ED recovery - med school
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Anonymous
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Physician here. She certainly wouldn’t be the first doctor with an eating disorder. Medicine tends to attract people, who are competitive, obsessive and highly perfectionistic. My answer would depend on where she is in terms of her recovery process and application process (has she completed undergrad, pre-med courses, taken the MCAT, done any research or volunteering). Assuming she gets in, I would recommend she aim for a school close to home where she has the full support of her family and mental health team or can easily get a higher level of care, should she have a relapse of the ED. Then after med school, she has to make it through residency, which can be very grueling, depending on the specialty, with not a lot of time for self-care. I’ve seen people make it through med school but end up with severe mental health issues during residency and even fellowship, all triggered by the stress of it all. Finally, does she have other co-occurring disorders, such as anxiety, depression, ADHD? These in combination with the ED can make the medical field extremely difficult, though not impossible.
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Anonymous
| I’m sure it’s scary as a parent to have that kind of worry about her and it also sounds like she’s really motivated to help take care of other people. Would she consider mid-level practitioner as a possibility? (Thinking about NP/PA). It’s hard work and still requires years of training but not as long and grueling and the jobs often lend themselves to more work - life balance than the MD career path. |
Anonymous
what?? |
Anonymous
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Did she finish her undergrad? What kind of a student was she? As the physician poster mentioned does she have any other issues? My daughter was a hot mess through undergrad with physical illness and emotional issues. She graduated when Covid hit, came home and she did an online Master’s degree and tele therapy. Even that was a lot for her. Only you know what your child is like, whether she was resilient and tough prior to her ED. I would personally push the psychology/ therapist route over medical doctor. She can always go back to school and become a psychiatrist. |
Anonymous
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OP — There are so many aspects to health care now and different kind of providers. It might help your DD if she got some specific information on kinds of jobs and the education required. She could consider an introduction to the field by taking some of the premed courses she would need at a local college or looking at a health care program at your local community college in nursing, a therapist position such as respiratory, x-ray technician, or a PT assistant for example. She could explore the route to becoming a physician assistant in a field of interest without all the hard, intense years of med school. If she needs to finish her undergrad program, then she should make time to volunteer in a Free Clinic or train as an EMT ato see if the medical field in operation is really for her.
As the parent of a high anxiety daughter, the key is always going to be to have the right healthcare team in place to support her mental health. From her age, she has two more years on your health care policy, so it will be important to consider how sh can maintain access to good health care. Our daughter has a good job, is married and has children; but she recognizes to keep a life balance there are things she needs to do to manage stress or it can be bumpy. So I would just encourage her to share her ideas on a career and talk about how she might set up a realistic approach on working towards her goal with her doctors. A community college may offer her the most flexible option to start out rather than jumping into a full load at a university. |