Should I go for Psychiatry?

[Kmv123]

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I'm a junior in high school in Texas right now and i've always loved the idea of becoming a Psychiatrist. I've tried contacting a local psychiatrist but she blew me off and my school counselors do not have the answers I need. So, I must get answers here lol.

I'm very nervous about Med School...
1) I don't like the actual looks of Anatomy. I don't mind drawn diagrams and pictures of organs. I actually find Anatomy very interesting, except seeing veins and intestines gross me out. I do have to see that in Med School right? My HS offers an Anatomy class and they dissect cow eyeballs. It makes me so woozy even thinking about it.
2) The admission into it is tough which also scares me. I plan on going to a local college (Less than 5,000 students) going premed. But are they picky about community college applicants? I am pretty sure I will make good grades since I have good study habits and the classes aren't as large. Also, I want to graduate early (my HS offers it) So I would be starting college as a freshman in January 2015 at 17. I do want to take summer classes and speed up the 4 years of undergrad. Is this a wise decison? or should I transfer 2 years to a University, finish up premed requirements, and apply? Oh and what should I major in?
3) I'm worried about the Math too. I can do basic math okay and understand it most of the time. I can do decent with formulas. Are the math courses outragously hard if i'm mediocore at math? How much of the science and math I learn in Med School is actually applied on a daily basis in the career?

I'm pretty much wondering if i'm fit for the job. I am a caring person and I wanna help the mentally Ill. It also interests me the ways diseases and medications affect the body.
I really do want to do it but I'm so worried I will fail due to average math skills and my grossed-outness of anatomy.

 

[Shikima]

Get through college/uni, get into med school and engage all the rotations it has to offer, and then, only then will you know if you're right for being a psychiatrist.

 

[Psychotic]

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[Bartelby]

1. A lot of people feel uncomfortable with anatomy at first. It takes around 1-2 weeks to get over it (and I don't know anyone in my class of almost 150 who didn't). This should not really factor into your decision unless you have a true phobia of blood or cadavers, in which case you should see if you can overcome that with treatment (it's likely you could).

2. It will be harder to get into medical school from a community college. You would be better served by transferring to a four year University for your last two years than doing your whole undergraduate education at a CC. I don't know how much advantage four years of a four year University would give you over 2 years cc / 2 years University. There is a pretty strong consensus that you should major in what interests you, it matters much more that you were a standout in your major (good GPA, good rec letters, special accomplishments like awards and publications) than that you chose one particular major. As long as your performance in your required premedical classes is solid (think more As than Bs) medical schools will not hold an English/philosophy/anthropology/women's studies/engineering/organic chemistry/whatever degree interests you against you, and it can provide a unique skillset in medical school. I majored in psychology, loved it, and still draw on some of that knowledge today and never had any trouble in medical school admissions for not majoring in one of the hard sciences.

3. You will take physics and typically one year of math in college. Some of your other classes have generally simple math. As a practicing psychiatrist you will use math very little, and honestly aside from simple formulas (generally just addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) you will not use a lot of math in medicine at all. Having gone through pre-med physics I can assure you a lot of pre-meds are better in the biological sciences than math.

All that said, one step at a time. Go to college, work hard, and see where life leads you. You may well come out of the experience with a career path entirely different from what you imagine right now, and that isn't a bad thing.

 

[Armadillos]

I would say just concentrate on making good grades freshman year of college, so long as you keep your grades up its no hurry to decide on a career.

These posts always remind me of when I was interning at a engineering company freshman year of college, one of of the old veterans of the company happened to be retiring and on his way out his last day of work he saw me in the hall and was like
"So what are you going to do with your life?".
I said something about loving engineering, loving that company, would be happy to work there, etc.
He responded "Nobody your age knows what the hell they want to do with their life, don't do anything to close any doors"

 

[ssk1777]

I agree with this, and will expand it a bit:

Addressing your 2 "fears" - math and anatomy.

Math, per se, is not a major component of medical school training or becoming/being a doctor. The math pre reqs for med school range from college algebra and perhaps statistics (for most programs) to a semester of calculus (very few programs). So don't sweat "math" - not like you are going to be an engineer.

Anatomy: not nearly as bad as you are imagining. Med school for you, thus anatomy, is 2020 at the very earliest. Get through high school first, then do really well in college, and figure out if you have the right stuff for med school in another 5 years. In the meantime, get off SDN. Seriously.

And it is way too early for you to be shadowing psychiatrists or any other physicians. Really, psychiatry has more privacy issues than most medical fields, and it is unlikely you will ever "shadow" a psychiatrist before you actually do a rotation in med school. Volunteer at a community health center to see how you feel about being around sick people all day long.

FWIW: I didn't decide on medical school until I was a year out of college, and I didn't decide on psychiatry until late in the 3rd year of med school. Don't get the cart before the horse - slow down, excel in school, gain exposure to medicine through volunteer activities.

Thank you for the information I am also in high school and thinking of becoming a psychiatrist. But the one obstacle I have to overcome is math. And know I feel a lot better knowing that math is not the most important thing to worry about.

 

[Fabio001]

Seriously, the most important (read: only) thing that you need to worry about is not screwing up your freshman year of college. Take premed biology and chemistry. If you can get A's and high B's, and not hate life at the same time, medical school might be for you. That is the refiners fire that will on many accounts make the decision an easy one.

 

[Armadillos]

Thank you for the information I am also in high school and thinking of becoming a psychiatrist. But the one obstacle I have to overcome is math. And know I feel a lot better knowing that math is not the most important thing to worry about.

Not to worry you overly, but I would be careful about the "math not being most important to worry about", you obviously don't have to be a PhD or engineering level math person, but taking 2 semesters of college physics and chemistry will require atleast some ability to do math. I took calculus based physics and remember the E&M stuff being some pretty serious math, but not sure if that is the standard for pre-meds these days?