Bipolar II and Surgery Speciality

[jakesd]

Hi,

im a medical student in my final year, and ive been trying to decide on my future career path.

i was diagnosed as mild bipolar II long time back. I believe its quite mild as i never had any suicidal tendencies, nor any 'overt' manic (only hypomania) episodes, nor hospitalizations in my lifetime.

I had thought i'd follow the path of emergency medicine, as i really like the immense variety of patient encounters, and intellectual stimulation it promises which i hope would help my writing career as well.

But i have begun to seriously consider the surgical field, because i might in fact have a chance at neurosurgery given my CV; and have been fantasizing about it for some time now.
Do you think its a huge risk for a bipolar II patient to try and aim for such a demanding speciality?

Does anybody know great surgeons who have a history of mental disease?

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks

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[lowbudget]

So... obviously SDN is not the place to obtain medical advice, but since you're asking for career advice, I'm going to throw in my unqualified 2 cents.

For the record, everyone has their own personal struggles that they have to deal with. Some people can deal with catastrophies with the simplest grace; while others go Defcon 5 over nothing.

So the question you'll have to answer for yourself (and may be consult with your own doctor) is how functional are you? How well do you think you'll adapt to new periods of stress? And, how well do you feel you will function in different states?

It's exciting to fantasize and bask about the glories of emergency medicine and (neuro)surgery when you're in your up-phase; but can you handle the demands of EM, surgery, neurosurg in your down-phase?

And, these career choices are team-oriented specialties and your success is contingent upon how well you work with others... So you have to ask yourself, how well do you work with other people? In your up-phase? In your down-phase?

 

[Winged Scapula]

Since you've already asked this in the Surgery forum (and gotten answers), I'll close this one.