I witnessed my first born’s angriest moment when he was about three years old. I cannot remember clearly how things escalated that day. What I remembered was an image of him standing in the middle of the living room seething with anger.

His tiny body was tense and trembling, his teeth gritted tightly, his cheeks flushed, and his eyes staring intently ahead. I was very angry too. The following thoughts were looping in my head, “How dare he behave this way again! His behaviour is getting from bad to worse. He is going to grow up an angry person and demand his way without respect. He is not going to have any friends…”.

It didn’t take me long to realise that my mind was not in the present moment. It was in the future. My imagination was blowing the situation up.

The next moment, I saw blood flowing down from his nose. It was thick, dripping and crimson red. It flowed fast and with it my anger dissipated. The sight of blood brought me back to the present moment. I probably rushed to him and did something for his nosebleed for which I cannot remember. All I could recall now is the angry child and the blood.

When he was around that age, he got into frequent temper tantrums – sometimes throwing things, sometimes screaming at the top of his lungs and sometimes just trembling with anger on the spot. On my good days, I would ignore the behaviour until he ran out of steam. On my bad days, I would stare back at him in even greater anger and demand (in an even louder voice than his screaming) hoping that he stop his behaviour immediately. The nose-bleeding episode made me realize the futility of my thoughts in these moments; and the futility of ignoring and scolding. Yet, I don’t exactly know what else to do in those moments of desperation.

In desperation, I tried to meet his needs hoping to minimize the escalation of his emotions.

Maybe, I thought, I lost some perspective of being a child as I grew up. I used to admire my younger sister who threw temper tantrums with a lot of screaming and rolling-on-the-floors. She was my hero. Whatever she was asking from my parents, I wanted it too. I just did not have the courage to ask because I was afraid of my parents’ scolding and caning.

I tried to recall my childhood wants and think more from my first born’s perspective. I focused more on giving what he needed as long as they were developmentally appropriate. I worked on letting go of my fears for his future. Once I did that, more internal space for me to be with him opened up. I was able to accept more of his physical and psychological needs in the current moment. I started to be able to perceive sadness or distress more accurately and soothe him earlier. It worked instantly and we became closer to each other.

Perhaps I was just plain exhausted all the time. Well, most modern parents are! I drank more tea and coffee at one point as a desperate measure (It didn’t work so I reduced it to one cup a day again). I tried ginseng. I exercised. I became a little more energetic, more cheerful, and more patient. I did mindfulness exercises. I became more focused and more joyful.

Things started improving. My child’s tantrums reduced. He still got upset every now and then, but not as much. Even when he did get upset, I still felt a tiny sense of failure for not being able to take away his negative emotions. It was as if I have not tried hard enough. After self-blame came self-defense. I have tried the best I could. And I blamed my child for being unreasonable. I would scold him. Then finally, guilt would take over. I would apologize for scolding harshly.

I knew deep down that I cannot fulfill my child’s needs all the time even with limitless time and energy. All human’s wants and needs are endless. Discontentment is all pervasive in man, woman and children all the same. How could I ever take away any emotions, be it positive or negative? I was like Sisyphus, the Greek mythical god, who was rolling an immense boulder up a hill aiming to reach the top, only to watch it roll back down at the end of the day. There was no end to the rolling, yet I did not see any way out. It seemed I had to keep climbing the hill and rolling the immense “bolder” if I were to be a good mother. I felt obliged to make my child feel even better.

Then the missing link came! I was co-running a workshop about raising resilient children in National University Hospital in early 2014. (The developers of this program are Dr Roberts Brooks and Dr Sam Goldstein). There was a very tender video shown during the workshop. In the video was a one year old child left alone in a stroller by a parent. He was frowning and looking around possibly in search of his parent. Then there was a stranger adult, who was supposed to soothe the baby, kneeling by the stroller. (I cannot remember if “the stranger” was Dr Roberts Brooks or Dr Sam Goldstein.)

