How To Become a Psychiatrist

You will need to complete four years of residency like most doctors and then choose a specialization which is the norm. Then you will work as a resident and take your medical licensing examination at this time. It is beneficial to continue your training to receive board certification in a specialty.

It is very important here to point out that you should choose a specialty in which you are interested and are passionate about, as what you do is going to deeply affect your patient’s life. Your career will be full of challenges and interesting cases as each person is different and will have a variety of problems.

Some psychiatrists do get bogged down sometimes because of their involvement in their patients lives, they take such deep interest that occasionally the doctors themselves feel sad and depressed. So it is very important to be professional yet passionate about your patients and their concerns, but not to entangle your lives with theirs.

Psychiatry is a noble profession as psychiatrist help out people with mental health problems, they cure conditions which are usually are not physical and are hard to see. While a physical condition affects your body, a mental condition affects your thinking, your perception, your attitude and more, so it is extremely important to have doctors who can cure mental problems. A big bonus for psychiatrists is that they are paid well after the initial three to four years of starting. So if this profession sounds right to you, by all means go get it.

psychiatry jobs, become a psychiatrist, psychiatry jobsDepression is one of the most common psychological disorders. How to become a depression psychiatrist involves developing a set of specific attributes. The key to becoming a depression psychiatrist involves correctly diagnosing it, identifying and understanding the factors that led to the depressive episode and treating depressive symptoms and the underlying personality structure.

A person suffering from depression has a combination of following signs and symptoms.

1) Having a low, sad and negative feeling most of the time.

2) Feeling tired, exhausted and fatigued even when doing little work or resting.

3) Loss of interest and enjoyment in everything.

4) Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness.

5) Withdrawing and distancing from friends, colleagues and family.

6) Disturbance in sleep, sleeping too little or too much.

7) Disturbance in appetite, eating too little or too much.

8) Suicidal thoughts or behaviors.

9) Decreased attention, concentration and memory.

10) The above symptoms can vary in intensity and duration from one person to another.

A depressive episode can be categorized as recurrent, mild, moderate or severe depending upon the intensity, frequency and duration of symptoms. It is important to talk in detail with the client and family members to assess the severity of depression or suicidal risk. In some cases where such information is not easily available, self-report and projective psychological tests may be used to assess the person’s condition.

How to become a depression psychiatrist includes the skill to be familiar with various psychological and medical causes that may predispose towards, precipitate and perpetuate depression.

Depression is caused by following factors:

1) Being misunderstood and not supported sufficiently by close ones.

2) Having a low self-esteem.

3) Suppressed anger which makes the person feel guilty.