text: Mental Illness in the Medical Field | Connect in Health
  Starting from medical school, young, aspiring doctors may experience an overwhelming amount of stress, pressure, and emotional toll. The culture surrounding the medical field itself also demands perfection—no mistakes. As a result, medical students often struggle with mental health; as many as one in five have reported suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts. These unhealthy conditions continue to residency and on the job itself. However, many doctors are unwilling to seek help for their mental illness, for fear that they will lose their medical license, and may instead try to treat themselves. It is important to recognize, as a society, that doctors can be patients too and not overlook such a serious issue.
  How can we improve this problem?
  I think it might be useful to have highly accessible and anti-stigmatized counseling services for medical students at any level (not just undergraduate). Medical schools should look into specific and personalized advisory pairings that focus on well-being on top of academics, and provide frequent wellness seminars for students that extend into residency. This will not only improve mental health amongst medical professionals, but refine the quality of medical care in future years. It's difficult to take care of others when you're struggling yourself.
  Don't forget that the very nature of being a doctor itself is also, potentially, mentally taxing. Coming in contact with big concepts such as the value of living, existing and dying can be a part of the daily routine. Not only doctors but EMTs, nurses, geriatric caretakers, etc, may witness death on a regular basis. Undergoing such rigorous experiences, it is no wonder professionals in these fields may be at certain risk for mental health disorders.
  One of my friends recently completed a three-week internship studying under an anesthesiologist. As part of her training, she accompanied the anesthesiologist in an ambulance as they rushed to the home of an elderly woman who'd just had a stroke. For three minutes my friend watched as the woman struggled to maintain her hold on life, before expiring before her eyes. As the friend relayed the event to me, I was struck by the quiet, ponderous melancholy with which she described her experience. It seemed she'd completed her first foray into some of the profession's more taxing demands.
  I have a lot of respect for those individuals who chose to go into the medical field. But like Elaine and Abby, I believe doctors (students and graduates alike) would benefit from regular mental health assessments, given the pressure and topics they're exposed to.
  I agree with most of the points that Abby and Anya made! Doctors must face incredibly difficult decisions day in and day out, all while pretending that these decisions do not have a major effect on them. Just because doctors are trained to act a certain way and perform certain tasks through years of schooling does not at all mean that they are prepared for the mental toll that the process and actual job can have. Obviously, every person is different, but all medical students can benefit from ignoring stigmas and going to talk to a therapist or other medical professional about how they are feeling.
  I have watched and heard of multiple loved ones and friends go through jarring realizations throughout medical school and the rest of their careers. My brother, for example, is currently in his first year of residency. His focus is less on the exciting prospects of all of his possible career options that he was faced with in medical school and previous years. Instead, he is more focused on his chosen specialties and has mentioned that he is no longer drafting off of the excitement of it all. When the excitement wears off a bit, a medical student may realize the severity of certain situations in a new light. If he/she is faced with a situation in which he/she is not feeling like his/herself, it is important to seek help, not matter how he/she will look in the face of peers and others. Mental health needs to be discussed, and it should have no affect on their career and how they are viewed.