M3 worried if have the right personality to succeed in psychiatry?

[throwaway1224]

Long story short, I'm an M3 who is interested in psychiatry. I loved my M3 rotation and find psychopathology and psychopharmacology the most interesting thing in medicine. However, I'm worried because I don't seem to have a typical 'psychiatry personality.' First, I'm not a super warm, fuzzy person (not mean, just average pretty middle of the road). Second, I'm a very big picture > details person, especially in my presentations and notes. Third, I'm not an auditory learner. Conversations are better than lectures, but I'm definitely more of a visual person.

My question is would this be a reason to consider another specialty? Or can one be a good psychiatrist with a personality like mine?

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[Sushirolls]

Psychiatry doesn't have a unifying personality that gravitates toward it. Choose it if you see yourself doing it for 30+ years.

There will be patients who will have positive counter transference toward you and think you are great, and others who think you are the worst doctor ever and post as such to online reviews.

 

[Attending1985]

I haven’t met very many super warm and fuzzy psychiatrists

 

[throwaway1224]

I haven’t met very many super warm and fuzzy psychiatrists

Fair. But would you say one could succeed in the field not being a details person? I feel like (as an example) my notes are much more short and succinct than a typical psychiatry attending/resident.

 

[Attending1985]

Fair. But would you say one could succeed in the field not being a details person? I feel like (as an example) my notes are much more short and succinct than a typical psychiatry attending/resident.

Being succinct is a good thing. My notes are not lengthy. No one wants to/will read a long note. Most important not to skimp on and to put some thought into is your impression and plan.

 

[kopftonmd]

I feel like med student (and resident) notes are much longer than they need to be just because we're getting assessed on them.

I actually think that psych is very compatible with a big picture approach. Sure there are the DSM criteria, but my experience has been that there's a fair amount of gestalt impression that feeds into the formulation of the case. BPS model and all that.

It seems to me that you'd be good for psych.

 

[Bartelby]

I think you would do fine!

In terms of personality, there is no single "psychiatrist personality." There are introverts, extroverts, warm and fuzzy people, confrontational people, on and on. The most important factor, I think, is that you genuinely care about your patients and the work that you do. As you proceed in training, you will realize that emulating psychiatrists you admire will not cut it. You will never develop the exact same style as a given mentor, etc., and that is completely fine. You will (or should) learn more about yourself and embrace your own style in the work that you do. You will learn how to engage and build rapport while remaining you, and you will find that brings more joy than striving to mold yourself into some other personality type could. Being present and genuine goes a long way.

In terms of lacking/missing details, again no worries! That will come with time. The fact that you are identifying your deficiencies is actually a great sign.

If you can make it through medical school with a decent transcript, your learning skills are plenty good enough for psychiatry. You will still utilize visual learning as you continue education throughout your career, and I feel confident you will learn to track and follow complex psychiatric interviews (or to use methods like note-taking if you struggle).

In short, nothing you have said here seems to be a red flag for psychiatry at all.

 

[throwaway1224]

Thank you guys for all the excellent advice!! I feel much better about my ability to be successful in psych.

 

[comp1]

Gotta second the lack of warm and fuzzies in psychiatry. I'm not even sure where that comes from. We're the villains in practically every piece of pop culture! Seriously, the field is so broad and you get exposed to such a tiny portion in medical school. You have inpatient, you have corrections (inpatient AND outpatient), you have private practice with insurance and cash pay, you've got full time TMS and ECT practices, VA, academic, private industry research... There's no one personality, fortunately, because otherwise we wouldn't be able to fill all of extremely different jobs.

 

[Stagg737]

Long story short, I'm an M3 who is interested in psychiatry. I loved my M3 rotation and find psychopathology and psychopharmacology the most interesting thing in medicine. However, I'm worried because I don't seem to have a typical 'psychiatry personality.' First, I'm not a super warm, fuzzy person (not mean, just average pretty middle of the road).

Agree with others, there's a lot less "warm and fuzzies" in psychiatry than you'd think. Yes, many psychiatrists are nuanced, but many of us are very blunt as well. I always get a kick out of med student's reactions the first time they hear me ask patients about SI and past attempts on the inpatient unit. My personality also isn't the "typical" psych personality. People would probably think my personality is more stereotypical of ortho but I like to think I do decently in psych anyway.

Second, I'm a very big picture > details person, especially in my presentations and notes.

Long run this will likely benefit you. I go down the rabbit-hole sometimes and have to consciously reel myself back in as well as occasionally re-write HPIs when they get too lengthy. With more experience, you learn which details are important and when you should actually go down the rabbit-hole versus keeping it big picture. If nothing else, outpatient year has helped me be more consistent with this.

Third, I'm not an auditory learner. Conversations are better than lectures, but I'm definitely more of a visual person.

I'd argue that visual cues are extremely important in psychiatry and help paint a clearer picture of what's going on. What's a patient's affect like? is it congruent with their statements? Do they have facial features suggestive of a genetic/developmental disorder? How are they dressed? How's their hygiene? How are they behaving? Completely still? Constantly fidgeting? How is their eye contact? What do they do when they're talking vs when they're supposed to be listening to you?

You can glean so much info from the physical aspects of an interview that it can sometimes steer your diagnosis and treatment plan. It's one of the things I hate about the advent of telehealth is that a lot of this gets lost when the video quality is poor or you're only seeing a patient's face.

 

[rjs2131]

To add to what others have said - there are such a wide range of personalities in psych, as long as you enjoy the work I think you'll be fine!

Ive also noticed that personalities seem to vary based on the type of setting/patient population you're working with...warm and fuzzy seems to go a long way as an outpatient child psychiatrist, probably less effective if you're working with borderline patients all day