Personal Woes and Advice 2

[Grif]

I'll put it bluntly and simply.

You are what matters. You, your physical health, your mental health. You. Your parents don't matter in this bit. You are the one doing the job, you have to decide if this job is going to destroy you (which it looks like it is).

Get out of there. If you are not happy in the job staying there longer will only escalate the situation.

If your parents try and persuade you, hard as it may be, stand your ground. Your mental health is the important bit here. Explain that the job is killing you. Explain that you can't cope with the hours, and are being made physically ill because of it.

Wasting 5 years of money on a degree you don't end up using is one thing. Wasting years on a job that make you physcially and mentally ill, then having to waste more years recovering is worse.

Castaras:

Fainting by mental triggers is definitely possible. One type of dysautonomia is known as neurocardiogenic syncope (and there's several types of that). Stress is a known trigger. Fainting at the sight of blood is also one. In fact, some of the triggers are pretty weird. I just think it's worth looking into is all!

Grif:

What Castaras says is The Truth (tm). That amount of work will destroy your health eventually. And hey. If it just takes a few years to recover, you'll be lucky. What if it's destroyed in a way that it can't recover from?

Something similar happened to me. I was working insane hours (though less extreme than yours). I was miserabe. My health cracked. I'm now disabled and it doesn't seem like it will get better. Sure, a job is valuable. Your health, however, is priceless. Unfortunately, most people don't realize this until they lose it. I know this. I was one of these people.

let's ease up a little on the scaring people, if possible.. there are tons of people who work gruelling hours for decades and it doesn't affect them.. others who cope with just the same he's facing, (his colleagues, to name an easy example) knowing that it's temporary, and others who can't cope and to whom a change of scenery or career is a lifesaver..it may very well be that he's one of the latter and there's nothing wrong with that. if his heart isn't in it, he shouldn't be a doctor.
I appreciate the sentiment that goes behind giving advice based on ones own experiences and/or misfortunes..but let's not assume that it's always going to end for the worse here..or that he'll physically crack
he's trying to sort his life out in a way that isn't too harmful for his environment (i.e. his parents and social/family pressure).. he's not about to crumble in a small heap of physically incapacitated mysery.. so let's not talk him into it

Much as I hate to admit it, dehro is right. To be fair, I don't think I'm going to collapse any time soon. But ugh, when you spend your work hours wondering "Why the hell am I doing this?" and going back home in a black mood... yeah.

But the point stands for me. I hate this job and much as I love my parents, guilt-tripping me into staying is really starting to munch on me. It's not like we really needed the paycheck either. (We're considered quite well-off.) The one thing that really grates me is how they think I won't be able to secure a job outside my degree.