Any advice from those who understand

[MSc44]

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Ok So im asking this here because i have gotten some honist advice in the past, and feel like many on this forum are some of the only who undersatin when it comes to a career in medicine.
So to make a long story short, and feel free to look at some of my older posts to get the whole story. I always wanted to be a doc since like 5th grade. dad went to a foreign med school ....never quite made it...to get a license but has the MD degree and now has a very fufilling career which he loves. long story short freshman year of college i became depressed....came home, burried my self into studyting, finished college with a 3.7 or so but had a horriable freshman year. did a grad degree in Mol Bio finished with a 3.92. Writting my thesis now. But can not get motivated to study hard core for mcats. I wish i was as siked about medicine as i was b4 i went to college, but i still want to do it, just cant fint the motivation to study hardcore for the mcats. Medicine in general does not seem as great as it did when i was 18, but again i still want it.......its like a constant uphill battle .It has been a long road which i have done well on, but for some reason that depression that i went through took the wind out of my sails......and i dont care what anyone says UG and grad school is nothing like the rigors of med school, and i feel like it may be a waste with out me being siked again about it and giving 120%.....but i still want it!.......I have been is school for about 6-7 years so maybe i need a break, and then go back and study for mcats. I dont know im very confused....I want to study fro mcats but i cant get motivated as i used to be.....would taking time off be bad.....should i just give it a shot....what if i dont make it, and still want it???? Im a 24 y/o male, have much support and am very healthy, besides that fact that im melancoly at times, take no meds (do go the therapy and talk about things once a week, which i enjoy) I guess im just looking for some oppinions from anyone who has ever entered medicine not feeling 100%. Not looking for "U DO WHAT U HAVE TO DO ANSWERS" just some ideas
there is slightly more to my story but this is really the long and short of it

thanks all! 👍

sorry for any type-o's

 

[ShyRem]

Ideas:

1. Get some mild antidepressants. They help, really.

2. Take a year off, work in health care somewhere dealing with patients.

Those two things should give you some breathing room and time to recharge your batteries. It just sounds like you need a break to find yourself. Taking time off isn't bad if you do something you can put into your application later. Medical mission work in third-world countries would be on the extreme end, but probably fabulously rewarding.

 

[lilnoelle]

I'm a 25 year old female with two children - one thats 2 1/2 years old and one thats 6 months old. My concerns with going into medicine are different than yours - I'm just afraid that I'll end up messing my kids up cuz I'm not around when they're growing up. I put off the MCAT for 4 years because I wasn't sure medicine was what I wanted. Finally I just signed up for the MCAT and started studying, figuring that if I changed my mind, I'd just be out of half of the application fee. I started studying, and got more and more excited about my prospects as I went along. I had a two year old in the house, was working full time and was 6 months pregnant at the time I took the test.
I guess my advice is multi-faceted. First, your just 24. You've certainly got time to take some time off and get things worked out. If thats what you need, do it.
Second - doing well on the MCAT is more about a way of thinking than memorized knowledge. It may be that you won't have to study as hard as you think especially if you enroll in the Kaplan (I didn't). Try to figure out your reason for wanting to avoid the MCAT. For some reason I was scared of the MCAT, which was why I took so long to take it. I kept telling myself I didn't want to take the MCAT until I knew for sure I wanted to be a doctor, when the truth was, as silly as this may sound, I was putting doubt about my future career in my own mind because I didn't want to take the MCAT. For me, all I could do was just pay the fee and commit myself and everything sort of went downhill from there. This may not be your situation at all. I don't know.

