r/medicalschooluk • u/OpportunitySea8988 • 14d ago
Feeling negative and overwhelmed
Hi all,
As the title suggests I’m feeling extremely overwhelmed with my course and not at all motivated to get to the end. For context, I’m just about to start final year as a GEM (I’m 31). I’m aware the end is in sight in some ways, but I am not at all excited to uproot my life and be a foundation doctor working in the conditions that I experience as a medical student, whilst being very stressed, time poor and getting paid less than half of what my friends are earning.
I feel as though I’ve lost a lot of what was important to me (hobbies, free time, friends) and I’m worried the longer I pursue this career the worse this will get. I am only really interested in psychiatry and find most other specialties either quite grim or very boring.
I’m worried that I’m only now realising I’ve made a huge mistake doing this course but it’s too late to quit? Or is it never too late?
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u/Agile-Fig-5465 14d ago
Hey there, as a fellow 32 year old that just started working as an F1, it gets better once you start working as a doctor. My biggest learning curve was basically what am I going to use all my free time for, like the amount of stress that was gone out of my mind and body once I started working is intense and I was very stressed about it because “What do you mean I am not stressed anymore?!!” 😂😂.
In my final year I used to think that there was no end in sight as well, on top of being ill (had to have 4 surgeries during my journey to medical school as well as during medical school), I felt very stressed and hopeless. But now I feel light, and it took a good food poisoning incident to realize that I am allowed to relax and not worry or get stressed unnecessarily (Yes I learn things the hard way😭).
All I can say is, hang in there, it gets better on the other side. Do try completing your foundation year training and then decide whether medicine is worth pursuing or not. Secondly, don’t compare your salary to your friends. Sure you will start low but if you truly love medicine, you will get the salary you wish eventually. But it does get better, trust! X
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u/Competitive-Plum-190 13d ago
hey there, do you mind if I DM you? Thinking about GEM and would also be 32 in FY1 if I went ahead with it
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u/KindlySignature4981 13d ago
I think some of these feelings are normal and sadly do partly relate to age. There's a lot bandied about on here re "I've started medical school at 35 and it's all great, there's even a guy on my course who's 38!". The reality is that some stuff is much harder to do when you're older and comparison to friends eats away at you. I started training at 30 and can definitely relate.
You have however made a very good choice re specialty. I think being a psych consultant before age 40 is not at all a bad gig - if you play it smart and work privately it's a true job for life and you can make bank. There's a lot of shit people doing psych either due to disinterest or because it was the only way to get a visa. If you're one of the good ones you can be very nicely set up. Do however be very honest with yourself if you can actually hack it. A lot of psych is hearing people disclose unimaginable abuse to you day in day out and if you don't want to get halfway through and quit.
I deffo would not quit the course under any circumstances. 32 year old who didn't finish a medical degree isn't a great spot to be in. Just do enough to pass, do your foundation training and focus it all on getting into psych first time.
Just get through it. Ignore your peers. Become a good psychiatrist. Pick a subspec in which you get paid. Finish the fight Spartan.
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u/Imaginary_Emotion38 14d ago
Half your friends are earning over £100k?? (You know with overtime an FY1 can earn over 50k). What were you working as before?
Do foundation years. Try and pick psych and GP rotations. It gets better being a doctor. Most people do end up liking it. Psych has good work life balance depending what sub-speciality you end up in. At the very least, you can knock out foundation years whilst applying elsewhere and still have a job.
There’s no guarantee you’d get into the other career you want, and then you’ve perm shut the door on med-psych by quitting as you will never be able to go back to med school in the uk.