personal psych experiences?

[andrea]

Hey all,

I was wondering if any of you went into psychiatry due to personal experiences with mental disorders. I am bipolar type II and in my 2nd year of med school, and have become more interested in this field as I've spent more time with my psychiatrist.

I think having BP will help me relate to my patients in the future, but I wonder if it would cause me to lose credibility with my superiors if they knew. Any thoughts on this? When I interview for residencies, would it help or harm to tell about this?

Thanks for your imput!

-Andrea

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[prwunecom]

It is a tricky situation...........not something, IMHO, that you would want to tell someone in an interview situation. But truth be known, I am sure there are a lot of psychiatrists who enter the field because of their own personal experiences. It shouldn't hinder you from trying to pursue the field if it is what you truly find you like once you start rotations.

Good luck.

 

[ckent]

IMO, you should not include any of your psych hx in your app/personal statement. While it might be appropriate for a physician with heart problems to list that as why he became interested in cardiology, I think that psychiatry is a different breed because psychiatrists are supposed to have very different relationships with their patients. It's not appropriate to discuss your psych problems with your patients to show that you emphasize (boundary issue), while it might be appropriate to discuss your heart problem with a cardiology patient. You could lose credibility with some of your superiors, but to be honest, a lot of your superiors probably went into psych for the exact same reason (as it is a common phenomenon, and it used to be even more common before when psychotherapy was a bigger part of the psych residency). Whether or not having the disorder will actually "help" you treat your patients I suppose is up to you. It could help, but it could also hinder your ability to practice.