 

[Jaguar]

Hi Msc44,

It really sounds like maybe you should take a year or two off. You sound like you are a bit worn out, and maybe just not so sure anymore whether medicine is absolutely what you want to do. Sometimes we just get pulled along a path and get so used to thinking that that is the right thing to do, we forget to stop and really reflect on "who we are" at a particular stage in our lives, and what we really really want to accomplish in life. I'm not saying that medicine is not the right path for you. But you are still very very young, and have lots of time to take a year or two breather to collect your thoughts and get refocused on your goals. Just think how liberating a break would be... Try to think of ten things you would enjoy doing during a break (no matter how silly they seem) and then put them down on paper. Sometimes just giving yourself permission to dream about a life other than that we have subscribed to for 15 years or so, can be really enlightening and rewarding. If you can incorporate something remotely medical or population health-related into your year off, all the better, but if not, still do it.

Some possibilities:

1) Do an international placement somewhere to add some perspective to your life

2) travel for a year, working as you go just to survive

3) work in a related field just to try it out

4) work in a menial job to pay the bills, but take up a couple of new hobbies to exercise your mind and soul


Anything is possible.

I was really burned out after finishing undergrad and a masters degree. I found a 13 year break to be very refreshing! Now I am in second year med (at 40) and loving being back in school.

Anything is possible - but please just realize that you have lots of time, so take a bit of time to recharge your batteries. Just my opinion, but you DID ask .

 

[tigress]

I want to second ShyRem. Both of her recommendations are right on. I do think working in a healthcare field would be a great opportunity to find your passion again. I'm certainly much more sure about my decision since I've been working in a clinic. Also, SSRIs might be your friends. The way I see it, if you have a broken leg you're certainly going to get a cast and use crutches, right? So if you are depressed, you want to do whatever you can to make that better as well. Perhaps you have been on antidepressants before and don't need them now; I certainly don't know the details of your situation. But if you've never tried, it might be something to consider. I've suffered from anxiety my entire life, and medication allowed me to learn how to deal with it. I credit it with how happy I am today, and I no longer take any medication at all. So don't think it's necessarily a permanent treatment, either, because it doesn't have to be if you don't want.

Then again, I don't want to push pills. If your current routine is working, that's great. Time off can certainly re-charge your batteries, but it can also make getting back into a school mindset more difficult. If you do decide to take time off, definitely look for clinical work. If you really love medicine, time in a clinic will bring that back to you.

Good luck

 

[MSc44]

Hi Msc44,

It really sounds like maybe you should take a year or two off. You sound like you are a bit worn out, and maybe just not so sure anymore whether medicine is absolutely what you want to do. Sometimes we just get pulled along a path and get so used to thinking that that is the right thing to do, we forget to stop and really reflect on "who we are" at a particular stage in our lives, and what we really really want to accomplish in life. I'm not saying that medicine is not the right path for you. But you are still very very young, and have lots of time to take a year or two breather to collect your thoughts and get refocused on your goals. Just think how liberating a break would be... Try to think of ten things you would enjoy doing during a break (no matter how silly they seem) and then put them down on paper. Sometimes just giving yourself permission to dream about a life other than that we have subscribed to for 15 years or so, can be really enlightening and rewarding. If you can incorporate something remotely medical or population health-related into your year off, all the better, but if not, still do it.

Some possibilities:

1) Do an international placement somewhere to add some perspective to your life

2) travel for a year, working as you go just to survive

3) work in a related field just to try it out

4) work in a menial job to pay the bills, but take up a couple of new hobbies to exercise your mind and soul


Anything is possible.

I was really burned out after finishing undergrad and a masters degree. I found a 13 year break to be very refreshing! Now I am in second year med (at 40) and loving being back in school.

Anything is possible - but please just realize that you have lots of time, so take a bit of time to recharge your batteries. Just my opinion, but you DID ask .

thanks for the great advice.......i think im going to take it and have realized that i need a break.....im a smart kid , and am young.......just need to go back and tackle the mcats........your story mskes me realize im not alone and its OK to relax and take time off it will probably make me a better physician

 

[MSc44]

I want to second ShyRem. Both of her recommendations are right on. I do think working in a healthcare field would be a great opportunity to find your passion again. I'm certainly much more sure about my decision since I've been working in a clinic. Also, SSRIs might be your friends. The way I see it, if you have a broken leg you're certainly going to get a cast and use crutches, right? So if you are depressed, you want to do whatever you can to make that better as well. Perhaps you have been on antidepressants before and don't need them now; I certainly don't know the details of your situation. But if you've never tried, it might be something to consider. I've suffered from anxiety my entire life, and medication allowed me to learn how to deal with it. I credit it with how happy I am today, and I no longer take any medication at all. So don't think it's necessarily a permanent treatment, either, because it doesn't have to be if you don't want.

