Did psychiatry residency / training change you?

[argatroban16]

Hi all!

I was wondering what kind of impact residency / clinical practice had on your life outside of medicine. Did it affect how you deal with others or yourself? Did it change any of your behaviors?

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[Shikima]

I can spot BS better.

 

[MacDonaldTriad]

Spot BS better and nimbly side step landmines that try and manipulate us into validating rationalizations. Seriously, I don’t see how any kind of medical training doesn’t change you. The rate of burnout may be high in training, but sharpening your clinical skills is the most mature way to combat burnout. Of course sometimes you just need a vacation.

 

[Nasrudin]

Yes to my sdn advisors above. Interpersonal agility has grown massively. Maybe... because of what MacTriad says...avoiding landmines or traps of unconscious interplay.

But also more broadly my notion of what is a human being has become enormously more complex. Such that I'm actually in awe that we haven't devolved into mad max level of primate chaos. Jung devastated me. The inversion of the human being as actor of the mythos rather than the other way around was a cataclysmic turning point.

Viktor Frankl oriented me in the proper direction of human endeavor.

Carl Rogers affirmed to me what was instinctual process.

And patients one after the other. By participating with me in curiosity about what is their unique phenomenology. Have taught me the patterns but also the mysterious individuality of our bizarre species.

I can't interact with other humans without processing them through this organically embedded psychiatric apparatus. That I'm continually modifying. I don't mean that I shrink out verbally on my bartender... or... crap.. ok maybe i do. But I don't practice clinically on unsuspecting encounters but then again... I can't not use my bio-morphed-human-pscyhotechnological apparatus.

So. I'll never be the same as I was. Like it or not. I guess.

 

[rlx009]

I've only done 2 years of psychiatry residency and yes it has changed me considerably. I'm not sure if it's psychiatry specifically but I've learned the limits of work life balance, necessity for introspection and respite, and mostly more about myself. Everybody has a different threshold for burnout and how important it is to recognize symptoms in myself. I definitely keep more of a distance with both patients and other healthcare professionals, which I noticed in veteran psychiatrists. And yes, noticing the landmines sooner, which is still a skill I'm developing.

 

[Armadillos]

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