{"id":153,"date":"2017-06-24T10:14:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-24T09:14:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/?p=153"},"modified":"2018-04-22T22:31:45","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T21:31:45","slug":"my-psychiatrist-told-me-i-could-be-one-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/my-psychiatrist-told-me-i-could-be-one-too\/","title":{"rendered":"My psychiatrist told me I could be one too"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p>I was as fearful of failing as I had been with my A-levels, but there was also a terrible sense of unease about what was happening to me, to which I couldn\u2019t put a name.<\/p>\n<p>As I prepared for my finals, with my mind map, and my chart of each available hour, there came a point when I couldn\u2019t go on. I can\u2019t remember exactly what happened. I wasn\u2019t sleeping or able to work.<\/p>\n<p>My GP referred me to a psychiatrist who did sessions at the university health centre. With some medication, a lot of tears, and support from him I managed to pass my final examinations.<\/p>\n<p>I called him \u201cI wanted to thank you,\u201d I said, \u201cand ask if you thought it would be out of the question, after what happened to me this year, for me to train as a psychiatrist?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo,\u201d he said warmly, \u201cI don\u2019t think it would be out of the question at all.<\/p>\n<p>Those few words of encouragement set me off on a very successful career. It\u2019s not been without problems. I\u2019ve had recurrent episodes of depression, and at times it\u2019s been hard. But I would not have fitted in better anywhere else in medicine, and I think I\u2019ve been a more empathic doctor because I know what it\u2019s like from both sides.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2017\/feb\/17\/moment-changed-me-mental-health-problems-psychiatrist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the full story<\/a> (from The Guardian series &#8216;A moment that changed me&#8217;)<\/p>\n<h3>Commentary<\/h3>\n<p>Linda Gask graduated from Edinburgh Medical School and went on to a career in psychiatry, becoming a professor at the University of Manchester. Her book <em>The Other Side of Silence<\/em> describes her own and her patients&#8217; experiences of depression, but she has spoken and written widely about coming to terms with recurrent anxiety and depression, and managing a taxing professional career despite it.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/_GvMh2yQsRA\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Further info<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.grahammawchristie.com\/linda-gask.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">About Linda Gask<\/a> (literary agent&#8217;s summary)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Contributed by<\/h3>\n<p>Neil Turner<\/p>\n<h3>Rate this post<\/h3>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3>More like this<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was as fearful of failing as I had been with my A-levels, but there was also a terrible sense of unease about what was happening to me, to which I couldn\u2019t put a name. As I prepared for my finals, with my mind map, and my chart of each available hour, there came a <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/my-psychiatrist-told-me-i-could-be-one-too\/\">Read More &#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":284,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wpupg_custom_link":[],"wpupg_custom_link_behaviour":[],"wpupg_custom_link_nofollow":[],"wpupg_custom_image":[],"wpupg_custom_image_id":[],"yasr_overall_rating":0,"yasr_post_is_review":"","yasr_auto_insert_disabled":"","yasr_review_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[11,13,34],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychiatry","tag-doctor-experience","tag-prose","tag-the-sick-professional"],"yasr_visitor_votes":{"stars_attributes":{"read_only":false,"span_bottom":false},"number_of_votes":0,"sum_votes":0},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions\/434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scottishmedicalhumanities.org\/human\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}