As a mother of two, I knew the baby was going to be stressed in this new place without a familiar face. He would cry in fifteen seconds or less! My first instinct would be to smile at the baby and distract him with something so that he did not get upset too fast. But the stranger in the video did something I did not expect. He looked into the frowny baby’s eyes with a little frown of his own. The stranger’s expression reflects a little sadness, just like the baby. He then said to that baby along the line of, “Aww, I know you are feeling a little puzzled and sad.” He continued holding the gaze of the little baby with sadness. It felt as if he was walking with baby in that plane of sadness, completely okay with being there with him. He was not asking the baby to come out of it. The baby started to appear calm and started looking at the stranger connecting with him in his sadness. Then the baby’s mood started to shift from sadness to curiosity. I guess that being accepted as who he was in the present moment, with sadness and all, he was able to start to explore what was going on around him with a sense of safety. The stranger then reflected, “You are checking me out now?” with raised eye brows and an interested look. He was reflecting the baby’s behaviour of being curious. He was moving onto another plane with the baby. The video continued with the stranger following the child’s emotions based on his facial expressions and other behavioral cues, acknowledging out loud what he thought the child’s intentions and thoughts were in the moment. He was not rescuing the child from any of the emotions or trying to change the child’s thinking. He was there totally accepting and embracing everything that was going on. He was at peace with them all, and in turn the child was at peace too.

It was extremely calming to watch the video. My learning point was that I do not need to change the experience of my child. Whatever his experience is, all I need to do is to accept the experience as it is. If he did not like a type of food, I could agree with him that he does not like the food (not that the food is not nice or he was choosy). I could agree with his longing to have another food (not that I need to get that food for him). I could agree with him that he feels a little sad because he does not get the other food (not that I need to scold him for not appreciating for what I have got for him). I could still persuade him to eat even with all his other wants and disappointments. It was wonderful. Accepting his emotions (by guessing and naming it) reduced one level of struggle. He and I spent less energy fighting with his emotions. We both have more energy on making the situation work the best we could.

It has worked wonders to reduce my pressures to “perform” as a mother and to reduce the pressure on my child not to feel negative emotions. My first born is now eight years old. He has learned how to recognize my emotions and name them too. One afternoon, just a few weeks ago, he told me that I looked angry just before we went out for his swimming lesson. Boy he was spot on! I was very tense that day trying to meet my schedules for work and his activities. I was angry with the situation I was in. The moment he recognized it, I felt a sense of being understood. It was as if my child has seen my inner experience. My urge to act out by asking him to hurry up went away. Instead, it gave me a chance to tell him what I was angry about. He gave me an outlet to ventilate. And he even helped me problem solve! Through my training as a psychologist, I have learned that emotions tend to lose its intense effects once you could name it. I have been soothed when my mentors and my psychologist friends helped me identify my emotions and accepted them as it was. But when it was done by my eight-year-old child and I felt soothed by my child, my sense of joy and contentment was just profound. My once-nose-bleeding-child and I have come a long way in making friends with our emotions. We have recognized them, named them and tamed them.

Written by Nyein Nyein

This post was first published on https://mindtending.com/anger/ and the original site is marked for deletion soon.

This morning, I woke up to the tragic news that K-Pop singer Jonghyun had ended his life with carbon monoxide poisoning. I didn’t know who he was until now.

After I saw some snippets of his music video, I felt a strong wave of sadness. There he was – a charming young boy with a thin, wiry frame.

He reminded me of other people who had left me with suicide.

A fellow waiter

I was 18 then and working as a part time waitress at a six-star hotel in Singapore. There was a co-worker named Raj. He was tall, tough-looking and thin, with bloodshot eyes. He never made eye-contact with me. I was glad that he didn’t, and dreaded working with him as I simply couldn’t comprehend his wild lifestyle. Raj frequently worked extra shifts to earn extra cash. He went clubbing and boozing in between those shifts. We were worlds apart, and I was afraid of the unknown.

Then one time, a week passed without seeing him. I found out that he had jumped off a building and died on the spot. Tears filled my eyes. I wondered what tormented him so badly that he had to end his life there and then. If I knew he was suffering, I wouldn’t be so afraid to talk to him. But I didn’t know because his unapproachable expression concealed his suffering.

A fellow foreign student

Fast forward two years later. My junior, Kuy, who came to Singapore to study from a foreign country, had jumped off from the top of a HDB building.
This time I felt numbness and disbelief at first. Then, I felt angry too.

I felt angry with those who were close to him – his teachers, his country mates who went to the same school, his seniors from the same country.

How could so many people fail to notice how much he was suffering?

I missed it too. I had many breakfasts and lunches with him and his seniors in the boarding school. He never demanded anyone’s attention. He always carried a faint smile, and walked with a little hunch. I didn’t know because his smiley face masked his pain.

