Medicine.

[Steel Maiden]

I can't leave my desires to train to be a forensic pathologist.

I want to do a medical degree.

Some people are saying I can do it and they believe in me.

Others are basically saying "are you kidding?!"

There's one person saying that if I have a history of mental illness, there's no way I'd ever be accepted for medicine.

It would be a massive challenge too, socially.

I'll always be autistic, even if my mental illnesses all disappear completely.

What is your opinion?

Can I do this or am I living in a daydream?

[Bellatrix]

I don't know.
I think you could do the academic side no problem, but the placements?If children outside annoy you imagine being on a busy ward, or being present during a code with all the noise and bashing. I'm not sure based on the things you post that you'd be able to manage that.

[Steel Maiden]

Yeah. I know. That's why I'm stuck. I can't seem to get fully passionate about research, which was my other option.

I'll talk to my support worker next week.

I used to be totally unable to go on a bus or a train a while ago. I couldn't even go to a supermarket or a post office without someone help me. Now I am learning how to cope with busy buses and hot trains. I've been making progress and will carry on making progress.

I'm obsessed about the human body, my favourite systems are the CNS, the heart and the endocrine system. But I also an obsessed about forensics.

I am so very stuck.

[talaiporia]

You mention you've struggled a lot on your BSc especially with social interaction and lectures - a medicine degree would be even tougher, and I don't think you can do it part-time. Especially once you hit your clinical years and you were on placement all the time, I think you would find the social interaction overwhelming.

There are lots of related jobs in forensics and pathology that don't require a medicine degree, like a forensic pathology assistant - which requires a science degree followed by certification

[Steel Maiden]

Fair enough.

I guess I'll have to rethink my plans.

I wouldn't like to be the assistant tbh.

What careers could I get with a neuroscience degree? That was my other option.

[talaiporia]

I think it's good to always keep your options open.

What is your current degree.

What makes you not want to be an assistant? It would be someone who prepared the bodies, cleaned them up, helped with the autopsy.

[Pi.R^2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steel Maiden

There's one person saying that if I have a history of mental illness, there's no way I'd ever be accepted for medicine.

That's definitely not true. I knew of someone in the year below me at medical school who sat her GCSEs in a psych hospital, there was someone in my year who I think also had been a psychiatric inpatient, as well as one of my good friends who has just qualified who was under mental health services for a lot of her medical degree.

I do agree with what the other two have said regarding the social interaction that's required and noise and such. I'm sure it's not impossible and if you continue to make lots of progress it may well be achievable, but my instinct from the things that you've posted is that you would struggle massively with it at the moment.

You'd have to do a lot of clinical training before getting into pathology- do you think you'd feel comfortable, for example, taking a detailed history from someone who was crying hysterically and not talking clearly, or talking to a relative of a patient who had just died suddenly?

I don't think there's any doubt that you'd manage the scientific side of it, but I wonder if you've fully thought about the clinical skills element of the course?

[Ktulu]

Would you consider biomedical science? It's basically medicine without the clinical component and offers lots of opportunities for further study and research. In my uni, the medical and biomedical students share all the same modules except the clinically oriented ones with the biomed students taking additional science based ones.

[Steel Maiden]

I wouldn't manage the clinical bit tbh.

I'm getting worse with my sensory issues to the point that I'm semi-nocturnal to avoid daytime. I have to wear sunglasses often and earplugs.

F*** it I'm never going to survive a medical degree so I'm going to forget that thought forever.

Forensic pathologist assistant could be an option then. I'm doing pharmacology atm.

I have been thinking about neuroscience because the brain is my favourite organ to study. Can anyone enlighten me with that?

Biomedical science sounds good. I will research it to see what it involves.

[talaiporia]

I think focusing on recovering from the mental health things is a good first step.
Then working on reducing autism symptoms (though noise sensitivity should be much better if you're less anxious).

I would look into a forensic pathology assistant - you might find it interest.

I think a second degree would be expensive -student finance doesn't fund a second degree.

[Steel Maiden]

My dad said he would fund me to do a Masters after my BSc but forensic pathology assistant sounds very good. Thanks. I'll have a research on that.

My autism is bad these days. My psychiatrist said I present like classic autism. I started screaming on a bus recently tbh so perhaps my ability to cope with them isn't as good as I thought it was. I am also suffering mood swings and attacks of nonverbal. So medicine is out.

