Can I become a psychiatrist if I've been to rehab?

[sexy_mess]

Hello,
Let me just start by saying this is my first time posting, so I apologize if anything I say isn't right, & if so, please correct me.

Today I changed my major to psychology as it's really the only thing I'm truly passionate about.

I'm concerned that I won't be able to become certified or find work as a psychiatrist because I was hospitalized for mental illness & addiction in the past.

It was not court ordered or anything. I have a clean record (other than work in lieu of arrest in high school, which I believe was to keep my record clean), but the first time I attempted college, I was addicted to heroin and benzos (the benzos were prescribed to me). When I started college four hours away from home, I was unable to find opiates & began withdrawal. One night I called my mom to tell her that I was having suicidal thoughts but did not want to act on them. (I had made one attempt in the past in which I didn't say a word to anyone. Very grateful I was unsuccessful.) The next morning, she was there to withdrawal me from school & take me "home." But instead of going home, I went to a mental hospital. Once I had accepted that that's where I needed to be (on the ride there) I willingly admitted myself as an adult (18). The first night I was there I was in the unit for regular mental illness for my anxiety & depression. After questioning & me revealing that I was a heavy drug user, I was moved to dual diagnosis. I spent 11 days detoxing from the benzos (the opiates were already out of my system by this time). After my stay in detox, I was moved to a recovery center. I spent a total of 42 days hospitalized. I left early on account of the facility mixing up my suboxone (genuinely a mix up on their behalf, I had no idea I was on double what it should've been), I ran out & had worse withdrawals than the first time. The facility did not allow me to sleep through the illness & I began to feel trapped. Because my mom's worst nightmare is being held captive & drugged by an asylum, she understood & sent my dad to come take me home. I did not pack up my belongings because I knew the facility would put up a fight in letting me leave (even though, like I said, I was there voluntarily!) Anyway, I was eventually able to leave. Since then I have returned to college & though I haven't been doing perfectly, I have not gone back to those behaviors. I'm now at a point where I'm almost finished with my AA, which up until today was going to transfer into business to help my dad with his company, but he finally told me that he thinks I need to follow my own passion. It would mean everything to me to be able to help those who have suffered the way I have, as well as continue to learn about my own sick mind. Even before this became my field of study, I have been researching different aspects of psychology every night for the past year or so. I'm currently taking general psych as an elective & it's the first college course I've ever had over 100% average grade in!

So please, if anyone has any knowledge about whether this past situation will prevent me from pursuing my future dreams, please let me know. I would hate to go through 12 years of school only to find that I can't pursue this career because of what I did as a teenager.

Thanks for reading & especially would appreciate if you could offer any insight.

 

[alasdairm]

site technical help -> education & careers

alasdair

 

[Sadie]

I couldn't say,officially speaking but personally speaking I'd prefer someone with personal experience in these issues.

 

[LandsUnknown]

If they knew, hard to say. Some psychiatrists certainly have dealt with mental health issues and/or drug addiction themselves, and I don't think it's all too unusual. I would guess that statistically more people in the mental health profession (and psychiatry) have probably struggled with mental health issues and/or drug addiction themselves than people in most other fields. Also, you do not have to let anyone know about your medical history, including your 42 day stay in rehab. You have no criminal record. Therefore, nothing is publicly available. If someone during your career asks for your medical records, you can choose what information you provide. There is no centralized database of medical records, and it is highly illegal for anyone to attempt to access your medical records without your consent (in the United States).

 

[Jabberwocky]

the thing is, if you have a clean record really nobody can find out about your issues from the past. I suggest to keep them to yourself just to maintain a friendly work environment as maybe some future colleagues would not be much open minded about your issues from the past. but if you don't have a mental issue that would stop you from working in this or any other domain, 100% you would be fine persuing this career path.

 

[LandsUnknown]

I agree with morpheuspapaverus, there's simply no way that they would know unless you told them.

 

[sexy_mess]

thank you for the responses everyone! I feel much more confident to move forward now. the way things are these days, I never know just how much personal information is available to others. but it absolutely makes sense that these things would be confidential, as they should be. unless of course there were a presenting threat, but that is not the case here.

 

[Ds]

dude don't think just because you went to rehab, or have a drug problem that your carrier path is messed up, it isn't. You can use that experience in the type of field you want to go into.
I have a doctor friend that's in addictionology, and he does really well. maybe you could lean towards that way and help other addicts and alcoholics achieve sobriety!

 

[SamanthaB]

Hi,

The overriding thing here is that you may be ineligible to get a medical license if you ever committed a felony and were convicted and not just because you have been in rehab previously. Each State has their own medical licensing laws. It is my understanding that some states let felons have medical licenses, some do not and still others look at what the felony was and bar licensure depending on what kind of crime the person committed and was convicted of. However, medical schools do background checks on applicants, and if you are a convicted felon, they probably would not admit you as a student in the first place. Therefore, licensure would be a moot issue.

 

[Jabberwocky]

The only real issues with professional development like this is ones criminal record. If that is clean and/or addressed if it isn’t, most places won’t use it to keep someone for a job they are otherwise qualified for.

In terms of using this kind of history as part of a personal-professional brand, some places give extra value to candidates who have overcome this kind of adversity, while others will use it to keep someone from getting an appropriate position. So it varies by organization to organization, but as long as there isn’t anything felonious in your record and you don’t disclose your history when it isn’t to your advantage, shouldn’t hold you back professionally speaking.

The bigger issue here is maintaining a healthy lifestyle while one finishes their academic work and professional training. Especially if there aren’t any felonies to come up on a background check (and especially if one isn’t on any kind of probation), it’s mostly about keeping healthy while going through the ringer of school and internship/residency.

As someone else mentioned, it’s generally a good idea to let colleagues and coworkers get to know you before opening up about personal stories of adversity. That’s a good way to avoid getting labeled too narrowly. But generally speaking bringing stuff up like this is dangerous in most professional environments. Even wanting to work in harm reduction, being too open about this kind of stuff can be dangerous in terms of finding employment.