Please help

[Foreverworthless]

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I hope everyone is doing well. I’m trying to get some advice on how to snap out of it. I’m in dedicated and things have been just very dark the last few days. How do you snap out of it? I need to power through for this exam but this is too much 🙁 it just all seem so hopeless right now...

 

[M&L]

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m trying to get some advice on how to snap out of it. I’m in dedicated and things have been just very dark the last few days. How do you snap out of it? I need to power through for this exam but this is too much 🙁 it just all seem so hopeless right now...

What’s going on ? Are you stuck not getting in the range you need ? Or just overall gloom ?
In dedicated too . It’s rough .
When is the last time you did something for yourself ? (Movie, a bit of video games , good food)

 

[Foreverworthless]

What’s going on ? Are you stuck not getting in the range you need ? Or just overall gloom ?
In dedicated too . It’s rough .
When is the last time you did something for yourself ? (Movie, a bit of video games , good food)

Just gloom...

the last time was maybe a few months ago? I left my apartment and saw daylight the first time in a week today 🙁

 

[M&L]

Just gloom...

the last time was maybe a few months ago? I left my apartment and saw daylight the first time in a week today 🙁

Look you GOT to do something small for yourself every day . Plus one full day off a week . You are burning out . You need something to look forward to every day

 

[Goro]

I hope everyone is doing well. I’m trying to get some advice on how to snap out of it. I’m in dedicated and things have been just very dark the last few days. How do you snap out of it? I need to power through for this exam but this is too much 🙁 it just all seem so hopeless right now...

Contact your school's office of Student Services and/or thier counseling center. STAT!

This is NOT giving medical advice.

 

[Redpancreas]

1.) Echo what @M&L says. For me, I’d do a hard stop at around hour 10 of studying, exercise a bit, and indulge in a large, carb heavy meal and spend the rest of the night binge watching TV shows.

2.) Your post is also very vague and I’m just going to say that if you’re feeling like you’re depressed or unsure how to deal with this, I suggest really potentially looking into a leave and regaining your footing. There are ways to delay Step 1 and still graduate on time.

I can’t tell by the post if all you need is # 1 or #2 so I posted both.

 

[Foreverworthless]

Look you GOT to do something small for yourself every day . Plus one full day off a week . You are burning out . You need something to look forward to every day

Honestly, what if there’s nothing to look forward to?

 

[Foreverworthless]

1.) Echo what @M&L says. For me, I’d do a hard stop at around hour 10 of studying, exercise a bit, and indulge in a large, carb heavy meal and spend the rest of the night binge watching TV shows.

2.) Your post is also very vague and I’m just going to say that if you’re feeling like you’re depressed or unsure how to deal with this, I suggest really potentially looking into a leave and regaining your footing. There are ways to delay Step 1 and still graduate on time.

I can’t tell by the post if all you need is # 1 or #2 so I posted both.

I’m not sure which :/ I have no motivation to do anything « fun ». When I’m studying I’m a mix of stress and gloom and just exhausted to the point that everything seems tiring—I don’t know if that makes sense?

 

[Foreverworthless]

Contact your school's office of Student Services and/or thier counseling center. STAT!

This is NOT giving medical advice.

I wish I trusted them enough to do that... I trust my mentor, but he potentially would write me a residency letter and don’t want that to play a role.

 

[Dormouse]

Yes I've been in a similar place to you before where everything was extremely tiring and I had absolutely no motivation to do anything. Nothing brought joy or had much meaning. You should see a doctor asap, at least to make sure that you don't have undiagnosed hypothyroidism or some kind of iron/nutrient deficiency. Fixing my physical health problems improved my mental health immediately.

If you don't feel comfortable using mental health services at your institution, check out the Physician Support Line- Physician Support Line

 

[Dormouse]

How do you snap out of it? I need to power through for this exam but this is too much

It IS too much to expect so much of yourself. Life gets better, don't be afraid to reach out and get help.

 

[Foreverworthless]

T

It IS too much to expect so much of yourself. Life gets better, don't be afraid to reach out and get help.

Thanks for the resources above and response.

 

[Goro]

I wish I trusted them enough to do that... I trust my mentor, but he potentially would write me a residency letter and don’t want that to play a role.

You haven't learned about HIPAA yet? No PD will learn about this.

Look, if you had blood in your urine would you ignore it? Don't ignore this. You're going to have enough non-compliant patients in your own career, don't be one yourself.

 

[Foreverworthless]

T

You haven't learned about HIPAA yet? No PD will learn about this.

Look, if you had blood in your urine would you ignore it? Don't ignore this. You're going to have enough non-compliant patients in your own career, don't be one yoursel

You haven't learned about HIPAA yet? No PD will learn about this.

Look, if you had blood in your urine would you ignore it? Don't ignore this. You're going to have enough non-compliant patients in your own career, don't be one yourself.

Thank you Goro

 

[Osminog]

Our society likes to pathologize normal human emotions. Your feelings aren’t necessarily a reflection of a malfunctioning biochemical pathway inside your head, but may just be a normal consequence of the challenging situation you’re in. It isn’t normal for a person to sit around and study all day for a high-stakes exam, eschewing social interaction and recreation in order to stare at a computer monitor and memorize thousands of random factoids. This lifestyle, even if only adopted for a few months, isn’t compatible with basic human nature, and it’s bound to evoke sadness, anxiety, loneliness in many normal, mentally healthy people.

My school’s counseling center is nearly fully booked, and most of the clientele now are second years in the midst of board prep. You can be sure that many students feel very similarly to you. Many just don’t talk openly about their struggles because medical school culture can be toxic; academic difficulties are too often viewed as signs of personal failure and intellectual inferiority.

Do whatever you need to do to feel better, whether that’s talking to a therapist, exercising more, taking more time off... but just remember that this is a stressful, abnormal situation that evokes distress in a lot of students. You’re making a painful sacrifice right now that most people wouldn’t be willing/able to make so that you can earn a position of responsibility and lead an exceptional life. Dedicated period is emotionally trying, but try your best not to lose sight of the big dream.

 

[sunshinefl]

Everyone else has already made great points. I will just say that all of preclinical was miserable for me, culminating in dedicated which was the worst time of my life. Stressful, isolating, exhausting, all of that. I got through it because I did little things to give me joy. Maybe I went to Wawa for a smoothie after a study session. Stupid little things like that. You say nothing really interests you and you're tired, but does anything come to mind? maybe you don't want a smoothie but maybe your reward is to just go to sleep if you're tired. Or watch some Netflix in bed. Basically during dedicated I pushed pushed pushed but give myself little moments. I didn't try to put any other obligations on myself. Not chores, not family, nothing. Just study and then whatever was needed for a spark of joy at the end of the day.

 

[calivianya]

Dedicated was pretty awful, not going to lie.

Have you tried studying with an interval timer? I know this is going to sound absolutely nuts, but I used an interval timer and did 10 minutes of Anki/15 minutes of video games over and over all day, and I enjoyed playing my video games and the day went by fast. And I’m pretty sure I got more studying done than if I’d tried to just sit down and do it, because I have the attention span of a squirrel, but I can focus if I know I only have to focus for 10 minutes.

You can’t just study and do nothing else. It really does make you feel like there’s nothing to look forward to.