about psychology and medicine

<p>im really confused here. i want to become something like a therapist or psychiatrist, where you listen to patients complain and help them solve their problems. but my parents told me that if you take psychology, just plain psychology in college then i'll go into social work or counselling. they say i have to take medicine first. then what should i do? advice needed badly...thanks!</p>

<p>If you get a PhD in clinical psychology you can do counseling. It really requires a PhD though. A psychiatrist is medical school because they deal with medication. You would go to med school and then specialize in psychiatry. Either way you could be a psych major for undergrad.</p>

<p>I'm interested in psychiatry, but the med school part is very off-putting... I'm the squeamish kind, and honestly, I'd rather not go through anatomy courses or surgery/internal medicine rotations. If any psychiatrists are reading this--how do you deal?</p>

<p>can you go into med school if you take psychology as an undergraduate? or do you have to go through chemistry, math, physics and all that? ugh...i really don't like all those. i've been forced to study them all my life and really want to get out in college. in fact what i wanted to do was mass media but my parents kept insisting that i become a doctor, a pediatrician like them. yeah both my parents are in the medical field so there is a lot of pressure. so i compromised and said i'd study psychology. but now since i think i still have to go to med school maybe i WILL become a pediatrician.</p>

<p>You can major in any subject that interests you. If you like psychology, then major in psychology. If you like music, then take music. You will however, need to take certain "pre-med" courses (usually a minimum of one year).
General biology
Physics with lab
General chemistry (inorganic chemistry) with lab
Organic chemistry with lab
Calculus
English </p>

<p>Some medical schools might have additional requirements. Take a look at the admission requirements at medical schools that interest you.</p>

<p>If you really want to go into mass media, then you should go for that. The road to becoming a doctor is long and stressful. I'm sure that your parents ultimately want you to be happy.</p>

<p>eeee....don't like biology, don't like physics, don't like chemistry. calculus is ok but i'm not crazy about it. well my parents tend to think that being a doctor can make me happy. it's a stable job with a generous income. yeah, you know, parents, they love stability. i don't know!!! i'm so confused here. i would love to go into mass media but they say it's very hectic. you're either a bigshot anchorwoman or an insignificant reporter of an insignificant tabloid. and it's a very complicated world. there are a lot of stuff involved, not just hard work and knowledge. help!!!</p>

<p>I don't know, it's hard to say what you should do. Unless you truely love medicine, you will most likely hate the 8+years spent becoming a doctor (4 years undergrad, 4 med school, X years for residency), and do you really want to spend the rest of your life doing something you don't want? Is it the science aspect that you don't like, or everything overall (about medicine)? I know personally my parents wanted me to go into law or medicine (and I really do want to go into medicine for various reasons) because of the job stability and the good income, but ultimately they just wanted me to have a good life and be able to earn a comfortable living.</p>

<p>Forgive my ignorance, but what exactly is mass media? Is it sort of like journalism although with more of the reporting/boardcasting aspect (news broadcast)?</p>

<p>Have you started college/university yet? If not, go into university with an open mind and try out different things. You might find that you do like the sciences and are interested in medicine, or that mass media is your calling, or maybe something entirely different.</p>

<p>Good luck.</p>

<p>thanks CDN_dancer. yeah mass media is journalism, TV broadcasting, radio, advertising all rolled into one. you can go into any of these fields if you take mass media. i guess it's a pretty new major, considering it's really something that got started with the progress of technology.
i'm starting college this fall. i think i'll try out different courses in college first, like you said, and find my calling. but i'm someone who hate changing things you know. i tend to think that i change my course later on,i wouldn't have as good a foundation as the rest who took the course from the very beginning. oh i don't know. maybe i'm being paranoid.</p>

<p>I think I read somewhere that some universities allow you to try out different courses for the first week or so before committing to them. Maybe that's an option at the university you're attending. Also, a lot of people go in to their first year without declaring a major, and then decide on a major partway through their 1st year, or at the beginning of their 2nd year.</p>