(no subject)
I feel like I'm learning things. I view this positively although it's probably a sign that I don't already know things. Like in pediatrics I learned things because I don't know much about small people. In general medicine I didn't know things and I didn't learn many things because they are too busy to teach there. In surgery I felt good because I knew things and I learned things with enthusiasm like whoa. In Psychiatry I'm picking up vocabulary. I'm carrying a lot of personal stigma and that is maladaptive. What that means is that mental health carries a lot of societal stigma because it is widely regarded as ok to have a broken leg, or hypertension or pneumonia, but it is not ok to have a mental illness because it means something is wrong with you. When you internalize the societal stigma is can be called a personal stigma. I have a great deal of personal stigma because the people in my family who show symptoms of mental illness are viewed very negatively. Therefore any I view any sign that I, for instance, would gain a benefit from psychiatric intervention extremely negatively. Part of my duty as a physician is to destigmatize mental diagnoses for my patients because there is benefit from psychiatric intervention by way of drugs and therapy. It is a science, it has been researched for many years and there is a great deal of evidence and standardization behind care. I think I'm really starting to drink the kool-aid on this one. Today anyway.