I am socially awkward

[gabdel]

Hey guys I'm a U.S medical student at a top tier U.S medical school I have a huge issue and it has to do with my social anxiety. All throughout my life I've been social phobic. I get tense and uptight around people I don't know, I hate presentations and I hate public speaking. I'm comfortable around my friends but not with strangers. Now the problem is I want to do family medicine. I'm really good around patients, my preceptors took note of that. I have 24x on both steps, and all the attending a commented about my great knowledge base. I have many interviews but each one that I went to, I come out feeling like crap because of how nervous I get during these interviews. I'm just not the guy to be able to express my thoughts in a great flow and I usually stay quiet while all the other residents are just talking. I'm afraid this will hinder my chance at getting matched since ranking primarily has to do with your personality. Anyone have any ideas how I can combat this problem?

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[ridethecliche]

Start going to common interest meetup groups.

 

[solitarius]

Nothing to worry about. Most of my classmates are socially awkward.

If I had to guess, nearly most of the specialties are populated by socially awkward MDs.

 

[jqueb29]

my class is full of goobers. you'll be ok

 

[Tenk]

This can be a huge problem for some specialties (ie EM and ortho) but is absolutely fine for others (ie path and ID).

Just find your niche! Some of the weirdest people I've ever met were ID docs. One of them forced me to wash my hands multiple times after we saw a patient together, while he kept mumbling about how everything is so dirty. Probably one of the strangest encounters of my life.

I hope this helps.

 

[DrBodacious]

Best you can do is practice/mock interviews. You cant solve being socially awkward, but doing mock interviews will help you inteeview better.

 

[Bea5T]

See a therapist/psychiatrist/speech pathologist

Possible socially anxiety disorder isn't simply being socially anxious and is not something "plenty" of med students have as it can be pretty debilitating. Don't let people diminish your anxiety as normal if you feel like it has been a huge battle your whole life. Get help, it'll only get worse if you wait.

Nothing to worry about. Most of my classmates are socially awkward.

If I had to guess, nearly most of the specialties are populated by socially awkward MDs.

Like I said above, there's socially awkward and there's pathological social anxiety. Not the same. Not common among high stress professions, kind of sick of people marginalizing potential mental issues....much less med students. Also, if everyone is socially awkward to you, it's probably you that's the awkward one

 

[JRG]

Hey guys I'm a new poster here but long time reader. I have a huge issue and it has to do with my social anxiety. All throughout my life I've been social phobic. I get tense and uptight around people I don't know, I hate presentations and I hate public speaking. I'm comfortable around my friends but not with strangers. Now the problem is I want to do family medicine. I'm really good around patients, my preceptors took note of that. I have 24x on both steps, and all the attending a commented about my great knowledge base. I have many interviews but each one that I went to, I come out feeling like crap because of how nervous I get during these interviews. I'm just not the guy to be able to express my thoughts in a great flow and I usually stay quiet while all the other residents are just talking. I'm afraid this will hinder my chance at getting matched since ranking primarily has to do with your personality. Anyone have any ideas how I can combat this problem?

As someone who has struggled with Social Anxiety most of his life I want to tell you that I understand and that I don't think it's as uncommon in the medical profession as people will lead you to believe. I'm very happy that you didn't let it dictate your speciality choice (or it appears you didn't). I too find that I can function great around patients but when I'm in a position where I'm in the spotlight such as a residency interview, someone is watching me interview a patient, I'm presenting a new patient, or I'm being observed in surgery I get very very anxious and dread it before as well as constantly analyze the situation afterwards. I don't know you and I have no idea how you interview but I can tell you that part of this disease process is having IRRATIONAL thought processes about how others are perceiving us. Looking back on this I always feel awful after I am in these situations and think I did horribly but later realize I (usually) did way better than I thought, meaning there is a good chance you did very well on you interviews and you just feel you didn't.

That being said....There is help that has good evidence for it and that has helped me. I know I don't have to explain this to you as an MS4 but truly SSRIs and CBT have been money for me. CBT can be a lot of work but you being in your 4th year is the perfect time to do it. Often student health will offer CBT services so it could possibly be free as well. There are often Social anxiety social groups too in either your community or at your school and you'd probably be surprised to find out that a lot of the people that go to these are teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc...

Anyways, good luck and you're not alone!

 

[gabdel]

As someone who has struggled with Social Anxiety most of his life I want to tell you that I understand and that I don't think it's as uncommon in the medical profession as people will lead you to believe. I'm very happy that you didn't let it dictate your speciality choice (or it appears you didn't). I too find that I can function great around patients but when I'm in a position where I'm in the spotlight such as a residency interview, someone is watching me interview a patient, I'm presenting a new patient, or I'm being observed in surgery I get very very anxious and dread it before as well as constantly analyze the situation afterwards. I don't know you and I have no idea how you interview but I can tell you that part of this disease process is having IRRATIONAL thought processes about how others are perceiving us. Looking back on this I always feel awful after I am in these situations and think I did horribly but later realize I (usually) did way better than I thought, meaning there is a good chance you did very well on you interviews and you just feel you didn't.

That being said....There is help that has good evidence for it and that has helped me. I know I don't have to explain this to you as an MS4 but truly SSRIs and CBT have been money for me. CBT can be a lot of work but you being in your 4th year is the perfect time to do it. Often student health will offer CBT services so it could possibly be free as well. There are often Social anxiety social groups too in either your community or at your school and you'd probably be surprised to find out that a lot of the people that go to these are teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc...

Anyways, good luck and you're not alone!

I really appreciate your response, I'm glad there's other people that are or were in the same boat as me. You described it perfectly, it is the irrational thought process that goes in my head that prevents me from speaking out. I know it's something that I have to combat but I'm nothing like this with my friends, only happens with strangers. With that being said I'm going to see my family doc and see if he can prescribe me ssri.

 

[NoDakDok]

my class is full of goobers. you'll be ok

Hey, man...

 

[W19]

.

 

[gabdel]

Thanks for the responses everyone

 

[wjs010]

What you described is pretty normal op. It's normal to hate public speaking/get nervous at interviews

 

[Psai]

As someone who has struggled with Social Anxiety most of his life I want to tell you that I understand and that I don't think it's as uncommon in the medical profession as people will lead you to believe. I'm very happy that you didn't let it dictate your speciality choice (or it appears you didn't). I too find that I can function great around patients but when I'm in a position where I'm in the spotlight such as a residency interview, someone is watching me interview a patient, I'm presenting a new patient, or I'm being observed in surgery I get very very anxious and dread it before as well as constantly analyze the situation afterwards. I don't know you and I have no idea how you interview but I can tell you that part of this disease process is having IRRATIONAL thought processes about how others are perceiving us. Looking back on this I always feel awful after I am in these situations and think I did horribly but later realize I (usually) did way better than I thought, meaning there is a good chance you did very well on you interviews and you just feel you didn't.

That being said....There is help that has good evidence for it and that has helped me. I know I don't have to explain this to you as an MS4 but truly SSRIs and CBT have been money for me. CBT can be a lot of work but you being in your 4th year is the perfect time to do it. Often student health will offer CBT services so it could possibly be free as well. There are often Social anxiety social groups too in either your community or at your school and you'd probably be surprised to find out that a lot of the people that go to these are teachers, doctors, lawyers, etc...

Anyways, good luck and you're not alone!

This is me!