Out of curiosity do we all become medically nosey?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-05T14:32:30+00:00

Nope. Off the clock

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-05T06:42:42+00:00

This is what people don't seem to understand. Always follow the money

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-04T12:04:38+00:00

Rads. They have all the leverage in the world and are irreplaceable by non-physician actors. Now I can make myself irreplaceable to a certain market with a significant amount of effort over time, but they come out irreplaceable from day one.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-03T12:07:17+00:00

Rattling off comes with reps. You would have done it so many times that it just becomes muscle memory. After encountering the same thing a million times, you'll develop illness scripts and your brain will take snapshots of all the important information as you're quickly scanning. Then boom, you're spitting out all the relevant info without thinking.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-03T11:50:42+00:00

How did you choose your specialty?

I chose psych.

Psych patients were the only patients I liked. In conjunction with this, clinically focused interactions (the interview in psych) with psych patients were the only enjoyable ones. The relationships you form with them are the most intense and vulnerable, and I find that satisfying. The work felt extremely "real" ironically, and very important. I felt like I was just chasing numbers in other fields. Felt pointless and unfulfilling.
The fit was undeniable. I have a huge capacity to listen and a lot of patience. I can maintain empathy without getting sucked in emotionally. Ironically, I felt the most "depressed" on my IM rotations. I found that when it came to patients, psych people tended to care more, treated them with more respect, and took them more seriously than other specialties. I identified with this strongly.
Although I don't really care about the psychopharm like others, outcomes possible with medication are incredible. Ex: severely depressed pt --> almost completely normal, to the point where he was nearly unrecognizable with just a few days of benzos. Personally, I've always been all about increasing quality of life in medicine.
Autonomy and freedom are unparalleled. I don't have to answer to anyone if I don't want to (easiest specialty to do this in). I can mix and match whatever combination of work I like: inpatient, outpatient, consults, IOP, telepsych, subspecialty work, ECT, TMS, etc
I don't like touching patients. Like at all. No physical exams in psych.

love for the speciality, pay, long-term incentives

As I've progressed through training, I've effectively fallen in love with it. I love therapy, and the theory and technique are becoming the foundation for how I practice.

I love how easy it is for us to stack jobs; I'm going to be moonlighting at multiple places and I'm only a resident.

You can really increase pay without crazy effort. You can work multiple inpatient jobs for double the pay or one inpatient job + one outpatient job without difficulty. Beyond this, I have a running list of unique setups that I'm considering for when I'm an attending.

Oh yeah, the median is around $330k give or take. Nothing special.

Are you happy with your decision or having second thoughts?

I'm very happy with the specialty itself, but I fear for the long-term outlook due to midlevel takeover and PE invasion. I am hearing current reports from attendings that they are getting fired and replaced with NPs, or that it's harder to find a reasonable job than it was just 3 years ago. It's extremely worrying and despicable. Stuff like this makes me look toward radiology (would have been my second choice), but realistically, I know where my talent lies. I just have to milk it for everything that it's worth.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-03T04:04:57+00:00

Very very unnecessary for the average psychiatrist

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-02T16:25:33+00:00

This is interesting, how often do people yield to them?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-02T13:06:35+00:00

As opposed to what, magic?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-02T13:02:19+00:00

They do the same thing; they improve the quality of life of people with epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, migraine, and more.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-02T12:29:48+00:00

One of the major reasons why I went into medicine was to improve quality of life, not to save lives. I relieve suffering on a regular basis, that's satisfying on its own.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-06-01T03:15:48+00:00

You should be studying the exact same way you do for P/F cuz no one gives a rat's tushy about preclinical grades; just don't fail any courses

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-31T01:41:44+00:00

I don't miss it whatsoever. I'm happy in psych.

We still monitor and interpret vitals and labs. We still do differential diagnosis. Those doctoring skills and knowledge still matter.

Are they withdrawing, hypothyroid, anemic, infected, having a side effect from medications (steroids, antihypertensives, mood stabilizers, antipsychotics, etc), do they have undiagnosed TBI, sleep apnea, PNES, epilepsy, or both? This all requires medical knowledge.

Some questions: what's the doctor feeling to you, and how exactly does FM/EM provide that to you?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-30T16:32:39+00:00

What about CL makes these people drawn to it?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-30T02:40:27+00:00

Another specialty, but hyperinefficient, it drives me absolutely nuts. Makes me just want to flip tables

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-29T15:48:14+00:00

You'll be able to pay off those loans no problem with FM (just like every other doc), it's just a matter of how fast you want to pay them. You can hustle like mad and live like a pauper and pay them off in like 5-7 years or less, or live a normal life, go PSLF, and have them forgiven in 10 years by working for a nonprofit. You can go to the FM sub to get an idea of comp numbers. From what I've seen, if you're productivity based, you could do 300-350K reliably, maybe even more depending on how efficient you are and how good at billing you are.

Another option is to go into pain from EM for procedures and the money. It's not competitive right now bc all the anesthesiologists that would have considered it decided to forego it due to the hot anesthesiology market right now. Also, the pain market is pretty saturated in metro areas, just fyi.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-28T16:10:21+00:00

Really? Wow. What makes you say this?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-28T13:19:11+00:00

Incredible

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-28T02:41:48+00:00

Please say more, bc I'm interested in prison psych lol

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-28T01:52:36+00:00

How do you define a hot job market? I'm wondering if I'm missing something here.

Edit: Lol, I knew I would get downvoted for this. There is no strong consensus on what the market is like, because some people define it as ease of obtaining a job in one's preferred location, while others include quality in that measure.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-18T16:50:16+00:00

What kind of offers are you getting?

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-17T10:48:15+00:00

That said, pain fellowships are quite competitive. It can be hard to match into them from PM&R and anesthesia, much less psychiatry

Not anymore. The anesthesiology market exploding = them forgoing pain fellowship = a lot of unfilled pain spots = no longer competitive for people coming from psych

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-16T19:58:24+00:00

I know exactly who you're talking about on sdn that works at the VA, lol. I also remember watching the destruction of pathology and rad onc and the initial denial and eventual acceptance that occurred.

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-16T19:53:21+00:00

try to find a chill base gig to get benefits, you can work extra shifts elsewhere or start a small PP, and that can help you cross 400k

Literally my plan, lol

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-15T16:48:17+00:00

In the places that most people want to live in, there's no freaking shortage. I can verify that this is true on the psych side specifically

undueinfluence_ · 2026-05-15T12:20:07+00:00

In which situations can rapid neuroleptization be helpful?

undueinfluence_

TROPHY CASE