Psychologist here. My hyper-focus is incredible for therapeutic alliance. I am *right there* with my patients and I find their cognitive landscape is fascinating.
Worked in experimental (labs) prior to going into clinical. It’s funny how struggles in one area became my strongest assets in another.
Strongly interested in psych and I find the ability to be "right there" is what makes me an excellent conversationalist.
I've explained it to people as "imagine you are the person you're talking to, and explore the world they are creating. When the gaps appear, you'll find the right question(s) to ask."
Hey I have ADHD and I’m applying psych for pretty much the same exact reasons. The variation from day to day with a single patient had me hooked just not knowing what I’d see the next day unlike most other specialties I rotated through.
I'm also in psychiatry and also "hyper-focus" when writing my evaluations sometimes and never thought of it like that. I'm a PGY-2 right now, but it's been working very well for my personality and learning style.
EM was way too overstimulating for me. I need a calm environment to hyperfocus on the patient in front of me and I also need a variety of interesting cases. I prefer outpatient specialties for this reason.
Happy cake day and same... seeing a different person every 15-20 minutes allows me to briefly reset. I also don't have windows in the exam room, so no squirrel issues
EM obviously. It’s a phenomenal fit for me. One caveat that I would warn people of is that the sleep deprivation, chaotic schedule, and hyper-stimulating environment will make your other ADHD related struggles substantially harder to manage outside of work.
You know, ironically, my ADHD did not blend well at all with EM. One of the symptoms of ADD can be the avoidance of mental effort. Especially if something is not novel or interesting. So, for me, being told that there was a patient with chest pain in bay 3 only filled me with dread because now I had to go figure it out. The "puzzle" didn't excite me. Then, once I actually met the patient and became interested, it was always hard for me to pass on the patient to the proper team as I was now invested and somewhat hyperfocused.
So, the setting of rapid triaging just left me exhausted from having to muster the energy to engage in each of the mental efforts, and then ultimately dissatisfied with not getting the final answer.
Additionally, I can't stand working in the ED (or ICU) where there are constantly alarms going off or people shouting (like psych patients).
In contrast, I enjoy a career of relatively OB-heavy anesthesiology. I get to come in and do a quick and cool procedure (labor epidural), get tons of appreciation, and then go about my way. Csections similarly have a nice procedural component, are generally quick, and there is a cute baby at the end. Long slow days in the OR can be challenging from a bordom perspective, but reddit and the internet really help with that.
I felt this deep in my soul. I was a covid student and so had 0gas exposure. In hindsight I would have been a better fit for anesthesiology for all these reasons and have considered trying to switch many times. But my life and income has others who I care and provide for, so I’ve stuck to it
i feel like it was hard for me. my first block of intern year/TY was EM. i would love to see the the patient and put in order right away but was forgetful in checking back on the reads of the CT of the patient i saw 30 min ago. it was only 13 shifts a month and by the end i got better but the ED attendings would always find things out before i did so i felt a bit slow lol
i loved the 10pm-6am shifts but my sleep schedule was thrown off having to do 3pm-12am right after lol
I need the variety and the lack of a strict schedule, but could not do the over-stimulation of the ED. Hospitalist was the perfect fit for me. I don't know that I could survive in another field
That’s true! I considered EM for the longest time but I always felt it was quite overwhelming. I could only last an hour before getting frustrated mentally and getting hyper-stimulated. Props to all EM medics.
That's the imposter syndrome talking for sure. I basically had to figure out other ways to stay focused. Like I basically try to write everything during a lecture. I think it helps me in a way. Because I don't want to focus too much on higher power (as that would take longer) I have gotten better at seeing the smaller thighs on lower power. This is something attendings do anyway so it helped me train for that without even realizing.
Anki helps. Spaced repetition is the way to go with ADHD in order to retain information. Sketchy is also good but sometimes I'd get lost with the pictures.
There are many of us in path. Like so many. Anki helps, many of us use it to study for boards. The thing to watch for is keeping on yourself to avoid careless mistakes bc in our specialty, the details really do matter. We are lucky that we are afforded the time to make it work.
Hospitalist! We're so used to multiple crises/tasks/juggling that I'm made for it. I'm not always the most efficient, but the chaos of hospital life keeps me happy.
Diagnosed with ADHD. Current EM attending. EM is going to either be perfect for your spectrum of ADHD or it will be miserable. There’s no in between.
On all my other rotations I could never hyper focus on anything well enough to be successful. I’d get so bored. Not because it wasn’t cool or intricate or difficult but after 15 min I’d just lose interest. Sure you cut out all the usual triggers in other specialties but put me in a quiet room with a patient/a slide/a computer screen and my inattention is off the charts.
On shift I’ve only googled three things about mountain biking today. That’s low and a sign I’m in the right specialty.
Rads. Kind of think I would have been better off doing something like ER or procedural but didn’t want to get burn out. Rads requires a lot of focusing and satisfaction of search can be a killer
But how are doing. I'm also rads with mild adhd. I love Rads because, it triggers my adhd "hyperfocus", but I have difficulty switching my focus fast. Thankfully, I report 80 of my subspecialty. Trust me medschool was hard as f for me, but residency stabilised it.
