mind me asking? These comments are pretty extreme. The worst I've had was a chuckle and a "how do you feel about that?"

 

[lockian]

Also, if your school has an anonymous method for doing so, I would report them. I think this goes beyond friendly jabbing in the name of building rapport. You're being targeted for being a part of a group. Doesn't matter if that group is a race, sexual orientation, belief system, or choice of specialty.

Psych is not a field you go into because you want the world to tell you you're awesome. It's a field you go into because it is a point of personal pride to work with the disempowered, stigmatized people that other people write off and to help them achieve their potential (or to at least be functional).

Idk, many people have congratulated me on my choice, thanked me, and said "good for you, you'll be doing great work" when I told them about my plans to go into psychiatry. And these weren't just people in mental health, too.

 

[notdeadyet]

Also, if your school has an anonymous method for doing so, I would report them. I think this goes beyond friendly jabbing in the name of building rapport. You're being targeted for being a part of a group. Doesn't matter if that group is a race, sexual orientation, belief system, or choice of specialty.

It's unprofessional ribbing, not hate speech. Specialty choice isn't a protected class.

OP- If the comments made you uncomfortable, mention this to the attending directly. If that thought makes you uncomfortable, all the more reason to do it. You have matched. There is no consequence. Not wanting to speak out due to fear of it affecting getting into residency is no longer an issue. This is good practice for standing up for yourself in professional situations.

 

[Ψ-117]

One morning when I was in the OR during med school, the anesthesiologist asked me "So what do you want to be when you grow up?" and I promptly answered with confidence, "Psychiatry!" His response to that was "Wrong answer! Don't you know the answer to that question is whatever rotation you're on at the time?" (I suppose if you want to please all of your attendings, there is some truth to this statement.) This experience and others like it taught me that procedure-based specialists generally have no interest in psychiatry. My surgery attending on that same rotation had tried several times to convince me to go into surgery. One time we walked out of a room after consulting a patient who was clearly depressed, and he said to me, "Come on, do you really want to see patients like that all day?" (I guess I could have said something like 'It's a lot better than looking at hemorrhoids all day', but he was someone who actually enjoyed doing that.) Primary care specialists, on the other hand, were typically very interested to learn that I was going into psychiatry... although I did work with an IM resident on a critical care rotation who told me that all of my medical education would be wasted.

Some attendings just like to give students a hard time, and they might find some way of making you uncomfortable no matter what specialty you said you were pursuing. It can be annoying but once you finish med school that stuff pretty much goes away. Then in residency you'll have other services grateful to see you when you are consulted to help with their difficult patients. And guess what... I've never heard a doctor who consulted me say anything like "Why didn't you become a real doctor?"

 

[downwithDTB]

It's unprofessional ribbing, not hate speech. Specialty choice isn't a protected class.

Not advocating that the OP should report, but many medical schools include "denigrating comments about a student's field of choice" under examples of mistreatment, so technically, yes, this qualifies for reporting mistreatment at many US MD schools these days. I prefer a good jab back at their specialty that hits at their personal insecurities...

 

[eli20]

One morning when I was in the OR during med school, the anesthesiologist asked me "So what do you want to be when you grow up?" and I promptly answered with confidence, "Psychiatry!" His response to that was "Wrong answer! Don't you know the answer to that question is whatever rotation you're on at the time?" (I suppose if you want to please all of your attendings, there is some truth to this statement.)

My favorite attendings/residents were always those that wanted a truthful answer so that they could teach us something relevant to our interests/future career by either looking for an intersection, or a "ok so this is what you need to call with when you have a consult," or at a bare minimum let us do a LI on something in [whatever field] that connected to [whatever specialty rotation]. I feel like I didn't have to do that much bs schmoozing in medical school but maybe I just got lucky or was totally missing the social cue to brown nose. As a resident I'm really hoping to do the same thing for med students I have. Don't bs me and I won't waste your time.

 

[masterofmonkeys]

Just wanted to say that all of the positive, empowering responses in this thread give me massive warm fuzzies. I just gave myself carpal tunnel from all the 'likes' I just had to give out.