A close friend

Shortly after this experience, my close friend overdosed on medications. She called me in her incoherence many times throughout the night. She eventually survived.

I raved and ranted with her for hours on end over the phone. I chided her parents out of anger, though I knew they must have been in deep pain too.

From that time onwards, I took her words seriously. I “watched over” her well-being like a tiger mum.

But why did it take a suicide attempt for me to take her pain seriously?

She was a close friend.  But she never told me she wanted to die. I just knew that she was unhappy about a few things. I never probed deeper since she changed subject fast whenever those uncomfortable topics came up.

What can we possibly do to help those who are suicidal?

All of them have one thing in common. They hid the gravity of their suffering under different masks – anger, smile, nonchalance.

If only they reached out for help. If only someone called them out – and tell them they needed help. It could have been me in the above 3 scenarios. But I didn’t know any better. I think I know a bit better now after I become a psychologist. Here, through a fictional account, I make an attempt to demystify

• why a sufferer would hide his pain
• how a sufferer can reach out
• how friends and family member can help a sufferer talk about it openly
• and what therapy process is like

You might benefit from reading this fictional account if:

• you are struggling with difficult emotions or
• your loved one is suffering from difficult emotions. It will highlight anxiety and uncertainties that you would probably feel.

But I would like you to know that we can still fail even with the kindest of actions, the best of strategies and the purest of intentions.

Below is my wishful fantasy. Let’s say the events started one year ago..

1. Jong Hyun entertained thoughts of therapy

I have a strong sense that Jonghyun knew that he needed medical help after I read his harrowing suicide note.

He was so lonely, so terrified of his memory lapses. I let myself imagine that Jonghyun googled for a therapist to talk to, maybe a clinical psychologist or a counselor like what we have in Singapore.

This process won’t be easy for Jonghyun. What would he tell the therapist/receptionist on the phone?

I’m a world famous pop singer, and I need to see you for therapy?

How about meeting up with her? Should I turn up in the clinic with the other curious eyes? How can I keep regular appointments when I don’t even know which country I would be in?

A million what ifs would go through his mind.

Maybe, he would call his sister for a start, perhaps even register for a session under her name?

2. Jonghyun confided in his sister

I imagine Jonghyun jokingly telling his sister that he must be mad, that he felt so much loneliness and emptiness despite all his good looks and success. He might have trivialized it and winked a bit. How charming he must have looked!

His sister could have missed the gravity of it as he downplayed it a notch. The conversation probably grew more serious after the initial awkwardness. I wouldn’t be surprised if she denied his pain in disbelief.

Most of us had denied the pain of people closest to us at one time or another. It’s always “easier” to try to convince my loved one and myself that what they are experiencing is transient, and that they will get over it somehow. This act comes from a place of wanting to comfort them. But by doing so, we deny our loved one a chance to share with us what really is on their mind. We might even unintentionally make our loved one feel ashamed for feeling “weak” or “exaggerating” their emotions.

After this natural initial shock and denial, his sister would probably try to find resources to help him. She would be able to brainstorm with him. She might manage to find a psychologist who can go to him, instead of him going to the psychologist. Then therapy would start.

3. Jonghyun’s friend made him talk about his feelings

Alternative to the above scenario, I imagine a friend of him directly asking him how he was feeling. This friend represents who I wish I was to my waiter colleague, my junior and my close friend. I wish the friend would tell him firmly that he needs help, and that he will be better off after that.

4. Jonghyun started therapy

The therapist might or might not be surprised to receive a phone call informing her that the great Jonghyun needed help. After recovering from her initial excitement, shock and some kind of pride that she was contacted to help a world-famous pop singer, she would now have to pick her brain on how she could be effective for him.

So many things to consider! Where would they meet? If she needed to travel with him, what about her existing patients? Therapy in the car or aeroplane while he was traveling from place to place? Wouldn’t they get interrupted by the make-up artists? Would she be slighted, not given due respect by his media team?

If she was a fan herself, things would get more complicated. She would need to deal with the part of her mind that idolize him. But I like to imagine his psychologist to be someone wise and kind – someone who would start to see the real Jonghyun with so much pain, and walk with his fragile ego through this dark times.

I like to imagine that all the logistic issues were settled and they managed to work out a good time and place to meet regularly. There must be so much negotiations on both sides. Either party would want to give up at many points. But I hope the therapist is stubborn and shameless enough in getting him back to therapy each time he wants to give up because of his schedules. She would advocate for him, no matter how intimidated she felt by him or his media team.