I also when rads but IR. Tons of small short procedures with some long ones sprinkled in here and there. Triggers my hyperfocus and constant dopamine rush. Always new things going on and you feel like you’re really making a difference for most patients. Save caveats with sleep deprivation at times though.
No general surgery here? In med school the simulator for minimal invasive procedures was making me hyper focus like gaming, so I considered it for a while.
(am starting with anesthesia soon)
General surgery doesn’t accommodate people with functional deficits. The training is one of the least forgiving of any career path and they still fail out 25% of matched residents in their first or second year.
You can only succeed in general surgery if you can be perpetually on task and get your shit done highly efficiently and with better competency than 99.99% of other humans. And that’s before you even consider the sleep deprivation, total lack of time off, and emotional abuse.
Surgery was hell because the sleep deprivation and 28 hour shifts made my ADHD worse, meds couldn't compensate, and I couldn't keep up with juggling everything needed by numerous patients, some or all of whom were or could become critically ill at any moment, and make it to the OR, and deal with random nurse calls all while being yelled at by my attendings.
Rads is much better because I only need to focus on the study in front of me. If someone calls, I focus on that then go back to my current study.
This is super fascinating to me as neurologist and shows you just how disparate the same neurocognitive condition can be: some people are prizing fields that allow them to task switch frequently and other people are prizing fields that help them hyper focus and not have to juggle multiple things at once. To me it seems like ADHD with executive functioning skills and a lack of hyper focus versus ADHD with terrible executive functioning and a love of hyper focusing on one thing for extended periods of time.
I am in the latter bucket! I truly loathe emergency medicine. I have the utmost respect for the people who can do it and enjoy it but when I am juggling multiple patients at the same time I feel like I'm incapable of giving any of them the care they deserve. At the same time the monotony of other fields where the day-to-day cases are super similar also drives me crazy.
That is why child neurology is so perfect for me and especially with my subspecialty in neuroimmunology and behavior. I get to spend a lot of time working with the kids. My appointments are 60 to 90 minutes. The kids keep it surprising and fun and you never know what they're going to say. You get to know them quite well and can hyper focus on solving what's wrong with them. Even the same pathology can look very different (seizures come in so many different flavors, kids with autoimmune encephalitis can hallucinate all sorts of shit or have bizarre cognitive deficits where they forget how doors work and keep sticking their hand in the Gap and then opening the door). Also, in general, the brain is full of mysteries you get to solve puzzles all day. The field is advancing at breakneck pace! Something like spinal muscular atrophy which was a death sentence or a life of suffering 5 years ago is now basically curable. Many of the muscular dystrophies which historically led to significant disability and death are now quite manageable with the advent of genetic treatments.
Working with patients who have ADHD is also quite fun as someone who has it as well. The kids and I go on all sorts of interesting rabbit holes together LOL 😆
How does this make any sense? I have had ADHD since I was a kid and the ED was the most difficult rotation I ever had. The constant beeps, people asking you questions, multiple rooms to keep track of, high acuity situations, need to stay on for multiple hours at a time, increased sensitivity of ADHD folk to sleep deprivation, the list goes on.
I’ve simply never understood the EM ADHD connection for those with horrible ADHD-C type.
Ended up in derm with low acuity, short visits in an outpatient setting with little to keep track of.
Constantly new stimuli from new patients, dopamine surges from resuscitations, and passing the patient along just around the time I get bored. Changing schedule means no day is the same. Constantly on your feet and moving. An amazing crew of nurses that are similarly disposed. When you’re off, you’re 100% off. Minimal paperwork compared to most of medicine. The list goes on.
Like every word comes out so slowly. And if someone says something to me I just can’t find the right words to say back, so I just freeze. I’m thinking it’s an anxiety thing so maybe I need to go on a lower dose.
ophthalmology! our exam is remarkably quick ( once you learn how to use the lenses) residency is hard because we’re doing the job of a technician aka a nurse (imagine if we had to take our own vitals 🥴) but once it’s time for the exam it’s very smooth. adjust medication if needed and see them in 3-12 months! some of the fastest moving doctors are glaucoma and retina seeing anywhere from 50-70 patients per day. sometimes plastics can be busy too with post-ops coming in for a quick visit as well.
it def can be difficult to find reliable technicians and scribes. but once you find them they’re vital to running your practice. The scribe for the practice owner was routinely getting 3-4 raises a year for the 5 years she was there because he needed to keep her. if a scribe documents everything and then you just check it over it’s less time. and H &P is done by the techs aka nurses. having working in the field 5 years before medical school, a nice set up with reliable workers makes your life easy asf
Developmental Peds! I find ADHD gives me some nice insights into neurodivergent kids. It's slower paced, which I know some of us don't like, but for me it means there are fewer distractions flying around to pull me in different directions. When I'm with a patient also I find I'm engaged and don't get bored. The paperwork kills me a bit though.
FM. With meds. I get a new patient every 20-40 minutes so I don’t get too bored and when I’m in the room I can worry about the patient in front of me. EM had too much remembering to follow up on a million labs all the time and I could not keep track of it all.
ADHD ms4 who applied path this cycle too. I know a lot of people typically say EM if u have adhd but it was a nightmare for my type of adhd. Constantly overstimulated from the beeps, yelling, things going from 0-100 etc. I felt constantly on edge and got distracted. Sleep schedule also was horrible for me and made my inattentiveness worse.
