15 year old whose dream job is to be a psychiatrist. Need to know if I am capable.

[Jcor50]

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I am a 15 year old bipolar boy and life is not going so great for me right now. My meds are so screwed up and I see no future right now. I am resulting in bipolar forums for advice and people just say it will get better. I feel I would be an outstanding psychiatrist because I have relation to the patients disorder and I know how to help them. So that's why it is my dream job. I'm smart when my mind is clear and I am at my best but I am certainly not a genius. I hate high school and I try to avoid it because my meds are so screwed up I can't handle anything. I don't know if I will be able to get my meds straightened out and I would hate having my dream job something I am not capable of. Can someone please tell me where to start? Can I get my dream job? How can I handle that much school? I don't have a lot of money if that means anything. Is there hope? I need serious advice. Much appreciated.

 

[Ceke2002]

Hi Jcor. I'm one of the other patients that lurks on this forum sometimes. First of all I'm sorry to hear about your struggles. From what I understand from some of my Bipolar friends it can take some time to find the right combination of meds and treatment. Don't give up hope that one day you can be a lot better than you are right now. As for medical school, where I live there is a practicing surgeon who is also a diagnosed Schizophrenic. Now if a Schizophrenic can become a Surgeon, I'm sure someone with Bipolar can become a Psychiatrist. For now thought I'd concentrate on getting yourself stabilised, and doing as well as you can in school. Med school is going to be stressful, and stress could potentially trigger an episode, so you'll need to be as well as you possibly can be to handle everything its going to throw at you. The Psychs on this board are really nice, they were very helpful when I asked a similar question a while back, so I'm sure someone with more knowledge and experience than I have will be along shortly to assist you further.

All the best.

 

[hamstergang]

so I'm sure someone with more knowledge and experience than I have will be along shortly to assist you further.

To be honest, what else is there to say? He's only 15. Still has to make it through the rest of high school, then ~4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and then finally into 4 years of psychiatry residency, without changing his mind at any point along the way. It's so far away, of course he's capable of becoming a psychiatrist at this point, but that's thinking too far away. One step at at time.

 

[birchswing]

To be honest, what else is there to say? He's only 15. Still has to make it through the rest of high school, then ~4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, and then finally into 4 years of psychiatry residency, without changing his mind at any point along the way. It's so far away, of course he's capable of becoming a psychiatrist at this point, but that's thinking too far away. One step at at time.

Well, it's good to have a goal even if you change that goal many times. And you may come back to the original goal. I went to college being told I should have no idea what I wanted to do, and I think it is good not to be anxious about needing to know what you want to do. But I think knowing what you think you want to do can help give you inspiration and some direction.

 

[F0nzie]

You can do it kiddo. Don't let anything stand in the way of your dreams.

 

[notdeadyet]

Can someone please tell me where to start? Can I get my dream job? How can I handle that much school? I don't have a lot of money if that means anything. Is there hope?

There's always hope.

Dealing with mental illness on the path to fulfilling your dreams is a challenge, not a roadblock. Like poverty. Like racial discrimination. When you have challenges that make it harder for you to accomplish what you want, the resulting question you're left with is almost always the same: how bad do you want it? How much effort are you willing to put in? How many compromises and sacrifices are you willing to make?

The road to becoming a psychiatrist (or psychologist... or nurse... or lawyer... or engineer... or programmer...) is paved with a good education. The earlier you start focusing on education, the more options you will have later. There are some careers that are based more on raw talent and hard work (think artist or athlete), but many professional careers are based on education and hard work. You say that you avoid working in school because your meds are screwed up. This tells me that you will need to get your meds straightened out (and any other treatment your doctor thinks is appropriate). The better control you can get over your mental illness, the less your mental illness will dictate your life.

You need to take things one step at a time. Good management of your illness is the first step. Hard work in high school is the next step. More hard work, reading, and life experience in college is the next step. At that point, people will have the ability to give you some kind of advice or prediction about your chances. At this point, you're essentially pointing folks to a lump of clay and asking if it can become something beautiful. Sure it has potential. But it's up to you to shape it.

Best of luck...

 

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Work hard and stay away from trouble. Don't spend too much time worrying about the distant future. Set small goals and achieve them. Small victories turn into big ones.

I don't think that basic plan has steered very many people wrong. Best of luck.

 

[michaelrack]

My recommendation is to get a solid school counselor and psychiatrist. I can't say much more. .

Respectfully, I believe your post should have ended there, or perhaps with a general comment that psychiatric diagnoses can change over time in adolescents and a good long term relationship with a psychiatrist is necessary. Telling a 15 year old that his physician may be full of **** is not helpful (and is likely not true).

 

[whopper]

No problem. I understand. I thought I wasn't crossing the line, but if you think I was, heck you are protecting me by editing my post.

I didn't think, (at least at the time, sometimes a review of a post later on reveals unintended flaws) I wasn't pointing to his doc as FOS. I thought I was making a statement that there's a lot of misdiagnosis out there so make sure the dx and treatment was correct. I thought it was written in a generalistic sense (e.g. someone merely answering about the general atmosphere of what goes on in the community) but it wouldn't have been the first time I had a well-intended thought but communicated it badly.

 

[notdeadyet]

it wouldn't have been the first time I had a well-intended thought but communicated it badly.

We've all been there...

 

[softballtennis]

You can do anything you want just work hard and you will achieve your goals. There are people with fake limbs running marathons ,anything is possible just work your hardest.

 

[Ceke2002]

Hey Jcor, if you're still reading this you might like to come join us on the forums over at Psych Central. It's run in conjunction with the Psychology forums of this board, and is aimed at patient support. Sometimes just being able to talk to others who understand what you might be going through can be a huge help. I believe there are also several members over there as well who also work in the Mental Health field and have their own issues to deal with, so you might be able to get some first hand experience type advice. 🙂

http://forums.psychcentral.com/

 

[TitaniumPhoebe]

You can do it kiddo. Don't let anything stand in the way of your dreams.

good advice.

FWIW, I know a nurse who works in a psych ward who has bipolar and have a friend who's an attorney who has bipolar. I read a book called "The Unquiet Mind" written by a woman who is a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins who is bipolar. I am no expert, but I'd say it's definitely possible.

 

[TitaniumPhoebe]

No problem. I understand. I thought I wasn't crossing the line, but if you think I was, heck you are protecting me by editing my post.

I didn't think, (at least at the time, sometimes a review of a post later on reveals unintended flaws) I wasn't pointing to his doc as FOS. I thought I was making a statement that there's a lot of misdiagnosis out there so make sure the dx and treatment was correct. I thought it was written in a generalistic sense (e.g. someone merely answering about the general atmosphere of what goes on in the community) but it wouldn't have been the first time I had a well-intended thought but communicated it badly.

When I was 13/14 I was diagnosed bipolar (though then I think they told me manic-depressive). I was put on lithium. My mom knew it wasn't right and took me off of it. Now I'm 41. I'm definitely not bipolar, don't take any mood stabilizers or meds for depression. This was definitely a misdiagnosis. I think it was a combination of hormones, teenage angst, being bullied in a really snotty private school, and sexual trauma.