everybody goes through doubts before starting residency.... and I think the most common source of these doubts are twofold
1) there is NO way anybody will ever truly understand what anesthesia is like until you become an anesthesia resident.... you might have done anesthesia as a 3rd year med student, you might have done a few months of 4th year electives in anesthesia, you might even do an elective during intern year in anesthesia... you think you know, but you have no clue what so ever..... Until you are responsible for a patient pre-operatively, intra-operatively and post-operatively, you will never understand.
2) other people's opinions: just like i said in point #1, if you can't truly grasp what you are getting into (and you want to do anesthesia), how can you expect other people (who don't want to do anesthesia) to have the slightest clue.... maybe in some institutions where anesthesiologists (primarily due to language barriers) have become subservient there are "respect" issues --- but trust me, anesthesia is one of the respected fields of medicine as soon as the **** hits the fan.... Nobody understands pharmacology and physiology better than an anesthesiologist - and when a patient is critically ill, the surgeons will turn to you and ask for your help.
I was very concerned about going into anesthesia - i thought i was going to be bored.... etc... NOTHING could be further from the truth, it is the best choice you can ever make for yourself!!! look at which specialty recruits the most transferring residents from other specialties!!! radiology, surgery, ENT, ob/gyn, EM, peds, IM have all transferred into anesthesia for different reasons...
as far as the respect issue goes ---- no matter what you do and who you are, respect is something you earn. knowledge, honesty and hard work earn respect....