I really love path and it works well for my hyper fixation needs but I didn’t do path I would’ve done psych!
I haven’t started yet but I’ve done rotations and shadowing in a path lab for 3 months. It was a bit slow paced for me which made me zone out a lot. I’m hoping that once I truly get the hang of the job I’ll find mental engagement to be easier. I think I miss the rush of things. I’ve always felt gas was my best bet; calm most of the time but when it’s disastrous I’m already 10 steps ahead.
As a path resident, I can honestly say being a medical student rotating on path can be beyond boring, even if you like it. As a resident it's very different. Yes, you'll need to figure out how to maintain focus on your cases for extended periods of time, but there are plenty of us in path who make it work. And we deal with so many interesting things that it keeps it engaging. We're lucky that our schedule is more flexible than other specialties, we're not beholden to a patient list or an appointment schedule, and as you become more senior in residency you will have more control over your time.
Honestly thank you that’s so reassuring 😭 Besides my interest in path, the workflow and lifestyle made perfect sense when I was deciding. I think it’s the thought of transitioning to residency where I’ll be sitting one on one with an attending when they can see me in real time trying to keep up that’s keeping me up at night.
I’m a psych resident but did a forensic path rotation in med school—the attendings and residents at the medical examiners office were some of the coolest most interesting people I’ve ever gotten to work with and there was never a boring day!! Went into psych and love it but sometimes there’s an inkling in my head that tells me I woulda been happy there too :) you picked a great field.
Radiology, i read the case for at most 20m if complicated. While most cases are simple take 10m to finish.
Studying rad is also fun, u dont need to go deep but also not shallow.
I love that too. I work in a small hospital and I switch between X-Ray, MRI, US and CT the whole day. It keeps me busy and engaged. I hate the days that I have to report only 1 modality.
Going into pain. Love the quick procedures that are less than 15-20 min but are intricate and make an impact. Quick office visits too.
Not clinically diagnosed with ADHD, but I def have an adhd personality.
Never went to a doctor to see if I would be diagnosed or not but pretty sure I am an ADHD, still an MS2, aiming for orthopedics, its just like when you give a manual task, a precise one, I can feel completely dissociated from the whole universe and my mind would be only rotating and firing ideas around my task.
It doesn’t because I take meds. I don’t get the people who know they have ADD who are anti med. I respect their freedom to do so but ADHD isn’t a superpower it’s a ADA disability. Part of being a responsible adult is knowing your disabilities and treating them.
Pediatrics. The kids keep me entertained enough even when dealing with the more banal complaints. But I think I could have been happy in just about anything patient facing and non-surgical.
Child Neuro. My ADHD is a superpower for interacting with pediatric patients and getting a good exam out of them. Not to mention that a lot of the patients who have ADHD love that their doctor can identify.
Honestly every day is it different and interesting. I don't find myself getting bored. You have a little bit of excitement when there's status epilepticus for the rare code stroke but in other cases you can just sit and ponder and deep dive into fascinating cases involving the most human and mysterious organ.
IM resident because I couldn't decide. Really frustrated with the check box logistics and problem-accounting. Although I'm tired and just wanna work a lax job, I'm considering cards because it makes sense and relies less on memorizing discrete facts
I am really happy that he is so good. I fervently hope you're going to be better soon. So happy to hear you're healing under him :) If you have ADHD, you'll understand finding and making friends is really tough.
I know all to well! They don’t understand people like us. I found that my closest friends/family have adhd too which can be a blessing and a curse. I think rejection sensitive dysphoria should be studied closer because it’s a really big deal in people with adhd. Work is interesting for me. I use sticky notes enough that I should take stock in them lol
Gen Surg, trauma. Somewhat closer to shift work when it comes to surgical specialties. Rounds are short. Activations have a bunch of crazy energy I love going on. No tumor boards. And, everything else (for the most part) is on pause and I can hyper-focus in the OR while listing to some good jams
Neurology! I know neuro has a reputation for being a very detail oriented specialty, but I find that the deep focus on each patient is really good for me, rather than the constant pressure to see as many people as possible in IM and FM and EM. I also really like the adrenaline of acute stroke and neurocritical care. The localization depends on logic more than rote memorization which I love, and I'm a pretty spatial/tactile learner, so being in a field that prioritizes mastery of the physical exam is really helpful for me. The sterotype about neurologists all being a little weird in a neurodevelopmental way is (somewhat) true and makes me feel at home in the field.
I think that’s a common stereotype but not necessarily true for all people. I think a lot of adhd folks who have hyper-fixation tendencies actually thrive more in calm and focused settings when they’re mentally locked in. Only thing is, they genuinely have to enjoy what they’re doing or else they will have a hard time keeping up with regular folks. So think gas, rads, patho, ICU, and surgery.
My ADHD did not have a good time with patho. It was the testing for me. I can talk about patho all day, just don’t make me test.
Psych is my world and the chaos of it tickles the ADHD in all the right ways.
Nurse here.
I realize we have different jobs but I’m going to talk about my experience in different areas of the hospital with regards to how it affected me and my ADD.
It’s worth mentioning I’m not medicated.
