Date posted: 13h

Ocd is messing with my future plans

So.. i’m 19. Doing like semi well in life. My parents have my back so in the end i’m fine but damn i quit uni after just a year which was about a year ago and started nursing school which i lowkey also feel like quitting.. the thing is I’ve basically wanted to be a doctor ALL my life. I’m not super smart and i have adhd so my grades have never been amazing but my mom is a nurse and many of her coworkers have told me i would make a great doctor. It’s genuinely been a dream (option 1 was always to become an actor but that’s even less realistic lmao) and now with doing well in nursing school (all a’s but it’s a lot “easier” where i life than it is in the US) it’s never been as realistic for me to actually make it into med school. To get to my current struggle, it started with me wondering if i actually have what it takes to be a doctor. Just a quick reddit search and i fell into this spiral. Can i do med school? Am i too mentally ill? What if the job just ends up making me unhappy. Which specialty would i even go into? All that lead to me being STRESSED. I rarely talk to my parents when i struggle and i cried in my Mamas arms two days in a row. Like.. i’m 19 at some point you gotta know what you want no? And the biggest problem i have now is that suddenly i feel indifferent about being a doctor? I used to think id do well in med school bc it’s something i really want and am passionate about but now it suddenly feels like i dont care at all and i just wonder, is that ocd? Will it go away? It’s been like this for like a month idk

mjr-rust

Date posted: 12h

I just want to say that it's never too late. I'm 19 as well but seeing from my parents who've confined themselves to jobs they hate and hearing other older people being able to switch jobs they love, I think that you should always have the opportunity to do something new. It doesn't matter how far in you've gone with your education or experience. But that isn't to say I also don't struggle with the same fears. Whenever we think about the future, there will always be that uncertainty since we can't predict it. And of course that's what OCD loves to latch onto. The only thing you can do is make decisions informed by what you know in the present; what kind of person you are, what your life situation is, etc. Sometimes we make mistakes but again, it's impossible to fully account for the future outcomes of your actions. Maybe talk yourself through the questions you have, write down pros and cons. Obviously a therapist would be a big help if you don't have one already/are able to get one, but a career counselor may be able to help as well. I know my school offers career counseling for free; it might be worth it to check yours as well. And about the passion fading, I feel the same sometimes!! I think what's helped is seeing how my major translates to the real world. I can feel really stuck doing papers and exams and everything else my professors dump on me, but when I see the research they do or projects they've done, I feel that same spark that led me to choose my major in the first place. I know my friends and relatives going into nursing have done a lot of job shadowing and doing basic jobs at related facilities. I'm not sure how that looks outside of the US but hopefully there's some similar opportunities for you!

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