hey everyone, i'm a third year currently on rotations. i started getting interested in psych around my 1st yr of med school and have continued on that path with interest growing high!!

however, while on rotations (completed FM, EM, IM), each of my preceptors have said very discouraging things to me about psychiatry. currently, the preceptor i am with has told me that if i decided to go into the field that i would end up becoming a patient myself. they also continued to say that i would develop issues and if i don't fix my own issues, i would inherit my patients and go into a "psych ward".

i even had another attending tell me that the reason i am thinking about psych is because "either, you have seen people who are cuckoo or you're cuckoo yourself".

personally, i do struggle with mental health issues but i think each of us does. i've been trying to handle it but it wasn't till this preceptor and even past preceptors told me about the idea of your own mental health being enhanced that i thought about myself.

it doesn't deter me from psychiatry but it makes me wonder: do many psychiatrists feel like their own mental health can be hurt while being a psychiatrist such as listening to patients who have expressed/shared very sad stories of their lives? i feel like we have to learn and practice setting boundaries to not let this happen.

at the end of the day, i want to still be a psychiatrist but ultimately, it only makes me wonder about the mental health toll on psychiatrists. i have struggled with my own problems in life and what really hit home for me was seeing my first suicidal patient during EM to which my preceptor told me to get the history since they "had no interest". we had no debrief in the end of it and i did come back home recognizing how rough it was to hear the pts story (raped multiple times, mom put pt on drugs at age 9, etc). but this experience honestly made me feel something in medicine that i have not felt throughout any of my patient encounters - i actually felt motivated to want to do something about it.

anyways, a bit of a rant as i type out. i appreciate everyone's responses and kindness.

EDIT: wow, thank you all so much for your responses; each of you are incredible insightful. i immensely appreciate it so much.

Is anyone keeping up to date on this? Thoughts? For context, mass murderer who was an army psychiatrist who committed the deed back in 2009 in Fort Hood, a military base. Is sentenced to death and by firing squad in the upcoming days. The caveat? The president has orders for it to be livestreamed on television. Generally the DSM-V states you can’t get PTSD from watching from television but our patients will be to differ…