u/Dependent_Grocery572

4th year med student here struggling w mental health and motivation. currently on an extremely relaxed radiology rotation where the expectations for me are slim to none. my EM app has been submitted for sometime now and i’ve gotten 4 interviews so far. all in all i have nothing really
to complain about. i’m barely in the hospital for 1-2 hours a week and i have so much free time i can do honestly anything I want.
yet- im filled with so much anxiety and im in a horrible funk. i don’t want to get out of bed ever, i sleep 13-14 hours a day, cancel plans w friends bc they don’t seem fun anymore and am barely keeping up w normal life chores. it’s so weird how i would’ve paid for time like this a few weeks ago and now i feel my mental health getting worse and worse. i keep feeling like it makes no sense- i should
be enjoying this time before residency and yet ive found my days filled w endless amounts of dread.

posting this to see if any other fourth years feel this way. i hope the rest of the year doesn’t pan out the same

absolutely heartbroken today. studied extremely hard had two comsaes well over 550 and felt as prepared as i could’ve been. ended up with a 43x. i don’t know if i should or even can apply EM. i have 3 more sub-i’s lined up. i know it’s a bad- even horrible score. i don’t know what to do. i don’t see myself in anything but EM.

is it even possible to match EM anymore? i didn’t take step 2. pls be kind in the comments.

Just took my IM comat. IDK what to say. I did all of Uworld and comquest. Ran out of time on that exam. Never run out of time ever on any exam in med school. Last 30 questions just felt like i was rushing to put anything that made some remote sense. I’m truly at a loss for words.This is my last COMAT before dedicated for Level 2. Praying I pass.

i’m a current third year med student- loved my EM rotation. always thought i wanted to do IM but I did my EM rotation and genuinely felt excitement going to into the hospital for every shift. I loved the idea of working your shift and being able to come home and not have to be on call- it was the perfect balance for me.

i’ve currently applied to about 4 auditions in local and big city areas in the midwest. my parents and friends have always been one of my biggest support systems. last night, i came home to have dinner w my parents and they suggested we watch “the pitt” to see what my future life could look like. (i should’ve told them prior that this show grossly exaggerates the amount of traumas and complex cases you see day to day in the ER). as we finished the first episode my parents looked at me and said “are you sure you want to do this- this is scary, can you handle this?”

i’d never had that doubt before. i was so focused on my love for the rotation, the people i met, being able to do procedures, getting to see a variety of different medical problems in just an 8 hour shift. now, im sitting here in doubt thinking about if i can really handle it. it doesn’t help that when i was talking to another medical school friend she said “you’re dead set on EM??”

i’ve always been an “anxious” person. i hate tests, i overthink a lot of things- been on prozac for years etc. yes anxiety affects me in my day to day life and my friends and family know this about me. i know feeling some anxiety at work and in residency is absolutely normal. but does this mean I can’t handle Em? should I be rethinking this decision? suddenly the excitement i had has all turned to self doubt.