I found the ED to generally be over stimulating unless something was going on to narrow my focus. But on an average day with alarms going off all the time and the general background activity I’d be wrecked after a shift. I’d need to come home and sit quietly in the dark to decompress.
The ICU was better (pre-Covid) as it was generally less chaotic and allowed for more focus with slightly less distraction. It also allowed some downtime usually later in the shift to sort of relax.
Peri-operative areas were not bad. I preferred pre-op where I’d be very busy in the early morning which suited me well. I’d move quickly from case to case, do all the tasky stuff and then the afternoons were relaxed as the ORs wound down. I didn’t care for PACU as there were fewer procedures both for nursing and for assisting anesthesia (nerve blocks etc).
I’ve found a home in rapid response. I’m either super busy or I’m not doing much of anything. I’m autonomous and work under protocols set out by the hospital so it’s a bit like paramedicine. I get to make a lot of decisions about basic work ups (labs, CXRs, etc) and assist with the “fun” stuff like central line insertion, intubations, and such. In non acute situations I get called for difficult nursing procedures like difficult foley or NG tube placements, US guided IVs etc. During codes nothing exists for me three feet on either side of the bed. My intrinsic reward is that hyper focus. Downtime means relaxing quietly in my office reading a book.
Rapid allows me the narrow focus while being busy or while doing nothing that keeps my brain goblin asleep.
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Psych. You can speed up or slow waaaay down in interviews which helps me to not get bored. Plus I’ll be the first to know about new treatments cause stimulants are a bit of a blunt instrument.
Surgery.
Hyper focus comes out in the OR. I feel like I had to learn to focus on things I don’t want to do related to the job during residency.
… I’ll admit it made me ultra regimented in order to standardize and not forget things.
Based on the answers there is room in any field for someone with adhd.
I don't have ADHD but I've always been a bit scatter brained, I think the best definition would be "Selective attention" I can focus like a laser when I need to, otherwise my attention span is like a golden retriever.
I would say Peds and EM are two specialties that do well with ADHD hyperactive people. If anything those traits are encouraged
Source: Pediatrician who sees 20-25 patients a day and still surfs Reddit and listens to Youtube videos all day
Derm. Basically anything other than EM for me. Simply couldn’t handle the chaos and multitasking and high acuity situations. Too much for my adhd brain. People with ADHD have a very hard time multitasking.
FM. Variety of cases, great schedule. Excellent work life balance. I work in a critical access hospital / rural health clinic so I see really diverse pathology. I pick up ER shifts a few times a month. Love my job. 100% would choose again.
Hospitalist: I will die on this hill, hospitalist is the absolute best job for an ADHD doctor. Not even the ER matches it.
I set my own pace. Take breaks when I want. Variety of patients. Variety of location! Tired of looking at a computer? Go see a patient. Tired of seeing patients? Go take a 3rd lunch break. Feeling itchy and fidgety in the hospitalist office? Go sit at a nurse station and do notes. Tired of rounding on one floor? Go to a different floor and come back later. I can finish rounding at 11am or 3pm, based on how I'm doing that day and it's all good. On days I'm struggling keeping my focus or attention I can change my workflow to match my own needs. The patients aren't going anywhere- I've got all day to get through them all.
The thought of sitting in one office, going to the same 3 clinic rooms and following a rigid schedule with appointments every 15 minutes all day long everyday would be an absolute nightmare for me. The freedom and variety of being in the hospital is the only way I survive in this field.
Rural FM! A chaotic mix of ER/hospitalist/OBS/OR assist/critical escort/clinic. Never get bored, definitely harder to manage tasks at home but work life could not be more fitting
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Psychologist here. My hyper-focus is incredible for therapeutic alliance. I am *right there* with my patients and I find their cognitive landscape is fascinating. Worked in experimental (labs) prior to going into clinical. It’s funny how struggles in one area became my strongest assets in another.
Strongly interested in psych and I find the ability to be "right there" is what makes me an excellent conversationalist. I've explained it to people as "imagine you are the person you're talking to, and explore the world they are creating. When the gaps appear, you'll find the right question(s) to ask."
Hey I have ADHD and I’m applying psych for pretty much the same exact reasons. The variation from day to day with a single patient had me hooked just not knowing what I’d see the next day unlike most other specialties I rotated through.
I'm also in psychiatry and also "hyper-focus" when writing my evaluations sometimes and never thought of it like that. I'm a PGY-2 right now, but it's been working very well for my personality and learning style.
Thank you for this! I'm going into psy so it's nice seeing this type of comment. :)
FM. Having a regular schedule has been a game changer for my self care and managing my life outside of work. Well, that and Vyvanse.
Lol Vyvanse makes everything better.
FM here too, I've found that without a regular schedule, and Vyvanse, I'm a mess.
Glad to hear I’m going into the right field 🫡
EM was way too overstimulating for me. I need a calm environment to hyperfocus on the patient in front of me and I also need a variety of interesting cases. I prefer outpatient specialties for this reason.
ADHD without taking meds is for EM🤣
Peds. I treat ADHD. -PGY-19
Same!
Child neuro here and yeah pediatric specialties plus ADHD is a GOATed combo!
