Medicine course and ADHD?

[mintchocolatebuttons]

Wondering if anyone has any experience of this?
My DD has inattentive ADHD (now medicated and it's been life changing).
She does well in exams if studies (this is still a struggle). It's likely she would get the results to study Medicine but I feel so stressed even thinking about the process of applying, UCAT, interviews , the workload and stress of the uni course. The job itself , no chill days in this job and exams for years.

I've tried time and time again to open her eyes to these things. She's adamant it's all she wants to do. She blankly refuses to discuss any other options.
I know my child and she cannot deal with stress very well. She's not organised, gets overwhelmed easily. She's so bright and just now a few days cramming means she gets As (only just ) in exams..
She's empathetic, good problem solver and can think on her feet quickly.

Has anyone experience of doing Medicine with ADHD or their child doing medicine with ADHD.

I totally get it. My DD has dyslexia. She is very bright. Gets top results with techniques she has taught herself that she knows works for her. She gets spelling and grammar waivers for state exams and had a reader for exams also. She really wanted to do medicine. I had the exact same concerns as you and expressed them. She decided to change her focus and applied instead for an allied health profession which she achieved with ease. I was delighted. Off she went to university in a different country ( her choice) during covid. It was a disaster. She ended up really depressed, discloses a serious eating disorder at the end of first year and spent 12 weeks as an inpatient with low mood and eating disorder. She decided to defer second year. She then told us the real reason she didn’t do the medicine entry was anxiety and self doubt which escalated ++ during university and in turn escalated the eating disorder. She decided to do the UKAT equivalent (we’re not un U.K.) this year. She was also diagnosed with adhd and has started meds for this as well as Prozac. She is doing really really well. Her mood is great. She’s now 20 so I think much more balanced in her outlook. I’ve no idea whether she will do well enough or not but I actually think she might now. I still worry about her managing when she gets in if she does. Her psychiatrist strongly recommended we support her though as she says with her busy mind her mental health is a lot better when she’s challenging herself. Having got through what she has she now has life routines similar to her learning routines which really work for her.
Very long answer but I guess the end result is I’d support and encourage her. If it works fantastic, if not you’ll still be there to support her.

@gemandjule you DD really has been through the mill. I'm so glad to hear things are much brighter now and she achieves her goals.

I most certainly have ADHD too (undiagnosed) and have some insight into the strategies you can apply to help you get through the hard times. My internal battle of daily iunderachievement is so horrible though. I'm great at my professional job (can only work part time). Blood sweat and tears to get there. Lots of failing and meltdowns along the way. When I think back it gives me shivers. I had a very structured uni course with limited independent study which in hindsight helped. I too lived away from my extremely supportive family which I loved but found looking after myself and managing uni work near impossible.
Somehow I got through. Even today I'm riddled with self doubt. My exams finished after uni but doing medicine you will be tested every day for the rest of your life.

I just don't think it's career for her even though I know she has lots of strengths that would make her a good doctor. I feel she's setting herself up for a mental breakdown. She can barely handle the stress of school exams. I also don't want her to look back and think I didn't allow her to follow her dreams. Her reality is skewed and she's very immature. She cannot she what the life involves.

One of DD's friends is a medical student with ADHD, and TBH he isn't doing very well. He took an extra year for A levels and is resitting his second year at university.

Sorry that this sounds so negative.

I have ADHD and am terrible at studying, although I do have a degree. Medicine is so much studying. Having said all that , I'd let her try. I regret not trying my career / uni choices when I was younger.

DH has ADHD and very successful now as a doctor & surgeon. His "special interest" area happens to be the field of medicine he's specialising in so I think that was the reason it worked out. Even in his free time all he does is read papers, magazines and research workshops/courses that are related to his specialism. Even so, he did struggle a bit with exams and ended up resitting one year but passed. The biggest hurdle was the university system rather than working as a doctor. It's difficult but not impossible.

@mintchocolatebuttons I think I would disagree that a medical degree would not suit your Dd. I say this as someone who also probably has undiagnosed inattentive ADHD & has a child who has studied medicine.

If you think your Dd is capable of doing what is required to get on the course, then that is probably the hardest part. My Dd has recently graduated from medicine & she would say that A Levels were harder in terms of the study required. Particularly if your Dd chooses a course with lots of early clinical contact as opposed to an Oxbridge course with lots of essay writing. Most of DD’s exams were multiple choice format.

Much of the actual work involves discreet, repetitive processes. I know this would suit me far better than open-ended project work for example. You do probably have to be able to multitask & if your Dd is prone to being forgetful she would have to find strategies to get around that.

Having said all that, I’m sure you know how competitive it is to get a place so anyone thinking of applying needs to be realistic & have a back-up plan.

I have adhd and I'm a teacher - I didn't know I had adhd until a few year ago though. I would have thought that medicine would be a really good career for adhd - the studying obviously will be difficult, but exams based rather than lots of essays is probably much better - I'm currently doing an MSc and getting scores in the 90s for my exams, my essays much less so.. A career where you are forced into being constantly stimulated is the thing - I found teacher training really tough, but now it's perfect because I'm forced to be in the moment all the time, no option to procrastinate for much of it and I'm very analytical which is important. I would have thought that medicine would similarly force you to be in the moment. I've tried 'easy' office jobs in the past and it was a disaster - you just can't do things you don't find interesting for long if you have adhd.

I'd also say that adhd makes you pretty stubbon, so I don't fancy your chances of changing her mind. If you did would she always be wondering what if.. My parents convinced me that sciences A levels were too difficult, and even now at 42 I wonder what would have happened if I'd been encouraged.

@wonderstuff

A career where you are forced into being constantly stimulated is the thing - I found teacher training really tough, but now it's perfect because I'm forced to be in the moment all the time, no option to procrastinate for much of it and I'm very analytical which is important. I would have thought that medicine would similarly force you to be in the moment. I've tried 'easy' office jobs in the past and it was a disaster - you just can't do things you don't find interesting for long if you have adhd.

This is exactly the point my DDs psychiatrist was making when I was worrying about the whole process, from getting in to getting through it and then working in the field, she will function a lot better in a very practical job that she’s really interested in

In the interest of full disclosure both myself and DH are doctors and another DS is a med student so we are all very aware of the whole process. I’m certain my DH has both ADHD and dyslexia and he would agree. He found exams difficult and had to work very hard but is really good at the job and loves it.

Also I agree, a course more reliant on self directed learning and essays will be a lot harder. I think one of the factors that made my DDs first year in University such a disaster was the remote learning. She found it really really hard to engage with it

I free with a lot of the above, if she really wants it let her have a go, with a good plan b and you to fall back on if necessary

@gemandjule has explained it well. I do well in hyper focused roles. Medicine will be that.

I have pretty severe ADHD and dyspraxia. I've applied for medicine myself as a career changer (waiting to hear if I have an offer). I got a job as a healthcare assistant in A&E to see if I could cope, and while there were difficulties mainly relating to co-ordination, in other ways it was the perfect environment for my ADHD brain! The sheer variety, the stimulation, the bustle. I have subsequently met several doctors with ADHD and while they found certain aspects of the training difficult, they developed coping strategies and they had strengths to compensate.