What Do You Think of Psychiatry?

When I was in the fourth year in the colledge, my uncle asked me about which speciality in medecine I like. When I answered : PSYCHIATRY, my uncle's face turned into yellow and he took a long time of silence as if something dangerous or wrong has happened. Then he told me that no one will visit me to my clinic if I will be a psychiatrsit. That was not strange especially if you know how people in Iraq look to this speciality.

I remember one of the best doctors whome I was working under his supervision, I liked him very much, and respect his point of view . When he knew about my decision to be a resident doctor in psychiatry he was surprised and told me : but Sami listen, what you gonna do for crazy people? they do not need you.... they got the street open to them to run in it....no one will come to your clinic!

A friend of mine who also chosed psychiatry as a career told me about the minute his father knew about his choice of studying psychiatry, his father told him: if you chose this branch of specialization, I will no more be your father!

And that obliged my friend to postpone his studies for one year so that he will not lose the love of his father, and fortunately during that year he succeeded to change his father's point of view. In Iraq it is considered very bad to make your parents discontent about you.

As you see from the above story, in Iraq , the picture of psychiatry is still not clear to peolple and many think that the psychiatrists themselves got some kind of mental illness.

My Interest In Psychiatry

My in terest in psychiatry backs to when I was in secondary school. I was enjoying reading whatever book I find. In those years, the 90s, Iraq was under embargo and poverty and ignorance was living with us, so it was very difficult to find a book that you want, instead you must find your way with the available books in the market. AL MUTANABBIE streat, named after the famous poet, was offering used old books. It was there where I found about many novels and books about diferrent sciences accedently. Many times I buy one book or two then found my self got no enough money to go back home, so I walk.....I was very thin!

Words like CRAZINESS, MADNESS, LUNACY, faced me recurently throught these books which I was reading, and I was very interrested to explore and elaborate on them... and it was when I was 16 years old when I first bought a mini book in arabic discussing psychiatry and I read it in just few hours , may be minutes!

I had interred the colledge of medecine in 1996 where I studied, among many sciences, the science that I like, PSYCHIATRY. When graduated worked for 2 years as a resident doctor in general medicine, then started my residency in psychiatry in 2004 and I hope to get my Ph.D. degree in psychiatry in a couple of years .

wellcome

Wellcome to my blog, it is about my interests which I think many share me: PSYCHIATRY comes first cause am a resident doctor in psychiatry hoping that I will be a specialist in 4 years; IRAQ HISTORY cause am iraqi and like history especially the summerian and babylonian era; and all the siences that are linked to both psychiatry and Iraq history and that will be a long list.....
well you gonna have nice time with my blog...