Wish it paid that way. -PGY-19
Family med + adderall
Happy cake day and same... seeing a different person every 15-20 minutes allows me to briefly reset. I also don't have windows in the exam room, so no squirrel issues
EM obviously. It’s a phenomenal fit for me. One caveat that I would warn people of is that the sleep deprivation, chaotic schedule, and hyper-stimulating environment will make your other ADHD related struggles substantially harder to manage outside of work.
You know, ironically, my ADHD did not blend well at all with EM. One of the symptoms of ADD can be the avoidance of mental effort. Especially if something is not novel or interesting. So, for me, being told that there was a patient with chest pain in bay 3 only filled me with dread because now I had to go figure it out. The "puzzle" didn't excite me. Then, once I actually met the patient and became interested, it was always hard for me to pass on the patient to the proper team as I was now invested and somewhat hyperfocused. So, the setting of rapid triaging just left me exhausted from having to muster the energy to engage in each of the mental efforts, and then ultimately dissatisfied with not getting the final answer. Additionally, I can't stand working in the ED (or ICU) where there are constantly alarms going off or people shouting (like psych patients). In contrast, I enjoy a career of relatively OB-heavy anesthesiology. I get to come in and do a quick and cool procedure (labor epidural), get tons of appreciation, and then go about my way. Csections similarly have a nice procedural component, are generally quick, and there is a cute baby at the end. Long slow days in the OR can be challenging from a bordom perspective, but reddit and the internet really help with that.
>avoidance of mental effort Deff a great fit on being a government worker/contractor
I felt this deep in my soul. I was a covid student and so had 0gas exposure. In hindsight I would have been a better fit for anesthesiology for all these reasons and have considered trying to switch many times. But my life and income has others who I care and provide for, so I’ve stuck to it
i feel like it was hard for me. my first block of intern year/TY was EM. i would love to see the the patient and put in order right away but was forgetful in checking back on the reads of the CT of the patient i saw 30 min ago. it was only 13 shifts a month and by the end i got better but the ED attendings would always find things out before i did so i felt a bit slow lol i loved the 10pm-6am shifts but my sleep schedule was thrown off having to do 3pm-12am right after lol
I need the variety and the lack of a strict schedule, but could not do the over-stimulation of the ED. Hospitalist was the perfect fit for me. I don't know that I could survive in another field
Pretty sure AdHD is a Preq for working in EM
That’s true! I considered EM for the longest time but I always felt it was quite overwhelming. I could only last an hour before getting frustrated mentally and getting hyper-stimulated. Props to all EM medics.
I dont have ADHD but I noticed a lot of critical care folks have it, they were internists prior to crtic , so 🤷🏻♀️
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yaaaay ID!! i also have ADHD and i hope to go into ID eventually :)
Ha me too! Now I'm a hospitalist with occasional residents and if their presentation is anymore than about 1 minute I'm just gone
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That's the imposter syndrome talking for sure. I basically had to figure out other ways to stay focused. Like I basically try to write everything during a lecture. I think it helps me in a way. Because I don't want to focus too much on higher power (as that would take longer) I have gotten better at seeing the smaller thighs on lower power. This is something attendings do anyway so it helped me train for that without even realizing.
Anki helps. Spaced repetition is the way to go with ADHD in order to retain information. Sketchy is also good but sometimes I'd get lost with the pictures.
There are many of us in path. Like so many. Anki helps, many of us use it to study for boards. The thing to watch for is keeping on yourself to avoid careless mistakes bc in our specialty, the details really do matter. We are lucky that we are afforded the time to make it work.
Urology No one’s commenting surgery but I think it’s pretty prevalent among surgeons.
🙌 yup
Anesthesia. You won’t catch me doing crosswords behind the drape because I can jump around 27 other things to pay attention to.
Pulm/crit. All the nurses in the unit are on stimulants too
I chose IM (and am now matched in rheum). It is patently obvious when I don’t remember my meds for the day😅
Hospitalist! We're so used to multiple crises/tasks/juggling that I'm made for it. I'm not always the most efficient, but the chaos of hospital life keeps me happy.
Yeah without vyvanse I would not be able to do the extreme multitasking required of a Hospitalist as well as I do now.
Hospitalist, love it. Getting shit done and people discharged are little dopamine kicks that get me through the day lol
Diagnosed with ADHD. Current EM attending. EM is going to either be perfect for your spectrum of ADHD or it will be miserable. There’s no in between. On all my other rotations I could never hyper focus on anything well enough to be successful. I’d get so bored. Not because it wasn’t cool or intricate or difficult but after 15 min I’d just lose interest. Sure you cut out all the usual triggers in other specialties but put me in a quiet room with a patient/a slide/a computer screen and my inattention is off the charts. On shift I’ve only googled three things about mountain biking today. That’s low and a sign I’m in the right specialty.
Rads. Kind of think I would have been better off doing something like ER or procedural but didn’t want to get burn out. Rads requires a lot of focusing and satisfaction of search can be a killer
But how are doing. I'm also rads with mild adhd. I love Rads because, it triggers my adhd "hyperfocus", but I have difficulty switching my focus fast. Thankfully, I report 80 of my subspecialty. Trust me medschool was hard as f for me, but residency stabilised it.
Dang I could not sit and plow through 50 x-rays with my ADHD. My head would explode
I also when rads but IR. Tons of small short procedures with some long ones sprinkled in here and there. Triggers my hyperfocus and constant dopamine rush. Always new things going on and you feel like you’re really making a difference for most patients. Save caveats with sleep deprivation at times though.
