Your bouts of clinical depression and anxiety for 7-8 years pre-date 2 years at med school. And since you find pharmacology & physiology interesting that would seem a good match.
Is there something you don't specifically like? Do you need a different career? Is it just school stress? Do you just need a break? Are you just unsettled because of your depression & would be in any event in or out of school? Would time out give you time to address your illness? Lots of questions.
I can see how taking a year off might be good. Your decision, but what is the worse that could come of it. You'd know yourself better.
Your concern about your age relative to other people's is not something i'd worry about.
I guess I'm worried that my mental problems will start affecting my exams and relations (is that the right word?) with the other students.
I'm also concerned about the effect my anxiety might have on the safety of the patients I meet (we have weekly clinical work at various local medical centers), at this point we're just interviewing patients and working on doctor-patient social skills, with little focus on actually diagnosing anyone. All the patients get to see a real doctor afterwards, of course.
Next year we'll be performing real tests and doing actual work, not just venipunctures and stuff like that. It's still under the supervision of a doctor and/or nurse, but this worries me a little.
I have a tendency to undervalue my own abilities though, as my classmates were all impressed with my performance during clinical/practical tasks and interaction with patients while I just felt like a complete moron.
I guess it boils down to feeling like I'm not doing as well as I could be doing if I were healthy. I'm leaning towards taking a year off doing something completely different, like working in retail or something and doing some traveling.
Unsure of what career to pursue at my age?
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Your bouts of clinical depression and anxiety for 7-8 years pre-date 2 years at med school. And since you find pharmacology & physiology interesting that would seem a good match.
Is there something you don't specifically like? Do you need a different career? Is it just school stress? Do you just need a break? Are you just unsettled because of your depression & would be in any event in or out of school? Would time out give you time to address your illness? Lots of questions.
I can see how taking a year off might be good. Your decision, but what is the worse that could come of it. You'd know yourself better.
Your concern about your age relative to other people's is not something i'd worry about.
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oxenstierna
13 years ago
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I guess I'm worried that my mental problems will start affecting my exams and relations (is that the right word?) with the other students.
I'm also concerned about the effect my anxiety might have on the safety of the patients I meet (we have weekly clinical work at various local medical centers), at this point we're just interviewing patients and working on doctor-patient social skills, with little focus on actually diagnosing anyone. All the patients get to see a real doctor afterwards, of course.
Next year we'll be performing real tests and doing actual work, not just venipunctures and stuff like that. It's still under the supervision of a doctor and/or nurse, but this worries me a little.
I have a tendency to undervalue my own abilities though, as my classmates were all impressed with my performance during clinical/practical tasks and interaction with patients while I just felt like a complete moron.
I guess it boils down to feeling like I'm not doing as well as I could be doing if I were healthy. I'm leaning towards taking a year off doing something completely different, like working in retail or something and doing some traveling.
Thanks for the input!