 

[medstudent234]

I'm the OP and just wanted to thank everyone for their thoughtful and helpful replies thus far! Even though it is rather horrifying, I assure you that these comments did actually happen. Both of the attendings were older male attendings, which may explain why they were so brazen and frankly so inappropriate. I'm a youngish female and it made me cringe for what previous generations of women in medicine probably had to go through.

Edited to add: someone asked me what I'm on... radiology. So these comments were made in the seclusion of the reading room with just the attending and one other resident there who looked uncomfortable.

 

[Shikima]

It's funny, I have plenty of IM people asking me for help dealing with emotional symptoms and getting curbsides on how to manage medications in their office. And the desperation in their voice in asking for resources for addicts.

 

[scudiera]

I got pretty rough comments from attendings at my medical school...it just shows they trained in a different culture. Hearing my FM and IM attendings insult the field to my face, or the OB attendings warning each other "He's going into Psych, so no ragging on it" was disheartening. As for how I respond, it's generally a show, don't tell, approach for me. Do good work and leave them standing their with their jaws wide open. Honestly, the absolute worst stuff came from my direct and extended family. They're pretty close-minded South Asians, they don't believe in mental illness and don't really put value into mental health and wellness. The family members in medicine blow it off as "Oh easy, haldol and risperdal!" and ask why I'm "throwing away all [my] hard work" because "psychiatry is for people who don't do well on Step." This family stuff is what's hardest to deal with and what kept me up at night sometimes questioning whether I should drop an app for IM. Ultimately, I just decided "**** 'em." Very happy that I did.

If people really start bugging me I'll usually say something like, "If it's so easy, why are you consulting Psych/why don't you do it?" The truth is psychiatric illness, the invasive nature of our job, and the stuff we face is as gnarly and gruesome as EM or Trauma Surgery, but in a different way, and it makes people uncomfortable.

Residents on the other hand were super positive, and I heard from them a lot of what lay people tell me, which is the "Awesome, we need more (good) Psychiatrists!" I'm really forward to starting residency

 

[Ibid]

Start a campaign to stop medical students poking fun at each other... or try something easier like achieving world peace.

 

[CognitionNotAssessed]

I'd try to ignore it as much as possible. People mock orthopods all the time ("booooone") but they don't care. Neither does derm. I guess it tends to be the less competitive specialties that take offence. But psych is a pretty good deal imho, so look at it from that perspective. Internal medicine can have it's "real medicine" with similar salary and far worse working conditions.

The worst I've heard was something along the lines of "psychiatry is the common end point for all medical students with a mental illness themselves". It wasn't said with malice, but I felt it really crossed the line.

 

[Wilf]

This thread sort of goes to prove their point though unfortunately. I wanted to do psychiatry from as far back as when I entered undergrad, but even I recognize the downsides. Try not to be overly sensitive. The worst comment I received in med school was actually from a trauma patient who I was suturing at the time. When he found out I was a med student he asked me what I was going into and when I answered psychiatry he said, "oh I thought you were a medical student; is psychiatry a backup plan?" On IM wards a couple of my residents told me I was too smart to go into psychiatry. Neither of these occasions bothered me in the least.

 

[chicagochildpsych]

When I feel bad I go out to garage, try to decide between the Benz and the Lexus and laugh at the FP/IM guys hustling to make 150k.


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[HarryMTieboutMD]

I also doubt the veracity of those comments (and if true they were likely made in jest anyway), but I agree with the above that as a medical student you kind of have to take what is said because you serve no purpose in patient care, and the best service you can do your team is to not get in the way (looking back on my med student days and now as a resident)

That said, psych bashing does happen, but it's way more subtle and passive aggressive. As an intern, I countered it by being assertive and showing that I could hold my own on off service rotations and likewise being assertive and direct when interacting with other services on consults, in the ED, etc. And when people assume you don't know basic medicine be direct and assertive. Long-winded example: I was covering our inpatient unit overnight several months ago, and a patient with extremely complicated diabetes was having his or her diabetes managed by endocrine (and even if patient were on medicine, endo would have been managing the DM). Anyway, something with our EMR caused the nurse to page me about a high glucose reading and calling MD before giving the slide at an odd hour (about which I was unfamiliar- it was totally an EMR thing that I hadn't before encountered), so I called the Endocrine fellow asking what to do. The endo fellow then proceeded to explain to me what a sliding scale was and immediately I cut her off saying firmly, "I know what a sliding scale is; I've done an intern year. You are managing the diabetes... how much insulin do I give the patient?"... which settled the issue.