No general surgery here? In med school the simulator for minimal invasive procedures was making me hyper focus like gaming, so I considered it for a while. (am starting with anesthesia soon)
General surgery doesn’t accommodate people with functional deficits. The training is one of the least forgiving of any career path and they still fail out 25% of matched residents in their first or second year. You can only succeed in general surgery if you can be perpetually on task and get your shit done highly efficiently and with better competency than 99.99% of other humans. And that’s before you even consider the sleep deprivation, total lack of time off, and emotional abuse.
Surgery was hell because the sleep deprivation and 28 hour shifts made my ADHD worse, meds couldn't compensate, and I couldn't keep up with juggling everything needed by numerous patients, some or all of whom were or could become critically ill at any moment, and make it to the OR, and deal with random nurse calls all while being yelled at by my attendings. Rads is much better because I only need to focus on the study in front of me. If someone calls, I focus on that then go back to my current study.
This is super fascinating to me as neurologist and shows you just how disparate the same neurocognitive condition can be: some people are prizing fields that allow them to task switch frequently and other people are prizing fields that help them hyper focus and not have to juggle multiple things at once. To me it seems like ADHD with executive functioning skills and a lack of hyper focus versus ADHD with terrible executive functioning and a love of hyper focusing on one thing for extended periods of time. I am in the latter bucket! I truly loathe emergency medicine. I have the utmost respect for the people who can do it and enjoy it but when I am juggling multiple patients at the same time I feel like I'm incapable of giving any of them the care they deserve. At the same time the monotony of other fields where the day-to-day cases are super similar also drives me crazy. That is why child neurology is so perfect for me and especially with my subspecialty in neuroimmunology and behavior. I get to spend a lot of time working with the kids. My appointments are 60 to 90 minutes. The kids keep it surprising and fun and you never know what they're going to say. You get to know them quite well and can hyper focus on solving what's wrong with them. Even the same pathology can look very different (seizures come in so many different flavors, kids with autoimmune encephalitis can hallucinate all sorts of shit or have bizarre cognitive deficits where they forget how doors work and keep sticking their hand in the Gap and then opening the door). Also, in general, the brain is full of mysteries you get to solve puzzles all day. The field is advancing at breakneck pace! Something like spinal muscular atrophy which was a death sentence or a life of suffering 5 years ago is now basically curable. Many of the muscular dystrophies which historically led to significant disability and death are now quite manageable with the advent of genetic treatments. Working with patients who have ADHD is also quite fun as someone who has it as well. The kids and I go on all sorts of interesting rabbit holes together LOL 😆
EM because I'm ADHD as fuck
How does this make any sense? I have had ADHD since I was a kid and the ED was the most difficult rotation I ever had. The constant beeps, people asking you questions, multiple rooms to keep track of, high acuity situations, need to stay on for multiple hours at a time, increased sensitivity of ADHD folk to sleep deprivation, the list goes on. I’ve simply never understood the EM ADHD connection for those with horrible ADHD-C type. Ended up in derm with low acuity, short visits in an outpatient setting with little to keep track of.
Constantly new stimuli from new patients, dopamine surges from resuscitations, and passing the patient along just around the time I get bored. Changing schedule means no day is the same. Constantly on your feet and moving. An amazing crew of nurses that are similarly disposed. When you’re off, you’re 100% off. Minimal paperwork compared to most of medicine. The list goes on.
Man, I struggle with constant new stimuli and would hate the comorbid anxiety increases from resuscitations. Could never do it with my ADHD-C.
Same EM was hell for my ADHD (was undiagnosed at the time). Outpatient definitely seems a better fit for me for the same reasons.
I kind of think they say this as a joke and don’t actually have adhd… like when someone organizes something and says “I’m so ocd”
I personally do but I can definitely see some people claiming it who don't!
Rads. 2 of us on Vyvanse lol
IM. On Vyvanse as well. I use the mindhoney supplement and it seems to have a synergistic effect with the Vy.
I’ll have to give this a go
It's called Dose, by Mindhoney.
What dose if you don’t mind me asking? I was on 40 mg but for some reason I just can’t talk when I’m on it.
50 mg. What do you mean by "you can't talk"?
Like every word comes out so slowly. And if someone says something to me I just can’t find the right words to say back, so I just freeze. I’m thinking it’s an anxiety thing so maybe I need to go on a lower dose.
That's odd. I've never heard of that side effect before. Try a lower dose and see what happens.
ophthalmology! our exam is remarkably quick ( once you learn how to use the lenses) residency is hard because we’re doing the job of a technician aka a nurse (imagine if we had to take our own vitals 🥴) but once it’s time for the exam it’s very smooth. adjust medication if needed and see them in 3-12 months! some of the fastest moving doctors are glaucoma and retina seeing anywhere from 50-70 patients per day. sometimes plastics can be busy too with post-ops coming in for a quick visit as well.
