Aspie doctors

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Hi there! I'm new to this site, and I was wondering if there are any Aspie doctors and other health professionals out there. What do you do? How do you manage? Do you think you are worse, or better, at your job than NTs?

I know an Aspie Doctor. He is a leading reserch physician in his field (oncology).

hi i am an aspie vet, i do really well with animals....its the talking animals that bug me.
i "retired" into a government job i enjoy it.

I want to be pharmacy techican because the pharmacy will be hyper organised under me.

Perhaps an aspie doctors are quite rare thing. It would be hard to find an aspie doctor in our country. But I don't know exactly

I was wondering if an AS diagnosis would prevent a person from becoming a psychiatrist?

nope, as is considered a disability and you cannot stop someone from beimg a doctor idf they have as......im sure a lot of doctors outthere do have as...they just dont know it or wont admit it.

Well I can't speak for others. My aspie ness seriously hindered my schooling had many problems and sadly in pre-med they would make no concessions. I have a hard time in math and spelling and they would not budge one bit. I was at the time only dx with dyslexia but from what they said no exceptions would be made because of the serious nature of the work.

So I didn’t care and I tried my hardest for a year but between having to work twice as hard as so called normal people and working a full time job with an average of 2 hours of sleep a night I burned out.

I will never go through that again. I am glad that I did though because later in life I got the chance to work very closely with a number of Doctors and I would of been so unhappy in that life.

I am sure that an aspie can go through it and get their MD. It's very hard in general to get an MD the main thing is you have to have determination and hopefully parents that can help out financially.

Aspies could probably do quite well in a medical research environment or as a specialist in a particular area because of the knowledge they can build up in areas of interest which is basically what a specialist is! GPs would need much better bedside manner because of the sheer number of diverse people they see all day, which is usually not good for aspies. Specialists have set appointment times and they are basically there to solve the problem given by a patients symptoms which have already been extracted by the GP, so there is less of the dealing with patients or unexpected things. A specialist is basically there because of their specialist knowledge and since that is an area aspies excel in I think they could do quite well. I do have to say though that getting into and through med school would be quite a challenge, it's hard enough for NTs but for an aspie perhaps moreso.

NO other doctors yet: good to hear from a vet! Do you communicate OK with animal owners?
It is hard to get through medical school with Asp, not the academic work but knowing how to behave (this was not tested for in medical school entry). However, I feel I have learnt the skills I need, even thoguh it took longer and I find working harder than some. It will be good to be a specialsit, so be able to concentrate on a specific area.
To the person who suggested Asperger stopped them from doing well academically: I would suggest this is not the problem, bu that you have a coexisting language problem (Asperger by definition do not have language and intellectual impairment).

Not a doctor, but I did drop out of medical school. And after all these years, I have no regrets. A number of Aspies, especially those who excel academically, will become doctors. One of the things that Aspeis yearn for is social acceptance and becoming a doctor is viewed as a sure ticket to that goal. There is some validity in that view but the price of being a doctor can overwhelm the benefits of being one. As a group, doctors are perhaps some of the most unhappy people around. Sure people look up to you, but that does not mean that you will learn to like yourself.

Is medicine a suitable profession for Aspies? It depends on what you are doing. Areas that require minimal human contact like laboratory work, radiology and even surgery are ideal. Something that forces you to focus with a mindless intensity would work out well. But the hours are long and the work environment often difficult as big egos get in the way of everything. Most NT people do not deal well with sleep deprivation; no studies have been done for Aspies, but I think we would do even worse. Bedside manners can be learned. In fact, Aspies who have to learn all their social behaviour probably have the upper hand. Very few people are natural doctors. All that empathy (or pretense at it) is a learned trait.

I decided to study medicine when I was 15, because my obsessions were Morquio syndrome and dwarfism. I have studied medicine only for a month, because I couldn't cope with so many new people, new places, new subjects. This year I am going to enter the university again. I would like to do research on AS, because AS is a new thing in Lithuania, it wasn't known 10 years ago.

I'm thinking about being a psychologist when I grow up, but I'm not sure because I have more than one career idea or goal. My other ideas are majoring in music or (music) education. Anyways, I think it would be cool being a psychologist that specilized in Asperger's (or autistic spectrum disorders in general), which would be kind of interesting because I already have Asperger's and I think it would be really cool to help people like ourselves. I just don't know what to do yet, because I'm in love with music pretty much, and I don't want to give it up. I could still help people with Asperger's in that sense because if I become a music teacher I want to teach at one of those all Asperger's students schools, or maybe just open up a social skills club for Asperger's students. I still think it'll be cool either way, since I'd be able to involve music in my life with some psychology (I also think that psychological disorders are interesting, since some are quite puzzling). Anyways, being a psychologist is a definite career choice for me, but again I don't think this helps you exactly since you are looking for a doctor already. (lol)

i am a doctor specializing in anesthesiology. med-school and residency was very hard for me and it is now a distant blur. it wasn't until recently that it dawned on me that i had AS. anesthesiology is suitable i think for an aspie as most of your patients are asleep:) i recently started doing night shifts and this is really good for me. minimal politics, noone around, no meetings to attend to. people know i am different and a loner. i have turned down so many invitations for social events that people stopped asking. yet i'm lucky that i am very quite and reserved. people always think i'm real smart, but i know better... when in doubt, shut up! in fact my fear of confrontation has helped me to stay out of many fires. i fly very low under the radar and give it my all when interacting with others to be humble, respectful, and accomodating. people like me and like working with me because they claim i'm so easy to get along with. it can be hard though, and i frequently use alot of my free-time out of the hospital to unwind and relax. motorcycling helps me achieve this very well, as it requires continual focus on a fairly repetative tast with the added benefit of the scenery unfolding and flying by like a video game

don't get me wrong though, my training was hell on me with many, many humiliating and frightening experiences. i don't think i could repeat it again to be quite honest. lots of pain, uncertianty, and fear. fear in buckets! and agressive, social-climbing NT's really killed many parts of me... dead

but i'm happy to be where i'm at. i thank my luck stars every day that i was given the gumption to stick it out. interestingly, i was voted least likely to succeed in high school and finished 3rd from the bottom of my class. i am still a social cripple outside the hospital though, despite keeping it together at work. just goes to show what aspie focus and determination can pull off when we have to

sorry so long.

My father was a doctor, a generally practitioner, family doctor, house doctor, whatever you call it. He was very good I think.

He smoked too much and drank too much, couldn't cope with the pressure. He eventually had a breakdown, after 15 years of practice. Hospitalizied for 6 months in a mental hospital. He lost his right to practice medicin for 8 years, then got it back and began to study psychiatry. Then he died.

I know he was an aspie because I have all my traits and stims from him.

I think aspies can be good doctors as long as they make sure they choose a career without too much pressure. My father had way too much pressure on him.

yeah without my aspiness i couldnt have become a vet.....the animal bit was easy it was the people bit that also killed me.
i too worked in an emergency clinic after hours and only real emergencies......not the whoel family comign to get fluffies freaking nails clipped and expecting some banter with the vet, real emergencies only i liked this saved a lot of abimal sbecaus ei could focus ...yeah we are cursed an dgifted too.