Then again, I don't want to push pills. If your current routine is working, that's great. Time off can certainly re-charge your batteries, but it can also make getting back into a school mindset more difficult. If you do decide to take time off, definitely look for clinical work. If you really love medicine, time in a clinic will bring that back to you.

Good luck

thanks so much for the input. actually i also at a point took an ssri to help he gain some tools i needed to deal with certain situitations in life.....some obsessive anxieties and mild depression. I no longer take anything.....this is differant, nothing clinical in nature. just need to do some thinking i supose and im comming off the tail end of a long and hard few years (of burn out from studying so hard...but it all payed off 😀 )...Im a huge fan of ssri's when needed they can really help, and should be used as a tool by all who need them. Thanks for sharing your story and much lulck to you

 

[Marsdgrove33133]

🙂 Heya Msc44…. I was reading your question and I would like to give some advice if you don’t mind. I use to be a pastoral counselor for a few years. I mean I would listen to peoples problems. I hope this helps.
This statement “But can not get motivated to study hard core for mcats. I wish i was as siked about medicine as i was b4 i went to college, but i still want to do it, just cant fint the motivation to study hardcore for the mcats.”

Your undergrad and grad GPAs are incredible. You see those numbers and it shows hard work. 👍 It’s not easy to obtain a 3.7 or 3.9 and not many people can say that they have a GPA of “3.7 and 3.9.” “what if i dont make it” Its obvious that you are capable of doing med-school even do well in it. If it is about performance on how well you are going to do in med-school that is not giving you the motivation to study for the MCAT then you should take another look buddy. It’s obviously not that.
“but for some reason that depression that i went through took the wind out of my sails......” Depression has a umbrella effect on people. Everything is affected by it .School, sex, family, job, sports… Everything. Depression would even affect your undergrad work and post grad work and yet you were able to crank it out. 👍
Your right that depression can give people set backs but it didn’t really set you back. It seems more like the reason why you were depressed in the first place that might be bothering. Is there some guilt that you are still holding on to or maybe a fear? “there is slightly more to my story but this is really the long and short of it” You mentioned some history about your dad and medicine maybe that has something to do with it? “never quite made it”
“ and i dont care what anyone says UG and grad school is nothing like the rigors of med school,” How do you know this to be true and who are these people telling you this? My brother and my best friend are and went to med-school. My best friend, who I went to high school with use to cheat off of me when taking tests and is extremely lazy however he is doing his first year of residency at UMDNJ in IM.. From what I’ve heard med-school is long but not as intense as pre-med. They actually enjoyed med-school and it seems people you have talked with have said the same thing. Why don’t you put that as a question up here.

So my question is this…. Why don’t you want to confront this obstacle? What is holding you back? Taking time off is an answer but not that has to be pointed out to you by these nice people here on the thread. You said it yourself….You are confused. Knowing you need time off is like a runner knowing he needs to take a break from running; it’s obvious. Take some time to think about why. Fix it and then move forward.

Good luck with this situation. I really hope you can get through it. Then one day you can help someone who is going through the same thing you went through. 👍 As a person once said “What defines us in life is how well we rise after we have fallen”

Mars 🙂

 

[TacoStand]

I'm sure you'll figure out the best path for yourself. 24 is still pretty young. I applied when I was 30, so relax - time is still on your side. Find your own way, and do not think there is only 1 way or the "proper" way to get in.