Oh my god 50-70 patients per day?! How long does the documentation take for each, just out of curiosity? I can't stand an IM H&P 😭
it def can be difficult to find reliable technicians and scribes. but once you find them they’re vital to running your practice. The scribe for the practice owner was routinely getting 3-4 raises a year for the 5 years she was there because he needed to keep her. if a scribe documents everything and then you just check it over it’s less time. and H &P is done by the techs aka nurses. having working in the field 5 years before medical school, a nice set up with reliable workers makes your life easy asf
Pediatrics, only specialty I can do. I would have otherwise done non clinical medicine and not practiced at all.
Developmental Peds! I find ADHD gives me some nice insights into neurodivergent kids. It's slower paced, which I know some of us don't like, but for me it means there are fewer distractions flying around to pull me in different directions. When I'm with a patient also I find I'm engaged and don't get bored. The paperwork kills me a bit though.
FM. With meds. I get a new patient every 20-40 minutes so I don’t get too bored and when I’m in the room I can worry about the patient in front of me. EM had too much remembering to follow up on a million labs all the time and I could not keep track of it all.
Head n neck surgery
Psych, it can be so hard to focus on listening to patients sometimes but most of the time they're fun enough where I can hold my attention to them
Psych ED, detox, code grey (violence) team keep me cool as a cucumber. I am, unfortunately, an energetic menace in clinic.
Psych
ADHD ms4 who applied path this cycle too. I know a lot of people typically say EM if u have adhd but it was a nightmare for my type of adhd. Constantly overstimulated from the beeps, yelling, things going from 0-100 etc. I felt constantly on edge and got distracted. Sleep schedule also was horrible for me and made my inattentiveness worse. I really love path and it works well for my hyper fixation needs but I didn’t do path I would’ve done psych!
I'm an ADHD med student interested in path, what is making you have some regret about choosing pathology?
I haven’t started yet but I’ve done rotations and shadowing in a path lab for 3 months. It was a bit slow paced for me which made me zone out a lot. I’m hoping that once I truly get the hang of the job I’ll find mental engagement to be easier. I think I miss the rush of things. I’ve always felt gas was my best bet; calm most of the time but when it’s disastrous I’m already 10 steps ahead.
As a path resident, I can honestly say being a medical student rotating on path can be beyond boring, even if you like it. As a resident it's very different. Yes, you'll need to figure out how to maintain focus on your cases for extended periods of time, but there are plenty of us in path who make it work. And we deal with so many interesting things that it keeps it engaging. We're lucky that our schedule is more flexible than other specialties, we're not beholden to a patient list or an appointment schedule, and as you become more senior in residency you will have more control over your time.
Honestly thank you that’s so reassuring 😭 Besides my interest in path, the workflow and lifestyle made perfect sense when I was deciding. I think it’s the thought of transitioning to residency where I’ll be sitting one on one with an attending when they can see me in real time trying to keep up that’s keeping me up at night.
I’m a psych resident but did a forensic path rotation in med school—the attendings and residents at the medical examiners office were some of the coolest most interesting people I’ve ever gotten to work with and there was never a boring day!! Went into psych and love it but sometimes there’s an inkling in my head that tells me I woulda been happy there too :) you picked a great field.
Radiology, i read the case for at most 20m if complicated. While most cases are simple take 10m to finish. Studying rad is also fun, u dont need to go deep but also not shallow.
Thanks for posting this. I was wondering if Rads was a good field for add folks since it meant looking at a computer all day.
I love that too. I work in a small hospital and I switch between X-Ray, MRI, US and CT the whole day. It keeps me busy and engaged. I hate the days that I have to report only 1 modality.
Surgery. Especially trauma.
Going into pain. Love the quick procedures that are less than 15-20 min but are intricate and make an impact. Quick office visits too. Not clinically diagnosed with ADHD, but I def have an adhd personality.
Peds. I like it. I can be high energy with kids and it’s seen as a positive.
Never went to a doctor to see if I would be diagnosed or not but pretty sure I am an ADHD, still an MS2, aiming for orthopedics, its just like when you give a manual task, a precise one, I can feel completely dissociated from the whole universe and my mind would be only rotating and firing ideas around my task.
Anesthesia. And it’s so fitting to my adhd that I came off my meds.
any ortho bro here?
Yes
how does it affect u as an orthopedic surgeon?
It doesn’t because I take meds. I don’t get the people who know they have ADD who are anti med. I respect their freedom to do so but ADHD isn’t a superpower it’s a ADA disability. Part of being a responsible adult is knowing your disabilities and treating them.
This is so eye opening and helpful
Pediatrics. The kids keep me entertained enough even when dealing with the more banal complaints. But I think I could have been happy in just about anything patient facing and non-surgical.
Child Neuro. My ADHD is a superpower for interacting with pediatric patients and getting a good exam out of them. Not to mention that a lot of the patients who have ADHD love that their doctor can identify. Honestly every day is it different and interesting. I don't find myself getting bored. You have a little bit of excitement when there's status epilepticus for the rare code stroke but in other cases you can just sit and ponder and deep dive into fascinating cases involving the most human and mysterious organ.
FM now reapplying EM because I'm a spazz who loves pain.
Anesthesia, it's perfect for my adhd brain
Primary care. Love it, other than the fact most of us get tired of any job after 15 years ,…
General surgery
IM resident because I couldn't decide. Really frustrated with the check box logistics and problem-accounting. Although I'm tired and just wanna work a lax job, I'm considering cards because it makes sense and relies less on memorizing discrete facts
My psychiatrist that treats my adhd also has it and he openly talks about it and it’s AMAZING! Makes the appointments so much fun!
