Med Students with psychological problems?

[AMOLE624]

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[theVster]

Med schools usually have a variety of different help programs and if you need them you can ask. Talk to the counselors before entering or shortly after you enter, or if you have a friend there you can confide in in an upper class go ahead and ask about what's available. They usually discuss this stuff during orientation anyway.

Don't put off entering if you don't absolutely have to.

 

[WholeLottaGame7]

How common is it in medical school for students to suffer from depression/anxiety/bulimia/anorexia etc? How do students cope? If I'm in recovery but not yet 100% "healthy" should I put off medical school for a year? I would be a first year MD student this coming Aug

Thoughts please....

Med school's a pretty stressful time, so I would recommend 1 of 2 things:

1) You could always talk to your school about deferring for a year until you have things under a little bit better control.
2) Be a little extra proactive staying on top of things: see your physician/therapist a little more frequently, make use of your school's resources as theVster noted, get plenty of exercise/sleep, make sure you balance free time/study time, etc etc.

Best of luck.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Eh yah but being serious. Everyone has their own coping mechanisms that they've developed through their own life and upbringing. So asking for coping mechs will get you billions of answers. But I will echo what the above post has said. Exercise a bit everyday, eat a good diet, and keep in touch with your therapist and make sure that if you have a episode to be able to call him/her for help.

 

[deleted202457]

Yeah I think that if you can learn to stay on top of it you should be fine. Possibly get therapy while you are at school so that you can talk about anything that comes up and makes whichever of these you have worse. There is also medications that can help enormously.

Hope everything works out.

 

[Law2Doc]

How common is it in medical school for students to suffer from depression/anxiety/bulimia/anorexia etc? How do students cope? If I'm in recovery but not yet 100% "healthy" should I put off medical school for a year? I would be a first year MD student this coming Aug

Thoughts please....

Med students suffer from depression and substance abuse issues about the same rate as the population at large. Med school can be a very lonely place because you have tons of material you need to get to and so you often find yourself holed up in the library or room for long stretches of time, without a great deal of human contact. And whatever contact you do have will inevitably stress you out more because everyone seems to be getting through more material and knowing it better than you. And also there's lots of stress because each test generally has a bigger impact toward your career choices than anything in undergrad ever did (except perhaps the MCAT, which you could always retake with less penalty). There are a couple of suicides among med students each year, and a lot of depression, and a significant number of folks who turn to substance abuse as a crutch/defense to the stress/anxiety/loneliness. This does not really get any better in residency, so you have a long bleak tunnel to get through if you are predisposed to this. My personal view is that med school/residency is an extraordinarily bad place to put yourself if you are battling demons. But plenty of people have made it through once they put these things behind themselves. If you do go down this road, know your warning signs and get help at the first sign of danger.

 

[AMOLE624]

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[bravofleet4]

in addition i think there's a lots of students who also have physiological problems that they worry might become aggravated or get worse and interfere with their studies...so you're probably not alone. I mean I worry a lot about my acid and bile reflux but I know another pre-med who just got diagnosed with lupus!!!

 

[theVster]

Thanks so much. I really appreciate the advice, everyone. Not sure what I'm going to do yet... I'll probably be a first year this august as my "behaviors" are much more under control than they have been in the past- but of course I'm scared. If you have any more comments/advice feel free to post or PM me, I appreciate all your insight

No problem. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[pennstate4life]

My friend who is a 3rd year medical student has trouble getting it up. Don't worry if you have psychological problems you are not alone! No one is perfect, except for Kobe.

 

[bigballer27]

My friend who is a 3rd year medical student has trouble getting it up. Don't worry if you have psychological problems you are not alone! No one is perfect, except for Kobe.

+1 👍👍

 

[Holy Frans]

Yeah you should be able to wrap it up before you matriculate. Its not like your bipolar or hearing things.

 

[Baron Samedi]

If I'm not mistaken, the AAMC guidelines for health insurance require that students are covered for mental health counseling. This wouldn't be required if it weren't at least somewhat prevalent.