The point is crap like that happens all the time. Just work on being firm and assertive, and you will get respect from other services.

 

[lockian]

It's unprofessional ribbing, not hate speech. Specialty choice isn't a protected class.

OP- If the comments made you uncomfortable, mention this to the attending directly. If that thought makes you uncomfortable, all the more reason to do it. You have matched. There is no consequence. Not wanting to speak out due to fear of it affecting getting into residency is no longer an issue. This is good practice for standing up for yourself in professional situations.

I respectfully disagree. While specialty is not officially a protected class, if someone's unprofessionalism makes someone else feel sufficiently bad for a reason that has nothing to do with objective performance, then the perpetrator should be made accountable. If you don't feel comfortable addressing the issue on your own (as well you might not, because of the power differential that exists regardless of match status), then reporting is an alternative. Additionally, reporting leaves a paper trail, and who knows, there might have been other complaints about this person. Accumulate enough complaints (or even just one official one), and you will buy yourself an unpleasant interaction with someone who actually has control over your job and prospects.

Finally, I've worked with a couple bad apple supervisors (residents, granted, not faculty), and everyone else who worked with them had some kind of cringeworthy story of everything from unprofessionalism like the OP's to bonafide abuse. None of it had anything officially to do with protected classes, and for fear of retribution nobody confronted them and nobody reported, to my knowledge, except for once. That resident ended up getting fired, because it turned out the medical student complaint wasn't the only one -- he was "unprofessional with the nurses," too.

tl;dr Reporting is quite an underused resource, but it's a way to make a difference if you don't want to have that face to face interaction, and it need not be limited to issues of protected class.

 

[lockian]

The endo fellow then proceeded to explain to me what a sliding scale was and immediately I cut her off saying firmly, "I know what a sliding scale is; I've done an intern year. You are managing the diabetes... how much insulin do I give the patient?"... which settled the issue.

Lol, someone calling in a consult to our service once tried to explain to my senior what a picc line was and why it posed a danger to someone who was suicidal. We had a good laugh about that one.

 

[smalltownpsych]

Please don't report that the other docs were making fun of you because you're in psych. It seems a bit weak to me. When I was in school, they used to make fun of me cause I got good grades. A few times I had to throw a punch and then they always stopped. The kid that ran to the teacher had bigger problems. Now in the social world of adulthood it is a bit more challenging because you probably shouldn't throw a punch at an attending, but it is an interpersonal game and we should be the best players. Like a forensic psychologist told me during training, the lawyers are more scared of us looking into their black hearts than anything else. Sometimes a knowing stare or a "I wonder what makes you ask that" can be an effective tool.

 

[notdeadyet]

While specialty is not officially a protected class, if someone's unprofessionalism makes someone else feel sufficiently bad for a reason that has nothing to do with objective performance, then the perpetrator should be made accountable.

I get your point. The reason that I bristle about using language that equates insulting someone based on their specialty choice with insulting someone based on their race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. is that the prior is unprofessional; the latter is illegal. The former can be a matter of perspective, judgment, and inference; the latter is illegal. Blurring those lines is problematic (for instance, perpetrator is usually applied to someone who commits a crime).

If you don't feel comfortable addressing the issue on your own (as well you might not, because of the power differential that exists regardless of match status), then reporting is an alternative.

Reporting is definitely an alternative. I just think keeping it as an alternative is wise in situations of hurt feelings rather than objective harassment or discrimination. When it lacks that distinction, confronting the person who hurt your feelings is an option folks should at least strongly consider. You may find that the person misjudged you and felt that you'd infer their comments as chiding or ribbing as opposed to insulting. Confronting them might bring about change in how they look at their interactions with medical students.

The alternative is to report them for making fun of your specialty choice. They'll get a lecture about "professionalism." How do most medical students take that? Not well, judging from SDN. The reaction tends to be resentment and rejection. That certainly doesn't change when they become residents and young attendees.

