I have a degree in Biomedical Engineering and Psychology from Northwestern University. I finished medical school and completed my M.D. at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. I am currently in my residency for surgery- hopefully to be specializing in neurosurgery.
I want to answer questions on medical type questions. I'm a big fan of Dr. Drew Pinsky on Love Line and would like to help younger people from the mistakes I see a lot of young people do when they come into my ER.
Gender: Male
Location: I'm from all over.
Occupation: Physician- Surgeon
Age: 29
AIM: ArunKSherma
Member Since: January 23, 2005
Answers: 188
Last Update: January 2, 2009
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Melanie4981
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I'm 16 years old and will be entering my senior year in high school come August. I've been really thinking about what I want to do with my life. I know you're a doctor, but I think it said you have a degree in psychology. Is a psychologist and therapist the same thing? If not, what are the differences? I know a therapist is the type of person who prescribed medicine, that's not what I want to do. When I was younger I had an eating disorder and I remember having to see a "shrink" on a biweekly basis. Because it was so long ago for me I don't quite remember everything about her actual job, so I don't remember if she was a child psychiatrist or psychologist, but that's what I want to be. I want to be the type of person who works with children who have been through a lot and to help them. Kind of like a social worker, but not that far into it.
A scenerio of what I have in mind would be this...
Say a little girl was kidnapped and raped, she's about 7 years old when it happens. She's returned 2 months later and is, as anyone would be, extrememly shaken up about it. Her parents take her to see someone... to help her talk and get through it...
What would that be?
Also, if I were to be a psychiatrist and have the abililty to prescribe medicine, what kind of schooling (college-wise) would I have to go through?
My high school offered psychology and sociology classes this past year (Summer vacation just started) and I wasn't interested at the time. Now that I'm interested my school is no longer offering the classes - it was a one time thing I guess. If we still had the classes I'd just wait until next year. I was referred to your column so I'm hoping maybe you can help clear my head on some of this.
If you have any links to websites or anything that would be great too.
Thanks in advance. (link)
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I'm glad that you wrote and are showing interest in such a wonderful field. A therapist is just a general term for someone who helps people directly through their problems- they can be either a psychologist, psychiatrist, and even a social worker. The type of therapy that you want to give to a person has to do with what school of therapy you believe in- which I'm not going to go into, but for example there are the Freudian school of psychology (dreams, everything relating to childhood) v. behavioral (Skinner's school where a person's actions need to be altered to change their psychological self).
All of these do require advanced degrees in college. I wouldn't worry about not taking that class this summer. This is the summer before senior year and you really should be having a lot more fun. There will be plenty of time in college to take those courses- almost everyone takes an introduction to psychology class (most popular class on every university).
Most psychotherapies are actually multifold and can often include psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counselors etc. So, it is only a matter of time before you figure out where you want to fall into that team.
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in psychology. He/She is able to prescribe medications and follow a patient and have the ability to treat as many problems as they want- usually with medicine, and if needed have the ability to "forcefully" admit someone to the hospital that they believe may be in danger. Since a psychiatrist is a medical doctor, you would have to go on the medical school path. This would include:
1. An undergraduate degree in the area of study that you are interested in- it doesn't have to be one of the sciences, you can major in english, psychology, math, but you need ot major in something.
2. You will have to take pre-medical courses in college which will include: 1 year of General Chemistry, 1 year of Organic Chemistry, 1 year of Physics, Calculus I + II, 1 Year of Biology, English. A lot of other people take other classes that can be useful such as Anatomy and Physiology, Biochemistry, Statistics, Microbiology etc. However the courses that I mentioned before are the bare minimum.
3. During your junior year in college or the summer before your junior year of college you will have to take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT). This is a very long exam approx 8 hours, where they test you on reading, writing, physical sciences (chemistry and physics) and Life sceinces (biology, organic chemistry). This test is offered twice a year- April and August. The latest you can take it is the summer before your senior year if you want admission for the following fall.
4. During your college time- you need to be involved in volunteer work, and also research work. First year of college, go to the college guidance office and tell them that you want to get involved in research.
5. Once you are in medical school - You complete 4 years of that.
6. Then depending on what type of residency you get- this is another 3-5 years of post-graduate training. During medical school and residency you will be taking several exams- the United States Medical Licensing Exam Step I, IICK, IICS, III and then your speciality board exams.
It is a long time but after this you would be done and be able to do psychiatry- pescribe medications etc.
A psychologist/ therapist has almost a long course but to be competitive and have a very good job you will have to get a graduate degree, and would want to major in psychology as an undergraduate. You will take the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) to get into grad school and then you would go from there.
However, I am going through that path and even though it is long I don't regret it at all, and I know that if you're passionate (as you seem to be)- you will be very good in whatever you do.
Check out this webpage for students from the American Psychological Association for more answers: http://www.apa.org/students/
Best of Luck,
AK
P.S. I sucked at chemistry too. Don't worry too much about it, just do well enough in chem and hten the rest of your classes will bring it up.
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Rating: 5
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Thanks SO much!! I really appreciate it. So I guess if I suck at chemistry it may be hard. I'm good at physical science and physics, but not so much at chem. Ohh, and I really LOVE the link, it's helping a lot!!
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