Sorry for being an unrealistic idiot.

[talaiporia]

As far as I'm aware, Aspergers should improve when you're less anxious. Is anything worrying you right now?

It's not about being unrealistic; it's good to have ambition, but it's also good to keep all your options open. My advice: finish this degree first, then think about things.

[Imperfect.Star]

I hate to sound negative but I think you've already reached the conclusion that realistically you would be likely to struggle massively with the social/clinical side of medicine. Certain degrees however are essentially the same as the pre-clinical medicine course - for example biomedical sciences which has been mentioned, or physiology degrees etc. You could also specifically study forensic science - I don't know if that could result in you finding something slightly different within the field of forensics? Are there postgraduate degree courses in pathology which interest you?

Have you considered talking to a pathologist about career paths? Or associated careers? I could try to find someone for you to talk to if that would help? You can be a coroner without medical training I believe - they are a legal rather than medical role.

I understand how it can be really hard to let go of a dream but there may be brilliant options out there which you haven't become aware of yet.

[Steel Maiden]

Thanks.

Asperger's does get worse during stress.

I will keep my options open. If you could find someone for me to talk to that would be good.

I admit now that I'd struggle with any job involving excessive human interaction.

Someone told me a while ago that I'm basically unemployable.

[talaiporia]

Focus on reducing your anxiety.

I don't think you're unemployable; you're so smart. There are plenty of fields where people can work. One of my uni lecturers for Mathematics was (very severly) Aspergic - and he was a lecturer!

[Steel Maiden]

That helps.

Once my exams are over I will calm down.

According to my most recent Asperger's diagnosis report I am "severely affected".

I communicate fine online but in real life I often struggle to follow a conversation and interaction is a huge challenge.

Every job seems to require people skills, of which I have almost none.

[Steel Maiden]

That's true. I'll stop worrying for now and focus on the present.

[beautiful_seclusion]

I had to reply to your question on neuroscience as I'm getting a neuroscience PhD right now. You can do all sorts of things with it. And it doesn't really require that much interaction in grad school, other than with your professors/classmates. Which I imagine they'd accommodate with you having autism. You can go on to be a professor, which involves both research and teaching, so that might not be as good for you. But you can also do full time research for the government or a company. I want to do the latter and make medical devices relating to the brain. So you'd probably need to improve social skills somewhat, but I think a lot of scientists have less social skills than average. And it's not quite as important as in other careers. You could also look at biomedical engineering, depending if you want to do the more technology side of things or not. I'm basically heading towards the biomedical engineering side of neuroscience, and I am currently in a lab that does both neuroscience and cardiac stuff in relation to medical devices. It's pretty cool, and there's so many careers you can get with it.

But anyway, there's a lot of options out there, and I would take one day at a time in working on doing things you currently can't do. And don't close any options off. I know I have improved tremendously on my social skills, even though I have a long way to go. You never know where you will be 5 years from now. I don't really understand what type of medicine you're wanting to go into, but there's plenty of medical research out there. I know I'm always wondering whether I should've been a neuro-surgeon instead, but with research, you don't have to interact with patients nearly as much and you can still interact with the medical side of things. For example, some biomedical researchers might help design new surgery techniques, another thing I may pursue in the future in relation to neuroscience. The thing is, you can always go get a degree in something biomedical, neuroscience, etc., and then decide what you want to do afterwards. You don't have to have it all figured out right now, and those degrees will definitely have options that don't require as much socializing if you still feel at that time point that you couldn't handle patients. But that really could change; I know there are many people with autism who have managed to hold jobs like that. Make it so you get a degree where you could go either direction so that you don't have to have it all figured out now.

[Steel Maiden]

Thank you both.

I should really try to focus on the present and not the far future.

Although I am making some (slow) progress on social skills: when I moved in here I never talked to anyone. Now I can talk to my housemates, and if there is an intellectual / interesting conversation going on between people I know, I can join in. (Intellectual discussion does not happen with my housemates unfortunately)

Recently I've been practising the art of eye contact. It's hard but I'm making some progress.

I think neuroscience sounds great from what you've said, and the brain is my favourite organ anyway.

I would like to do research, but is it competitive?

[Wonderland.]

Well done on making progress.

Can you think of any more step you can make to reach towards your goal?

Research sounds like a good step.