Blog Post Focus
In this post I shall share my thoughts on whether or not someone should go to medical school if they are a highly sensitive person. It is a challenging environment for a highly sensitive person. The schedule has volatility and changes quickly. Other students are changing behaviors in chaotic fashions with sleep deprivation and stress. Some students purposely play mind games due to the intense competition. It can be very difficult for a highly sensitive person.
Introduction: A High-Stimulus Environment for an HSP
Medical school is a complex and challenging journey for anyone. It is filled with a constant barrage of information, obligatory lectures, continuously changing expectations for each environment, and is an ever-going competition. For anyone this is difficult. For someone who is a highly sensitive person this highly stimulating environment can be even more challenging.
The whole medical education journey is a big stimulus. There are breaks, but there are also waves of excitement, surges of nerves, and one’s environment changes all the time. One moment there is a test, the next class happy hour, then a physical exam lab, and then cadaver lab. The schedule is shifting and with each academic block.
Eventually you move out of the classroom – what you have known your whole life – to “learn” in the clinical and hospital setting. You have to deal with patients, with constantly changing expectations of each service, alarms that you don’t know the meaning of, new faces all the time, and you may go to new hospitals and clinics each rotation. With sensory processing sensitivity this can be a lot.
The whole time you are dealing with colleagues. Some may be friends, but others are strangers. Everyone reacts in waves to lack of sleep and to the changing levels of stress from studies and exams. One moment everyone is partying and cheering to the end of an academic block, the next they are snipping at each other because they are stressed and tired and trying to prepare for the next exam.
Considerations for the Highly Sensitive Person
Being a highly sensitive person can make medical school more challenging than it is even for others. So, should you go to medical school as a highly sensitive person?
History Informs Future
Ultimately, it comes down to how you have managed your highly sensitive self over the years. You may have come to peace with the world and yourself. Despite your highly sensitive nature you may be able to handle the stimulus of the world as well as anyone. You may have come to peace over the years and know how to handle what the world throws at you. Or, you may have never learned how to overcome the rush of stimuli.
If you have grown significantly from your childhood and come to the point where you handle novel experiences and change fine, then you may well handle medical school as well as anyone. If you have lived a life of being overwhelmed by change then don’t expect that to be different now. In medical school your life will change more than ever. Expectations will change. The faces surrounding you each day will change. Alarms will blare. The stress of responsibility will rear up on you.
Final Thoughts: You Know Yourself Best
Being a highly sensitive person would likely be an extra challenge for anyone going to medical school, but you know yourself best. You should know by now what you can and cannot take. You know how much stress you have each day and from where it stems. Be realistic with yourself. You may well have all the traits required to become a physician, but if the journey is one of constant overwhelm, then it may not be worth it.
Very seriously consider how a life of flux and constant change as a medical student and future resident can affect you as a highly sensitive person.
Resources
Check out The Highly Sensitive Person by Dr. Elaine Aron.
Check out the highly sensitive person “self-test” at https://hsperson.com/.
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