Psychiatry Personal Narrative

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Pages: 3

I was exposed to the field of psychiatry when my mom had a psychotic episode during my 2nd year of college. This was not her first episode, I then learned that she had two similar episodes while I was in middle school but I was too young to understand. My dad did a good job in covering those situations but now I had to face the truth, my mom had schizophrenia. It was very troubling to see my mom in those conditions. I really could not understand how a well-educated woman as my mom could not comprehend that the voices are not real. It was very frustrating. I became very interested in her condition and learned all I could about her illness. I became very involved in her treatment, supervised her medications, and accompanied her to her psychiatric appointments. Overtime with a lot of patience I was able to improve her insight into her illness. I noticed that as her insight improved her compliance with her medication improve as well. I was providing psychotherapy without even knowing it.
My personal experience with psychiatry shaped my interest in the field but it was my medical school clerkships in psychiatry that solidified my desire to become a psychiatrist. I found myself enjoying every patient interaction, every story, every family meeting. They are always unique and ever compelling. Being in
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I found it very similar to a detective in which often one must gather information from various sources to come to the best diagnosis, and treatment plan. I found myself calling the child’s school, family, and often reading the police reports to gather the full story to arrive at the right conclusion. In the outpatient clinic I saw families ever grateful to the doctor because of their child’s improvement in behavior and school performance. I saw firsthand the profound impact that a psychiatric condition can have on a person’s social and academic future, and I knew I wanted to be the doctor help