4.1 The First Session

I know from my personal experience of having gone through personal therapy as part of my training, as well as what my patients told me that meeting a therapist for the first time is a unique experience like no other. I imagine Jonghyun coming out of the first session with a renewed sense of hope, or at least knowing that there is another human being who would not deny his suffering, walk the dark days with him; and a sense that he did not need to carry all his burdens alone. I am filled with trepidation as I imagine this scene. I want this first session to succeed, for him to live, and to be in less pain!

5. Therapy continues

Let’s say Jonghyun got comfortable with the therapist for the first session, they would have many more sessions to go together.

Thinking out loud, maybe:

1) Jonghyun needed a more regular sleep schedule (and how impossible it is to achieve this!). I would leave it for him and his therapist to figure it out.

2) Jonghyun needed to reach out with his genuine feelings and thoughts to people close to him. From his suicide note, I am sure he did it in his own ways. Maybe the therapist and Jonghyun could explore more daring, more relentless ways of reaching out. I imagine how people would idolize him, romanticize him; and how difficult it is for Jonghyun to get genuine human connections as a result.

3) Jonghyun needed to know how strong he has been. He carries the burden of success since 15 years old. On this road to success, he has lost schoolmates, classmates, and anything that resembles the life of a normal adolescent in Korea. He needed to mourn his losses.

4) Jonghyun needed a proper medical and psychiatric assessment. My mind is filled with theories about why he is losing his memories (stated in his suicide note). Is it part of a brain disorder? Does he have depression or any other mental health disorders? Could it be just stress, hectic schedule or sleep deprivation? Is he possibly a victim of  drug addiction that is so common to artists of all ages? Many effective treatments can be done if only we know the root cause.

Note: All of the above is highly fictional and based on probability of what someone in his situation might experience.

6. Medications

For someone so deep in mental pain like Jonghyun, medications and therapy at the same time would have been useful, if he was indeed suffering from a disorder like depression. The doctor would first have to explain to him that medications would likely have more benefits than possible harms for him.

He would probably have asked the doctor: Would these medications affect my personality? How about my singing? Is there a chance I can get addicted to these medications? Would these pills make me feel worse than I do now?

The doctor in my imagination would be fully trained and handle all his questions professionally and compassionately.

Even then, for someone like Jonghyun to “admit” that he needs medications for an illness, would have been a herculean task. He would ruminate again: What if my fans find out that I’m on medications? What would they think about me?

Maybe he will talk to his sister, his close friend, his family members and his therapist before deciding on a course of medication. It might get complicated. Opinions would differ and Jonghyun would hold off taking any medicine. Or maybe he would embrace any possibility of feeling better, including taking medication. To me, as long as he contemplated, it is good enough. As long as someone informed him that it was a possible course of action, it is good enough. He deserves to have this knowledge.

7. Hospitals

Many times in my clinic, patients told me that they were suicidal. Every time it happened, I entertained images of them jumping down, hairs on my neck stood up and my heart beat fast. I persuade them to let me call their family members, and encourage them to admit themselves to the hospital. Once I called an ambulance to take the patient to the hospital.

When I was working in an inpatient ward as a psychologist, I saw the other side – patients who were there according to or against their will because of unshakable suicidal thoughts. Some stayed for months, some for a few days. I saw many discharged in a much better state of mind. Every time one expressed gratitude to the team for saving his life, I teared.

I admit I hate having to hospitalize patients. Most of the patients are not keen to go. I let them go home as long as we can come out with a plan where they can be watched for the next seven days by a person who cares about them.

Maybe Jonghyun might confess his suicidal thoughts to his therapist and something could be done to keep him safe. If not the therapist, maybe, someone else would hopefully have picked up a wisp of his intent to end his life before he became uncontactable (sadly these people generally hide their intent very well). The someone, anyone, might have driven him to a nearest hospital, where he could have received proper treatment and closer monitoring.

If you suspect anyone around you, or you are contemplating suicide right now, please consider calling 995 immediately or go to your nearest hospital. Go talk to someone there before proceeding.

8. Stigma of seeking treatment

Last but not least, we have to talk about the big elephant in the room. A lot of people deny treatment due to perceived stigma. To mental health professionals, a mental illness is just as real as a fracture or diabetes. Nothing should stop someone from feeling better and working better through proper treatment.

