Your best moments in psychiatry?

[JDoc9]

Hi again board,

I recently made the post about lack of respect in psychiatry, and I wanted to shift things in a less negative direction.

As we know, the "highs" in psychiatry are often very life-changing, as mental illness is very debilitating, and patients often suffer for many years before giving in and seeking help. I was wondering if any of you have any favorite heartfelt success stores, moments, etc. that made you sort of stop and think "wow, this makes everything I've done to get here really worth while", or thoughts of the sort. Even stories such as receiving a heartfelt "thank you" from a patient, seeing a particularly troubled child reach his potential in society/school, and stories of the sort. Would love to hear them. Thank you in advance, group!

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[OldPsychDoc]

My best day ever--http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...sych-just-blows-you-away.646592/#post-8410045

A couple of weeks late--http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/and-now-a-holiday-message-from-opd.588602/#post-7517412

 

[JDoc9]

My best day ever--http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...sych-just-blows-you-away.646592/#post-8410045

A couple of weeks late--http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/and-now-a-holiday-message-from-opd.588602/#post-7517412

Wow. Thank you so much for sharing that. Stories like that is what makes me fall in love with this, haha. I'd love to hear more from the rest of ya.

 

[SomeDoc]

Hi again board,

I recently made the post about lack of respect in psychiatry, and I wanted to shift things in a less negative direction.

As we know, the "highs" in psychiatry are often very life-changing, as mental illness is very debilitating, and patients often suffer for many years before giving in and seeking help. I was wondering if any of you have any favorite heartfelt success stores, moments, etc. that made you sort of stop and think "wow, this makes everything I've done to get here really worth while", or thoughts of the sort. Even stories such as receiving a heartfelt "thank you" from a patient, seeing a particularly troubled child reach his potential in society/school, and stories of the sort. Would love to hear them. Thank you in advance, group!

There are many, some notable ones off the top of my mind:

Helping a patient realize that for years *he/she had actually been suffering from a psychotic disorder, with limited insight into *their symptoms through many tumultuous years. Seeing the patient develop insight through psychoeducation and reality testing, mediation management; witnessing an improvement in the patient's overall quality of life. Developing a strong doctor-patient alliance.

Having a patient express gratitute for *his/her medication titration management when *they had the insight to know that *they were hypomanic, on the verge of mania, and on the fence with a voluntary hospitalization.

And more generally....

Seeing patients improve in the outpatient setting, functioning with an improved quality of life, through therapy and med management.

Having patients expressing gratitude for psychiatric treatment (outpatient, inpatient, and even in the ED [includes lending an ear to their personal stories/trials])

Being able to provide a safe space for patients with their deepest secrets, as well as emotions, fears, and joys.

Providing a sense of dignity and respect to patients when improvement in symptoms are not achievable, or may be worsening chronically despite one's best efforts at attaining symptom stability.

 

[NotTheBestUSMLE]

I'm just a med student, but a large part of the reason why I'm interested in psych is from the experiences I had on my rotation:

Had a super paranoid schizophrenic patient who refused to talk with the MD's. As the med student, I was in the fortuitous position to develop a TA with the patient without being part of the threatening medical team--which made getting information from her about home life, progression of illness, and eventually (after the court hearing) regression of illness and med side effects--easier. She improved dramatically over my month on inpatient, discharged a couple days after I went off service.

I had another patient who saw his only choices for dealing with his current relationship stressor as: kill himself, kill his girlfriend, or kill his girlfriend's brother (who she was sleeping with.) Walking him through some reality testing and problem solving approaches led to a lightbulb moment for the patient when he remarked that that no one needed to die in this situation. He could go visit family, or focus on work. Or whatever. Discharged with no SI/HI.

Got to work with some anorexic patients on my peds rotation while on the adolescent service. Although their outcomes weren't quite as positive (it's a tough disease), I found working with these patients really rewarding--they were all very smart and it was really engaging trying to find ways to help them talk about the issue.


I'm glad you posted this thread. I get bummed out when I think about my 3rd year from a high level, but thinking about my patients reminds me why I'm still doing this.