Quarter Life Crisis - In Need of Some Advice

[lilmiscassie92]

I'm hoping some of you students will be able to give me some advice, since most of you have kept motivation and are passionate about the path you chose. I apologize in advance if this is a bit long.

Since I was young, I always wanted to be a psychiatrist. I am currently in my 4th year of undergrad and double majoring in psych and bio. I will have my psych degree by this spring. In the last year and a half or so, I have been all over the place, weighing out my options and looking at alternatives, shadowing physicians, talking to multiple people who are in healthcare or have siblings and friends who are in medical school/residency. I told myself that this semester I would decide whether or not I wanted to continue going the pre-med route. The passion never came back, and I swapped o chem out for another mid-semester course. I have a high enough GPA and have done well in my past science courses, plus I have the research experience and other extra curriculars, but I just am not passionate about it anymore.

I am feeling a bit burnt out too. I moved out on my own in March because the environment at home was unhealthy and I couldn't study. My life-long interest was always to be a psychiatrist, but I never was interested in prescribing medication (I'm more interested in psychotherapy and after shadowing physicians and seeing they only spend about 10 minutes or so per patient I realize going to medical school wouldn't exactly lead me to what I want to do), so I feel as though the PsyD route would be better for me; however, a few people I have talked to said the pay is terrible and I would be better off going the Physician Assistant route if I don't want to endure 8 years of medical school. The thing is, I really am not passionate about any of my science courses. They irritate me, even though I score well, I just am miserable.

I feel stupid because I just turned 21 and I feel like I should have figured out what I wanted to do by now. There's a part of me that just wants to go to the psyD route and take a leap of faith instead of trying to take more science courses that I will get a B in or something and lower my GPA which would waste more of my time and affect my GPA if I want to go to PsyD school.

Is the reason I am feeling burnt out because I am/was on the wrong path going the med school route? If I was passionate about PA or med school, wouldn't I endure the courses instead of trying to cut corners and feel so unhappy all the time?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BlueLabel]

I'm hoping some of you students will be able to give me some advice, since most of you have kept motivation and are passionate about the path you chose. I apologize in advance if this is a bit long.

Since I was young, I always wanted to be a psychiatrist. I am currently in my 4th year of undergrad and double majoring in psych and bio. I will have my psych degree by this spring. In the last year and a half or so, I have been all over the place, weighing out my options and looking at alternatives, shadowing physicians, talking to multiple people who are in healthcare or have siblings and friends who are in medical school/residency. I told myself that this semester I would decide whether or not I wanted to continue going the pre-med route. The passion never came back, and I swapped o chem out for another mid-semester course. I have a high enough GPA and have done well in my past science courses, plus I have the research experience and other extra curriculars, but I just am not passionate about it anymore.

I am feeling a bit burnt out too. I moved out on my own in March because the environment at home was unhealthy and I couldn't study. My life-long interest was always to be a psychiatrist, but I never was interested in prescribing medication (I'm more interested in psychotherapy and after shadowing physicians and seeing they only spend about 10 minutes or so per patient I realize going to medical school wouldn't exactly lead me to what I want to do), so I feel as though the PsyD route would be better for me; however, a few people I have talked to said the pay is terrible and I would be better off going the Physician Assistant route if I don't want to endure 8 years of medical school. The thing is, I really am not passionate about any of my science courses. They irritate me, even though I score well, I just am miserable.

I feel stupid because I just turned 21 and I feel like I should have figured out what I wanted to do by now. There's a part of me that just wants to go to the psyD route and take a leap of faith instead of trying to take more science courses that I will get a B in or something and lower my GPA which would waste more of my time and affect my GPA if I want to go to PsyD school.

Is the reason I am feeling burnt out because I am/was on the wrong path going the med school route? If I was passionate about PA or med school, wouldn't I endure the courses instead of trying to cut corners and feel so unhappy all the time?

Any advice would be very much appreciated!

It sounds like you've done enough shadowing and had sufficient clinical experiences to figure out where your interests lie. I will say, from what I understand your preferences as to specialty as a premed often change once you actually get into med school and see so much more (of course I'm not there yet so this is just based on what I've heard from others). So making decisions about a future in medicine based on one specialty might not be the best course.

To mention a few relevant points:

-Med school is 4 years, not 8.

-Your level of interest/excitement with OChem has nothing to do with your desire to become a doctor (personally I hated it)

-It isn't too unusual for 21 year olds to be uncertain as to what they want to do for the rest of their lives, you shouldn't feel ashamed at all about some lingering doubts.

It sounds like you've positioned yourself well for medical school if you do decide that's the route for you. I'm not an expert but I'd say, keep your options open and try to figure out what you want. Hope things work out for you.

 

[Davida]

So you don't like your sciences courses, you didn't like what you saw when you shadowed a doctor, you're not particularly interested in prescribing medication, and you feel miserable. Can you come up with one good reason to become a doctor, other than the pay?

Money is not a good reason to become a doctor. You take out so many loans and spend so many hours training to become one (and actually working as one) that it's pretty much a wash compared with other lower-paying professions. And because of the high debt load, you'll probably be basically locked into being a physician if you find out that you don't like it.

