u/CellistRecent3559

Every time I’ve had a depressive episode I’ve been very quick to get on meds to nip it in the bud. I hate the way I feel nonfunctional when I’m depressed and it really gets in the way of life as I am a medical student. Plus, I’ve always been scared of letting myself slip to the suicidal places I went before I was on medication, so I try to get on top of these things as a way of coping with the fear of what I might do to myself when I’m not thinking straight. This time though… I’m thinking of trying to ride it out without medication management. The side effects from my relapse medications are pretty terrible and incompatible with my current life (drowsiness and medical student do not go together). The only thing that’s stopping me is I’ve never proven to myself it’s possible to ride it out. For context, my summer break is approaching in 5 weeks, so I’m thinking if I can make it to then, situational factors might be such that the episode could resolve on its own. Anyone have success stories?

edit: typo

edit: more context - obviously i feel crappy rn bc I am depressed but I don’t feel as bad as usual and of course I would go back on adjunctive meds ASAP if I felt suicidal

Looking for advice. I’ve been feeling extremely burnt out recently. Almost done with first year, only 6 weeks to go until finals week and then summer! Woo hoo! However the push to the end feels impossible and I am having a tough time coping. I know it’s burn out, but to me it seems like a very specific type of burnout that I can’t find much advice on dealing with. See, I have enough free time to do hobbies, keep up with my exercise regimen, and hang out with friends. But I am so, so tired of drinking from the firehose that is all the info we have to learn. My brain feels like it is full and I can’t put any more information in there. I feel tense all the time and no amount of sitting and staring at the ceiling or doing relaxing hobbies seems to help rest my brain because all I can think about is how much information I have to digest before the next exam (we have exams every other Monday). I don’t even care about doing super well, I just want to pass. But every exam I take Im never confident I passed. Luckily I haven’t failed one yet but I am really skirting by the skin of my teeth - like, one or two exam questions away from failing. And it’s not like I don’t have time to study, I have more than enough time to study, but I don’t have enough mental energy. I’m so tired. How do you guys cope?

edit; to add additional context, my school is pass fail for pre clinicals and even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t care about getting super high exam scores bc I want to match family medicine.