Somehow, if Jonghyun could experience a well coordinated care by a team of family physician, psychiatrist, psychologist or counselor and mental health nurse, he might have felt that he actually didn’t suffer any stigma in treatment. Perhaps someday, when he is finally treated, he can share his painful experience of walking out of these dark valleys.

Mental illness is exceedingly complicated and difficult to treat. It is still possible that Jonghyun had tried all of the above, but to no avail.

Suicide

If you are contemplating suicide and you have 5 minutes in your life, please read this great article. If you don’t, please:

• Call 995
• Call SOS: 1800 221 4444
• Walk in to ANY nearest Clinic/Hospital
• Walk in to IMH Emergency
• Talk to someone

The speculations about Jonghyun are at most speculations and they are not based on any facts. I am certain that everything has been done for Jonghyun by his close friends and family, but sometimes, the time, space and circumstances just doesn’t match up. My deepest condolences.

Nyein Nyein is a clinical psychologist (NUS) practicing at Zenith Medical Clinic in Punggol. Her Masters in Clinical Psychology thesis was on parenting, temperament and attempted suicide in adolescents. On top of her heavy clinical duties serving adult and child patients, she also works at children’s homes. In her free time, she advocates for mental health.

This article was first posted at https://mindtending.com/shinee-jonghyun-happy-alive-in-psychologist-fantasy/ and the original site is marked for deletion soon.

<< Article Migrated to Doctorxdentist but not sure where it went now>>

Over and over again in my life, I have been asked to tutor premed students for various reasons. (Premed = Even before they get into medical school)

So for my own convenience, I’ve arranged a pack of useful resources so I can stop repeating myself and all this completely free, as free as the internet.

Why medicine?

There are really a lot of things to do in the world and you must choose one of the hardest to get in. Why?

There are really a lot of easier ways to make money, and I think if I quit medicine today, I would earn more money. So why you want to do medicine, why?

There are a million ways to help people more than a doctor can, like the dude who made aeroplanes or cars, I’m sure they helped a lot of people. And in medicine, sometimes I don’t feel like I’m helping anyone more than I’m helping myself, so why?

There must be a personal story, a reason, that is your story we want to know. Not your mother’s story, not someone else’s story, not the story you watch from Gray’s Anatomy or any other doctor show on TV. (None of them are realistic, the realistic ones are not going to be on TV as 99% of the work we do are quite routine and mundane: you will fall asleep watching it) I’m not interested to hear all those stories that are not yours.

So if you do not have a compelling reason or story or hunch or calling, please step aside and give your space to someone else. If you really really want this space, perhaps you can continue reading.

Personal statements

Again, as above, I’ve read a hundred million of “Ah, I woke up today wanting to do medicine to save people”. Yes, I know that might be true, but why? Tell me, convince me with a burning desire.

Trying to get an attachment

I do not believe in attachments. I believe in fate and hard work. If you want to just sit on the wall like a fly in my clinics, please do not come to me or my colleagues. All premed students who actually reached my door and gone through me has put in hard work. (What kind of hard work you may ask? You have to save me time, if not why would I want to waste my time on you?)

[alert type=”danger” icon-size=”normal”]Proof it. Proof your worth in salt with blood, sweat and tears.[/alert]

Preparing for interviews

Very very tough. In Singapore, you are probably accepted before your interviews or doomed before your interviews, unfortunately. If I’m not wrong, academics, tests and your CV still plays a big part in it. But don’t despair, we will never pass on the opportunity to take someone who has a big potential to be a safe doctor just because his/her grades are subpar. (Conversely, we will not hesitate to not take someone who “smells” suspicious or mildly unsafe even with perfect scores) Overseas interviews however, tend to be more friendly and you tend to have a good chance, especially since they love Singapore students. (is it true?)

There are ton of good books out there teaching you how to prepare for an interview, so I will not waste time with it. But rather I will cover the unique points of a medical interview. (I might not be an authority on this, so well read and believe me at your own risk)

The most important question really is: Why do you want to do medicine? So please make sure you have a ready answer for it. We are very very sick of canned answers, I mean, how many times can we hear a generic answer in a day before we go mad? But a unique, genuine, touching and enthralling story will keep us connected and interested for a long long time.

So please, give us a good, coherent, real story. I believe most of us are quite kind, but lie to us at your own risk. Our daily work involves trying to figure out which patient is telling us the truth when they say they are not smoking or they swear they are taking their medications. So sniffing out a fake will not be very far off from our daily work.

