Interesting article about physician suicide

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depression and other mental illnesses have way too strong of a grip on people in our society. the stigma is out there, people are afraid of admitting their mental illnesses - hopefully this will change in the future with more awareness and acceptance. if the U.S. military can start being sensitive to it, so can other professions.

if you know anyone that is having trouble, speak up. i think as students we should be mindful of one another's stress levels, esp when undergoing difficult transitions (like starting med school). thanks for interesting article.
 
Depression is definitely something that has a stigma attached to it. I was diagnosed with clinical depression a long time ago (around freshman year of high school). I'm stubborn and don't take antidepressants because I hate the way they make me feel. Its hard to describe, but it is kind of a static feeling. I'm not really "sad" but I am not happy..just kind of there. When it came to writing, I'd rather feel pain than nothing. People always go "Oh. Just snap out of it and be happy", but those people have no clue what its like. During my lowest point I still had a 4.0, captain of the drumline, varsity in 3 sports and a bunch of other stuff. I had no reason to be depressed, yet every day was torture to get out of bed. I slept about 2 hours a day and thought about some pretty horrible things along with the other symptoms.

I fully plan to start the antidepressants again in medical school, regardless of whether I like them or not for the reasons above. While I'm thinking straight I know that suicide is not a great move, but who knows what will happen if it hits during the thick of the education. Many people don't acknowledge that something is wrong with them and the stress leads to these types of things. Depression is one reason I'd prefer to stay in the south somewhere. The sunlight makes things much easier. Those dark northern winters don't help much of anything. But yea, the biggest problem is the lack of physicians to notice their own symptoms. This leads to a problem that physicians with depression are also less likely to recognize patients with depression. It can be a nasty chain reaction...
 
Have you checked to see if you have seasonal affective disorder?
 
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