• Replies 18 replies
  • Subscribers 25 subscribers
  • Views 3495 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related
Hints and tips
  • To quote someone's message, first select/highlight the relevant text, and then use the Quote button that appears
  • To "mention" someone, type @ followed by the start of the forum name, and choose from the list; that person will get a notification of being mentioned

Autism and medicine - is it worth pursuing diagnosis or will it be a barrier?

Panda

Hi guys! This is my first contribution the community, and a question has probably been asked before, but here goes...

In less than a month's time, I'll be submitting my ucas application to 4 universities, to study medicine. As a volunteer for a medical charity's youth programme, I've been given autism awareness training - when the trainer spoke about features of ASDs, how young people with autism might view the word differently from other people, I was shocked. I thought all of what she spoke about was normal, or if not normal then just one of my funny idiosyncracies. I went home, did some research and discovered that I meet many of the traits I read about and had the same difficulties. Now I'm debating whether a diagnosis is a good thing - I really don't like the idea of self - diagnosing, but I genuinely think I have it - confirmation I think would just be a trigger for looking at things differently and a way of explaining what has always been my "oddness".

Medicine is a career where empathy, teamwork, communication etc are essential, so the big question is will seeking diagnosis affect my chances? Admittedly nothing will happen until after applications have gone, but I'm still concerned that future employers may look at something like that, and, true to the stereotypes, doubt my competence and fitness to practice.

Any advice, comments or thoughts are welcome, and thank you all for your help.

Parents

  • Again, thank you. I didn't intend for "extreme" to refer to a degree of severity, rather than exceptional compared to the average, but I understand it as a screening device and nothing diagnostic.

    For what it's worth, I scored 10/80 for the EQ test, and you're probably right in saying that there has been no significant academic problems up to now. I do find, however, that I have a 'clinical mode' and a normal self which are completely separate, with the clinical mode being emotionally detached and following an action plan based on situation - dependant procedures  (mostly taken from the first aid manual and organised into a  sort of mental flow chart for dealing with most situations I can imagine myself in I've developed) or when delivering first aid training  to others, and the other, awkward personality in all other situations not related to medicine in some way, almost as if it's some bizarre obsession I've developed over the years.

Reply

  • Again, thank you. I didn't intend for "extreme" to refer to a degree of severity, rather than exceptional compared to the average, but I understand it as a screening device and nothing diagnostic.

    For what it's worth, I scored 10/80 for the EQ test, and you're probably right in saying that there has been no significant academic problems up to now. I do find, however, that I have a 'clinical mode' and a normal self which are completely separate, with the clinical mode being emotionally detached and following an action plan based on situation - dependant procedures  (mostly taken from the first aid manual and organised into a  sort of mental flow chart for dealing with most situations I can imagine myself in I've developed) or when delivering first aid training  to others, and the other, awkward personality in all other situations not related to medicine in some way, almost as if it's some bizarre obsession I've developed over the years.

Children
No Data