“for budding psychiatrists and the mentors that guide us.”?
Careful, you will make it sound too much like work. I use this blog to steal time from work, not expand it.
If I were going to describe one of the best unrecognized benefits of becoming a budding psychiatrist, it would be how some feel a fulfilling vengeance by going into psychiatry. Even those who are not bitter about their exaggerated exposure to parental expectations will concede that doing well enough in college to get into medical school and then enduring medical school feeds into parental pride so naturally, the fall from idealization can be quite startling when you announce your intention to go into psychiatry. I highly recommend that you withhold the announcement until you are in a losing argument with a parent. Blurting out this intention will be so disarming; they will not even remember what the fight was about. Getting a doctorate in medicine, then not becoming “a real doctor” is probably the most unforgivable forms of academic anorgasmia known to man. We should start a thread on the classic unsupportive statements relatives make when they hear the news:
“What a waste of all that education”
“But I told everyone you went to medical school to become a doctor”
“But you will be around all of those crazy people”
“What is wrong with neurology?”
“Why would you do that?”
“Stop joking around, really, what are you going to apply for?”
And my all-time favorite that makes so little sense to a fourth year medical student:
“You are going to miss medicine.”
Anyone else have any good ones?
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