It really sounds like something like clinical psychology might make you happier (and it also sounds like that's the answer you're kind of hoping to get). You'll likely have better hours, you'll be able to focus on what you actually want to do, and you'll probably be more successful since you're passionate about it. You also can get paid pretty decently. (I have some experience in this because my father is a clinical neuropsychologist - finished up his degree in four years (plus internship and post-doc) and had almost no debt because they paid him to do it.) It takes longer to make a high five-figure salary, but you can live very well off of that. Look into it and talk to some clinical psychologists. Other routes to look at: nurse practitioner (can practice as essentially psychiatrists in some parts of the country) and MSW (or really any master's degree that will let you practice as a psychotherapist).

I've heard this more than once from physicians: "If you'd be happy doing something else, do that." Medicine is just too huge of a commitment if you're not really passionate about health care. I don't doubt you have the capability, and I agree with the above poster that you shouldn't close off your options in case you're just burnt out - might as well finish up the prereqs so you don't have to take them if you become sure of medicine. But definitely take some time to figure out whether you need to go to medical school to do what you want to do. You don't have to have anything figured out at the end of college. Think of it this way - would you prefer an uncertain 21-year old to make your decisions, or an experienced 25-year old?

 

[Great White Buffalo]

My Dad is a psychiatrist, and he recommends trying to shadow on an inpatient unit (even he thinks OP is boring). This isn't a quick med check, and can be very interesting. These are usually very difficult cases, with lots of family drama, and few community resources, so you get to be creative in getting patients the best treatments possible. Don't discount the biology of psychiatric medications. It is very much an art, as you can't just use a biological test to determine the disease, and prescribe a treatment. And not all treatments work with individual patients. Lots of trial/error. This can be a rewarding career!

 

[DokterMom]

I can see why you're confused -- But your confusion is totally normal and rational under the circumstances and you're smart to take a beat to reorient your life compass. It sounds like it's not that your interests have changed that much, but that instead, as you become more familiar with the various career options and how each treats patients, you are realizing that your preconceived default notion of being a psychiatrist may not be the best fit for what you want to do.

It's a 'tweak' OP, not an entire re-write. (Does that help?)

You've got Christmas break coming up; spring break too. And summer. Can you make a list of the various options (PA, PsyD, MSW, inpatient Psych, neuropsych, NP, etc.) and arrange some more shadowing experiences? Longer term, in depth? At this point, because you've done well in school, ALL of these options are still on the table for you, which is great news.

Take a bit of pressure off, knowing that you don't really need to decide right this minute. The path you're currently traveling is the right general direction for any of these options --

 

[Being]

Lots of good advice already.

There's an essay I think everyone should read. It's pretty long, but so worth it. Here's a relevant snippet:

Perhaps more important than the question of which route to take is when to decide which route to take. You don't have to decide as early as you might think. A lot of kids decide in high school that they want to be doctors, for example. That's playing with fire. At that age you're unlikely to know what it's really like to be a doctor, or what the other options are. A friend of mine who is a quite successful doctor complains constantly about her job. When people applying to medical school ask her for advice, she wants to shake them and yell "Don't do it!" (But she never does.) How did she get into this fix? In high school she already wanted to be a doctor. And she is so ambitious and determined that she overcame every obstacle along the way-- including, unfortunately, not liking it.

Now she has a life chosen for her by a high-school kid.

Kids who know early what they want to do seem impressive, as if they got the answer to some math question before the other kids. They have an answer, certainly, but odds are it's wrong. If you read autobiographies (which I highly recommend) you find that a lot of the most successful people didn't decide till quite late what they wanted to do. And not because they were indecisive, or didn't know themselves. It takes a long time to just to learn what different kinds of work are like.

Source:
http://www.paulgraham.com/oldlove.html

 

[Goro]

Strongly concur. Many people still don't know what they want to do when they're 25, much less 21.

My only caution is that if Medicine is for you, then worry about getting into medical school before thinking about your specialty.

It sounds like you've done enough shadowing and had sufficient clinical experiences to figure out where your interests lie. I will say, from what I understand your preferences as to specialty as a premed often change once you actually get into med school and see so much more (of course I'm not there yet so this is just based on what I've heard from others). So making decisions about a future in medicine based on one specialty might not be the best course.

To mention a few relevant points:

-Med school is 4 years, not 8.

-Your level of interest/excitement with OChem has nothing to do with your desire to become a doctor (personally I hated it)

-It isn't too unusual for 21 year olds to be uncertain as to what they want to do for the rest of their lives, you shouldn't feel ashamed at all about some lingering doubts.

It sounds like you've positioned yourself well for medical school if you do decide that's the route for you. I'm not an expert but I'd say, keep your options open and try to figure out what you want. Hope things work out for you.

 

[Jabbed]

First of all, never make a decision when you feel that you're burnt out. In my opinion the best thing that you can do right now is take a relaxing Christmas break without any work or avoidable obligations and take a long, objective look at your life and career goals. Unfortunately medical school is not the sort of thing that you can back out of as you're essentially locked in for the long haul once you rack up the six-figure debt. And, as you said, it's 8 years before you'll be fully trained. I have no idea what's entailed in a psych residency (other than the duration), but I imagine that if you're truly passionate about psychiatry, your residency period will be exactly the sort of thing that you enjoy doing.

Honestly though, my gut instinct is that if you're asking SDN for advice you've already made up your mind to some extent and are just looking for confirmation.