There are a collection of tough questions that I have in my head which are not so convenient to share, lest the interview board chances upon this and invent harder questions, so I will only tell you in person.

Good reads

Nothing nourishes the brain like books. I love to read. Frankly most of us can sniff out a reader from a non reader from miles away, and guess who we will accept to be one of our colleagues? (The only other way to circumvent reading a lot is to talk to someone who reads a lot, but not everyone is so lucky)

Albom, M. (2002) Tuesdays with Morrie: An Old Man, a Young Man, and Life’s Greatest Lesson. 10 Anv Rep edition. New York: Broadway Books.

Great read about how it helps us “put things in perspective”.

Frankl, V.E., Winslade, W.J. and Kushner, H.S. (2006) Man’s Search for Meaning. 1 edition. Boston: Beacon Press.

Another one of my favourite.

selzer, R. (1790) Letters to a Young Doctor by Richard selzer. Simon & Schuster.

Really interesting book, try to read between the lines about how the author describe the nuances in human interactions.

Gawande, A. (2017) Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End. Reprint edition. Picador.

My favourite medical writer. I’ve read all his books, all very good read and inspiring.

Yalom, I.D. (2012) Love’s Executioner: & Other Tales of Psychotherapy. 2 edition. Basic Books.

Good introduction book into therapy, I’m really a huge fan of his style of psychotherapy, really very effective. But for premed students, read it to broaden your perspective.

Great lecture, we will forever mourn the passing of a great teacher like him.

Gray, R. (2017) The Premed Playbook Guide to the Medical School Interview: Be Prepared, Perform Well, Get Accepted. Morgan James Publishing.

Not sure the value of these books, anyone can comment please?

Other books which are recommended on the internet

Sorry I’ve not read these books, could be great books as well. Can someone read them and tell me if they are good for premed students?

Heller, T. (2009) On Becoming a Doctor: Everything You Need to Know about Medical School, Residency, Specialization, and Practice. 16155th edition. Naperville, Ill: Sourcebooks.

Belkin, L. (1994) First, Do No Harm: The Dramatic Story of Real Doctors and Patients Making Impossible Choices at a Big-City Hospital. 1 edition. New York: Fawcett.

Kalanithi, P. and Verghese, A. (2016) When Breath Becomes Air. 1 edition. New York: Random House.

Collins, D.M.J. (2006) Hot Lights, Cold Steel: Life, Death and Sleepless Nights in a Surgeon’s First Years. Reprint edition. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Ziegler, E. (2004) Emergency Doctor. Reprint edition. New York, NY: Harper Perennial.

Groopman, J.E. (2006) The Soul of a Doctor: Harvard Medical Students Face Life and Death. 1 edition. Edited by S. Pories, S.H. Jain, and G. Harper. Chapel Hill, N.C: Algonquin Books.

I’ve read these, but I don’t think they will be useful for premed students

You could read this books for fun, they are good books, but in a time squeeze like right before an interview, perhaps try the above books first.

Sacks, O. (1998) The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales. New York, NY: Touchstone.

Shem, S. and Updike, J. (2010) The House of God. Reissue edition. New York: Berkley.

Marion, R. (2001) The Intern Blues: The Timeless Classic About the Making of a Doctor. 2 Reprint edition. New York: William Morrow Paperbacks.

Last words

Actually if you really really have time, ie you have a few years to go before your medical interview. (And you actually found this page and read all the way down here)

You deserve a treat. You really should read widely and broadly. I find the books which are most useful for my practice are actually books that are on “polar” opposites of medical books. Like literature and “random” fun books.

Medicine is a career that is portrayed to be very intellectual and very demanding in terms of knowledge. But honestly, that is just the beginning. What keeps us in the field and really enjoy the field is the human connection and the relationships.

So please, go out there and enjoy your day, enjoy your hobbies, have fun! In fact, I find it so stupid that we do not take “Arts students” into medical school. Actually the hard science parts are quite tough but, if you put things in perspective, they form such a small part of the beginning of a long medical career. In the end, I tend to notice that the most fulfilled doctors out there are not the smartest nor are they the top scorers, but rather the most “well rounded” doctor. Someone who has a good foundation in a broad number of fields will do well. Someone with a open mind, as wide as the ocean, who can learn every day and every second, from our most important teacher: the patient.

Other books?

Please drop me a contact form, or comment below please 🙂