Veterinary How to pursue work/ life balance??

[lord999]

Hi! I am a third year vet student at the Royal Veterinary College. I really enjoy my studies, however this year I am starting to feel extremely anxious. I feel so excited and competent when working in practice as an intern but whenever I'm at uni I rarely feel like I'm studying enough. For the first time ever I have insomnia and I feel overwhelmed. I am constantly guilty about any time I take away from my studies. I know in this profession a work/life balance can be hard but please if anyone has any advice for me on how to relax or survive these last few years of school, I really need some advice. Thanks!

I think this is more suited for the public forums rather than this, but a couple of points that are recurring:

1. You are definitely not alone in this. There are coping strategies, but many of them involve performance to productivity gauging. Are you still performing well in your studies? If you are, consider chalking the matter up to imposter syndrome (we all get it at times) and relaxing a bit. If not, the same advice applies, but you may want to get outside help and assessment on performance improvement as sometimes it is hard to self-diagnosis what does not work.

2. There's a reason it's called a "practice." Not even the most senior of us should work the attitude that there isn't something new to know and to not be receptive. It's a feeling that's only grown with my years in the business, but I keep this in perspective that I am doing what I can the best I can with what I know and what I do. If I bother to look at Goodman and Gilman's latest revisions or any of the recent texts in my specialist subject, the knowledge has increased more than what I have time for detailed study, but acknowledge this and seek to work with younger colleagues who are more up to date while I use age and guile to do a better job of problem formulation and assessment.

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[dyachei]

Some things that help are having scheduled break times from studying and having an active hobby - something that you can do apart from studying.

There is so much information that you could spend a long time studying and still not feel like you've gotten it all. You just have to decide what your goals are. Are the grades really that important? Will they change your life goals?