Psychiatry Experience Narrative Report

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While in medical school, I had applied myself accordingly to the complexities and interplay of basic medical sciences and their applications in clinical medicine. Going through the ward cases in my clinical medicine textbook further simplified this. My first exposure to mental illness came during the community-based posting in my medical school curriculum. I saw a lot of mentally ill in and around the community. The thoughts of how I could help these people could only lead me into considering psychiatry in future. I still had not made up my mind then, as I was yet to do a psychiatry posting. That experience made me look forward to psychiatry posting. During my psychiatry posting, I noticed many of my patients came from hundreds of miles away. This was largely due to stigma and discrimination. They would prefer to go far away from home so people around them would not know of their ailment. The discrimination and stigma further add to their suffering. Patients who hallucinated were seen as one possessed by the demon or as witches. It was hard for them to appreciate the …show more content…
I imagine sitting across from patients listening attentively as they tell their stories of fear, sadness, and apprehension. I discovered the best way to help a person get physically well was to make sure they were mentally well. Patients with chronic medical conditions and cancer are as well afflicted resulting many times into an initial denial and subsequent depression.
One often see them in a difficult, hopeless and disabling position. The scourge of addiction and other forms of mental illness in the country is also a sign that more psychiatrists are needed.
More than any other rotation, I found that listening goes a long way in helping a person in time of illness or stress.
I learned how anxiety or distress could manifest as physical complaints, such as