I agree that reporting is potentially an underused resource, but I think standing up for oneself is even more underused by folks in the medical community. I understand the "power differential," but using that as a defense for not standing up for what you believe in is shadow boxing. People (especially the types who end up going into medical school) have been worried about what goes into "their file" from Kindergarten and if they haven't shaken that feeling by the time they are in medical school, they are on track to never shake it. There will always be a power differential. Learning how to stand up for yourself (and more importantly, your patients and your colleagues) is a skill. Don't defer learning it any more than you would defer learning how to do an LP or start a line. Do this and you will be resented by some but respected by more and (most importantly) you will not be tempted to avoid doing the right thing because of fear, often unfounded.

I'm not debating the point with you, just throwing out an alternate way of looking at it, that folks can accept or reject. I also respect that there are cultural differences at play and who enters medical school and when they have entered it definitely plays a role in how they view standing up for themselves and others.

 

[downwithDTB]

Lol, someone calling in a consult to our service once tried to explain to my senior what a picc line was and why it posed a danger to someone who was suicidal. We had a good laugh about that one.

Only appropriate answer is: so you're consulting me for removal? Great... Get set up and I'll be down in 20 minutes, but first, tell me about your suicidality assessment.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

I’m picturing myself as an administrator taking an anonymous report of this alleged abuse. I would need some substantial reasons why the “victim” was unable to confront or discuss this with the “perpetrator”. If there were reasons for this inability to communicate; the culture of intimidation would be a much larger problem and focus than someone making a little fun of psychiatry. If there were no reasons this couldn’t have been discussed like adults, the “perpetrator” would be right if he/she wondered why the “victim” didn’t say anything if they were so upset. Such a “victim” would seem so conflict avoidant, their supervisor would have to look forward to getting the victim off their service so someone else could be their mommy.
We live in a just culture and an age of professionalism super-duper ego, but there is also sounding like this:

“He made fun of psychiatrists and you have to make him stop, Waaah.”

Let’s avoid engaging in behaviors that reinforce and validate the teasing we already endure. As psychiatrists we should understand that exploding with emotion when being teased is the most sure fire way of reinforcing the teasing. Psychiatry has had a bad rap for a long time, but it is easy to take when it comes from people who are rushing their lunch so they can get back to rectal clinic.

 

[SourceOfDenial]

Yep, this happened all the time from residents of other services until they found out that I work 2/3rd the hours and make twice as much with moonlighting.

You see the stigma really when you get called to accept a transfer from someone who is 'psychotic' and they are in withdrawal from benzos or delirious. Then they quietly thank you when you correctly diagnose the patient and don't tell their attending they missed it.

 

[NontradCA]

I have never heard of this sort of BS from attendings, etc.

Not sure I believe you. Sorry.

I actually had an attending say stuff like this and cite as the reason she'd prefer to treat all her psychiatric patients herself and not refer.

 

[deleted736562]

Honestly, we should just be adults about this stuff. If someone makes a disparaging comment, I would just laugh it off and focus on what's important. Thick skin is very useful in a professional environment.

 

[CognitionNotAssessed]

Not taking things personally is also kind of our job, isn't it?

 

[VMSmith]

I got similar comments as a MS3 and 4 when I would answer truthfully that I was going into psychiatry. As an intern on medicine I had one dinosaur attending who was very disparaging of psychiatry and all psychiatry interns, so that was kind of miserable, but since then I don't think I've gotten any disparaging comments from other residents or attendings about psychiatry. If I have they haven't stuck with me; at a certain point I stopped caring what random people thought of my choice of specialty. Generally speaking those I've interacted with have really wanted my help with something, so whatever their negative personal opinions are they know enough to keep them to themselves. Conversely, most of the attendings and residents who ask me about psychiatry seem genuinely interested in what I do, or appreciative of my advice/help with issues they're trying to help their patients with.

So, as you progress through your career you'll probably get those comments less frequently, and not really pay attention to them when they do. When? Probably once you're working 40 hours per week at a job you enjoy, coming home at 5 pm every day, and spending every weekend with your family.