Could I reasonably expect, that if I entered a psychiatry residency with normal psychology, that my psychological health would decline more than someone who enters another field? Does thinking about pathological thought patterns affect the provider's psychological health?
My question is based on the assumption that analyzing thoughts to come up with a diagnosis all day long could lead one to make connections in everyday life that the average person would not entertain. You might see more pathology in yourself or loved ones and fixate on it too much, even if you try to stop yourself. I've seen people analyzing themselves in this very forum. That's something I'd rather not do but I'm not sure it'd be easy to just switch off my knowledge at will. I'm sure there are ways to be resilient to this tendency but is that a skill or something innate?
If my assumption is incorrect by all means, please let me know. Psychiatry is one of the fields I'm considering and this is just some preliminary leg work I'm doing.
It's complicated. In short, no, not in a bad way. The things you experience and learn will enrich your life. You have to get over any hang ups you have about looking at yourself and others in an analytical way to be effective. It is a challenge, but it's worth it. Any worthwhile change involves hard work and sometimes initial discomfort.
I am a psychiatrist 24-7, it's who I am. A good psychiatrist learns how to avoid being blatantly stereotypical or trite both in and out of the office, while still utilizing what you've learned consistently. You learn when to be formal and clinical and when not to be clinical in your approach. Yes, I use what I've learned in my personal life all the time. No, I'm not obvious about it. I don't say stuff to my significant other like "Tell me how you feel about that", but find other ways of saying the same thing conversationally in a real way. No experienced psychiatrist goes around announcing to people what their faults or diagnoses are in an insensitive manner, judging others as somehow less worthy, or going down a formal checklist all the time. People includes patients.
On the one hand, ideally you learn and participate in several modalities of psychotherapy that are helpful for nearly all people, not just persons with mental illness. I have found that I have benefited greatly by participating in group and individual therapy myself as a resident, and applying the therapy I utilize with patient's to my own issues. I have learned so much from CBT, Interpersonal Psychotherapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in particular. They have greatly enriched my life as an individual, and made me a better person not just professionally, but in my personal life as well. I don't think I could be an effective psychiatrist at all without becoming a passable psychotherapist. In my opinion anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves or is a poor psychiatrist indeed.
On the other hand, profesionally working with persons with mental illness is emotionally draining much of the time, and can easily lead to cynicism and burn out. Patients lie all the time, whether intentional (usually) or not (sometimes). Many patient's drug seek or minimize substance abuse issues. They don't follow the treatment plan you agreed on. This is the same as any other specialty. But, I feel like I as a psychiatrist I am held more responsible for patient's that fail to get better than other doctors in the clinic or hospital, because the perception is that the patient has a mental illness and is less capable of making decisions. Sometimes that is true. When a mentally ill patient doesn't improve in psychiatry, I feel more blame from administrators, colleagues, and the community than I do when I've worked in an ER or primary care setting. Government, administrators and hospitals say they value mental health care verbally, but it's the first thing they cut when times are tough, but they don't lower expectations for the psychiatrist. There is still a stigma against psychiatry and psychiatrists and many times other doctors and lay people assume my medical knowledge and skills are much lower than they are. But at the same time, everyone thinks I can read patient's minds and figure out if a person will ever commit suicide or harm some one else or get better or not with treatment, and beg for my opinion. It's an interesting dynamic.
I don't think I've had a decline in my mental stability since going into psychiatry, so yeah, nothing is worse.
