Oxymoron

"New York is such a great place.  I hate the fact that I don't have the desire to live here"

Analogy

The analogy of amount of information learned in medical school is like drinking water from a fire hydrant.

Absolutely correct.  However, the analogy of what it "feels" like to be in medical school:

S & M:  It's painful having to keep studying, waking up early, and dealing with people...but you keep doing it anyways because it still feels good in some sort of twisted way.

Tyler Cuddy

"I can’t stand the thought of being in one place for years at a time only to look forward to those two weeks of paid vacation. I can’t stand the thought of falling into a rut of monotony and complacency. It’s when I find myself settling down that everything starts to collapse; I get angry, confused, and lazy. I hate what it does to me. I become worthless. When I’m home, life is constantly pushing me around, but when I’m on the road, I get to push back; it’s exhilarating." - Tyler Cuddy

A More Complete Perspective

When we think of sickness, we think of the physiological diseases such as diabetes, cancer, stroke, heart attacks, or even broken bones.  We often forget about mental disorders such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or depression. For most people, our understanding or encounter with these disorders are from books, movies, and the homeless on the street.  For some people, they might have a better understanding because of a close family member or personal experience. I can understand why it's so much harder to grasp or understand mental disorders because the science is not as clearly defined as the diseases that have more concrete physiological evidence. Our brain is an interplay between circuits, hormones, and neurotransmitters that can generate millions of combinations that create our unique personalities, actions, thoughts, feelings, functioning, and behavior.  The uncertainty and mystery behind these mental disorders naturally lead us to develop feelings of fear or negative judgement.  Thoughts such as "this guy is crazy...".."he's mentally weak"..."he's on something"..."don't get near him..he might hurt us" go through our head.  In addition to our natural reaction to uncertainty, the media plays a big role in our thinking and perception of people with mental disorders.   We see these murders on television who declare "insanity".  Unfortunately, these murderers or suicidal patients represent the whole population that are mentally ill.  Because of the infomercials or fundraising advertisements, we instantly become empathetic when we see people with cancer.  To be honest, I think a mental orders are worst, or at least equal, to the traditional illnesses.  These patients forget their medications like how someone with hypertension forget their medications.You can replace almost any part of your body but the brain.  I couldn't have asked for a better rotation to end my third year of medical school.  I have developed a deeper understanding and empathy for people with mental disorders.  Most of them are good people. 

Brooklyn Botanical Gardens

Rural Medicine

August - Rural Family Medicine rotation with the Navajo Indians.

Stumbled

While playing with J*s Xoom tablet, I came across this comic.  I couldn't stop laughing.