Another rough one for the books. Some of the questions I definitely should have known the answers too. Being put on the spot is hard because even if somewhere deep down you know the answer it can be hard to generate based on how the question was asked or just because of sheer panic. It’s always impressive when I see other students able to generate answer off the top of their head or when physicians just spew of information like it’s second nature. That’s ultimately where I would like to be. As much as I dislike the memorization aspect of pharmacology, I do think mechanisms are cool and interesting. The hard part about psych pharmacology is that in a lot of cases we don’t exactly know why certain things work. We just accept them and/ or hypothesize based on our limited knowledge of the brain and how it works.
I find myself very badly just wanting to sit and talk with our patients. I’m not sure if that would make me a good or bad psychiatrist. On the one hand I think any situation that help patients feel more heard and supported is a good situation. On the other hand (1) am I the right person for that role and (2) is/ will the level of investment I’m imagining too much for my own wellbeing as a professional. In this rotation I’m looking to get exposure to more different psychiatry practice styles to see if there is anyone practicing in a way that I can see myself trying to emulate.
nANIMOv 