Any aspies in med school?

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Hi everyone!

I'm new here. I've been diagnosed with aspergers at the age of 14 and only found just found out about this site.

To the utter shock of my psychiatrist, I got accepted to med school. He was shocked not because he doesn't think I could succeed (I'm a very high-functioning aspie who has quite a few NT friends), but because he knows how brutally the MDs who interview candidates screen against aspies, as there is a general belief/prejudice in medicine that aspies make lousy docs. He said that although my aspergers isn't obvious to the average person (since I'm very high-functioning) it is pretty obvious to medical professionals. All of my interviewers had been medical professionals. I was among the 10% of applicants interviewed at 3 schools who got flat-out rejected (most get accepted or waitlisted past the interview stage). Feedback involved "concerns about interpersonal skills" - code for "we know you have AS and we don't want to deal with it."

Somehow, however, i got accepted at the 4th school, possibly because my interviewer was a little offbeat himself. Although I am ecstatic (because medicine is my obsession and I love the idea of helping people), I am worried about the discrimination I may face down the line - from my classmates, working in groups, connecting with my class, treading the line between appearing antisocial and coming on too strong, and of course, landing residency positions. If I barely got into med school, how would I ever get into residency, which is even more interview-based than med school? Any aspie docs or people who know aspie docs who could give me advice or tips on how to "survive" med school, thrive in medical practice, and hopefully prove all the anti-aspie stigma in medicine wrong? Anything would be much appreciated!

Note: I will be living with my aspie fiancé and his parents, because the medical school is in his hometown! So I already have "get a support network" taken care of!

I'm not sure but my mother is on the border of the spectrum, and I'm quite confident her obsessive nature is the main reason she's one of the top payed nurses(mgmt) in her city.

Anyways I can't mention anything about MD's, because from my perspective their vultures, the future is with well trained nurses(specialists)

You can do it, but it is hard. I was accepted into medical school but I left after the first year. Interpersonal skills with patients was what got me the most criticism.

Warning: the atmosphere of med school goes back to the gossipy cliquish atmosphere of high school because you are with the same students ALL THE TIME. There will be lots of non-academic stupid drama, be warned. For this reason DO NOT have a fellow student as a roommate. I advise living alone so you have somewhere to go to have space.

What area of medicine are you thinking of going into?
If I had stayed I would have been ok in pathology (but a bit bored) or research. Surgery is also a field where poor interpersonal skills is largely accepted.

The governmental bureaucracy imposed on medicine also turned me off. I got written down lots about my poor performance in interviewing (I have trouble with small talk openers, and open ended questions, and not being blunt), and for my skills with working with patients as I am blunt and you are supposed to be more "sensitive" but I never figured out what they mean by that.

If you have any learning problem or processing difficulty the schools are generally not very good about accommodating any of it besides a private testing area. I have a central auditory processing problem and it was like having my teeth pulled with out anesthetic to get permission to record all lectures.

The rate of expected learning and performance is ridiculous. It seems impossible but it is not. I did fine in all the academic classes, but you learn to survive on no sleep, lots of bad food, etc. Make sure you schedule time for physical activity at least once a week. I joined a city league soccer team made up of other med students. You will not have time for outside interests unless you plan on doing poorly. You will be given impossible amounts of information to learn and the performance expectation is perfection (mostly because lives rest in your hands). This makes the stress quadruple. My class was given a set of study notes from the class above us that had several bits of information already put into charts. I then copied those charts onto new charts (checking the accuracy) or put them on note cards. Consolidating, simplifying, and connecting information is key. The first year is primarily about normal health, anatomy, physiology, histology etc. What kidneys etc should be doing, yada yada for every part of the body. Plus normal variance. There is abnormal and diseases brought up but not as much. If a disease or abnormal is brought up KNOW IT!! The second year is all about diseases and abnormal.

You will not excel in every section. That is OK. Grades mean something different, they mean very little compared to board scores, if you get a bad grade but pass, that is ok. Some people get supper competitive about them and knowing more than others, ignore them. B's become good grades, C's are normal and ok, A's become super special. For this reason (and rightly so I think) some schools have gotten rid of grades and do pass/fail. This allows you to focus on knowing what you need to with a focus on taking care of patients, and not on getting through the test.

Have a parent visit you during a weekend that is not close to a test at least once a semester and cook and clean and do laundry for you. Go on the medical service trips to other countries during the breaks, they will give you experience like no other and you will hone your exam and history taking skills above classmates who do not go.

I do not mean to scare you but med school is hell, and the internship of residency is worse. After that it gets better. Stick with it if you like it, otherwise go into something related or research. It is fun and rewarding too. I wish you the best of luck.

I think about 30% of my cohort is on the spectrum. Only those who have seriously no insight into their difficulties are having issues.

Nebrets is right, med school is just like high school, even if the average age is 30. There are the popular kids, the nerdy kids, the gunners, the thespians, the sporty-types,... and the hopeless. The guys with (obvious) ASD tendencies are part of all these groups, but unfortunately, they over-represent in the 'hopeless' group, and once you've made a home for yourself there, it's terribly difficult to get out.

But those in the 'hopeless' group have a few things in common; they're unable to make convincing small-talk, they have less than three friends (and even then, many of their 'friends' don't reciprocate the title) and they're totally clueless regarding their (oh-so bleedingly obvious) AS. This does not sound like you at all. In fact, it sounds completely the opposite.

So, here are my 10 top tips for a med-student Aspie:
1. Live alone. Oh god, live alone.
2. Have considered other options and decided that med is definitely something you want to do. (this is not just for those on the spectrum. There will be moments when you want to quit so badly the only reason you stay is because there's nothing else you want to do in life. Seriously.)
3. Spend quite a significant amount of energy socializing with your peers. They will one day be your co-Doctors, your employers and your referring practitioners. Then refer to tip #1.
4. Think very carefully about who you tell your diagnosis to. If you can get by without mentioning it to anyone, this is for the best.
5. Avoid the 'hopeless' category at all costs.
6. Develop really good insight about yourself, including triggers and how to de-escalate any impending melt-down, shut-down, social faux pas, etc. This may involve monthly counselling sessions or journaling or whatever.
7. Exercise regularly - even if it's just a walk now and then.
8. Sleep deprivation is used as a method of torture. Just be aware of that after 3 months of kidding yourself that sleep doesn't really matter.
9. Maintain interests outside of medicine. Even if medicine is your special interest, it won't be for long. I promise.
10. Try to enjoy it; remind yourself often that you are not responsible for someone's life at the moment, and bask in that reality for a while. Because very soon you will be.

Sorry, I don't know about med school but don't forget every aspie is different and you are fortunate to have a diagnosis and therefore insight and support into your individual situation. The reason I am posting is that I had a very good career where interaction with the public and the medical profession was important. I had no idea about the Aspergers until later life, although I knew I was often seen as odd by my colleagues but not by the people I worked with because I was good at what I did.
Interestingly, I had no problem working with doctors but absolutely hate seeing them as a patient so it would be wonderful to see a doctor who had insight into people who present as 'different'.
So good luck to you and please don't drop out.