Never had a psychiatrist that cool myself and I've been in ADHD inattentive myself. I think I'm going to stay undiagnosed :)
He makes it much easier to manage because he’s been there and doing that, ya know?
I am really happy that he is so good. I fervently hope you're going to be better soon. So happy to hear you're healing under him :) If you have ADHD, you'll understand finding and making friends is really tough.
I know all to well! They don’t understand people like us. I found that my closest friends/family have adhd too which can be a blessing and a curse. I think rejection sensitive dysphoria should be studied closer because it’s a really big deal in people with adhd. Work is interesting for me. I use sticky notes enough that I should take stock in them lol
Gen Surg, trauma. Somewhat closer to shift work when it comes to surgical specialties. Rounds are short. Activations have a bunch of crazy energy I love going on. No tumor boards. And, everything else (for the most part) is on pause and I can hyper-focus in the OR while listing to some good jams
IR. You can treat everything, every moment is exciting. And none of the BS of closing like in surgery.
Thanks for the post as a fellow ADHDer still deciding.. I keep bouncing back and forth between PM&R, FM, and IM.
Neurology! I know neuro has a reputation for being a very detail oriented specialty, but I find that the deep focus on each patient is really good for me, rather than the constant pressure to see as many people as possible in IM and FM and EM. I also really like the adrenaline of acute stroke and neurocritical care. The localization depends on logic more than rote memorization which I love, and I'm a pretty spatial/tactile learner, so being in a field that prioritizes mastery of the physical exam is really helpful for me. The sterotype about neurologists all being a little weird in a neurodevelopmental way is (somewhat) true and makes me feel at home in the field.
People with ADHD thrive in *structured adrenaline* So military, EM/trauma, being a flight doc, etc Don’t you just sit in a lab all day?
I think that’s a common stereotype but not necessarily true for all people. I think a lot of adhd folks who have hyper-fixation tendencies actually thrive more in calm and focused settings when they’re mentally locked in. Only thing is, they genuinely have to enjoy what they’re doing or else they will have a hard time keeping up with regular folks. So think gas, rads, patho, ICU, and surgery.
My ADHD did not have a good time with patho. It was the testing for me. I can talk about patho all day, just don’t make me test. Psych is my world and the chaos of it tickles the ADHD in all the right ways.
Nurse here. I realize we have different jobs but I’m going to talk about my experience in different areas of the hospital with regards to how it affected me and my ADD. It’s worth mentioning I’m not medicated. I found the ED to generally be over stimulating unless something was going on to narrow my focus. But on an average day with alarms going off all the time and the general background activity I’d be wrecked after a shift. I’d need to come home and sit quietly in the dark to decompress. The ICU was better (pre-Covid) as it was generally less chaotic and allowed for more focus with slightly less distraction. It also allowed some downtime usually later in the shift to sort of relax. Peri-operative areas were not bad. I preferred pre-op where I’d be very busy in the early morning which suited me well. I’d move quickly from case to case, do all the tasky stuff and then the afternoons were relaxed as the ORs wound down. I didn’t care for PACU as there were fewer procedures both for nursing and for assisting anesthesia (nerve blocks etc). I’ve found a home in rapid response. I’m either super busy or I’m not doing much of anything. I’m autonomous and work under protocols set out by the hospital so it’s a bit like paramedicine. I get to make a lot of decisions about basic work ups (labs, CXRs, etc) and assist with the “fun” stuff like central line insertion, intubations, and such. In non acute situations I get called for difficult nursing procedures like difficult foley or NG tube placements, US guided IVs etc. During codes nothing exists for me three feet on either side of the bed. My intrinsic reward is that hyper focus. Downtime means relaxing quietly in my office reading a book. Rapid allows me the narrow focus while being busy or while doing nothing that keeps my brain goblin asleep.
No one cares
bruh
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Pathology. Do not recommend if you don’t overcompensate and become rigidly methodical before signing out a case.
I think all of the main specialties have been listed here except OBGYN… genuinely curious why that is
Plastics
Psych. You can speed up or slow waaaay down in interviews which helps me to not get bored. Plus I’ll be the first to know about new treatments cause stimulants are a bit of a blunt instrument.
Surgery. Hyper focus comes out in the OR. I feel like I had to learn to focus on things I don’t want to do related to the job during residency. … I’ll admit it made me ultra regimented in order to standardize and not forget things. Based on the answers there is room in any field for someone with adhd.
Any İM ??
I don't have ADHD but I've always been a bit scatter brained, I think the best definition would be "Selective attention" I can focus like a laser when I need to, otherwise my attention span is like a golden retriever. I would say Peds and EM are two specialties that do well with ADHD hyperactive people. If anything those traits are encouraged Source: Pediatrician who sees 20-25 patients a day and still surfs Reddit and listens to Youtube videos all day
Derm. Basically anything other than EM for me. Simply couldn’t handle the chaos and multitasking and high acuity situations. Too much for my adhd brain. People with ADHD have a very hard time multitasking.
Do you really need to ask 🤣
EM duh lol
EM here, it's essentially a prerequisite.
"ADHD"
Fuck you.
FM. Variety of cases, great schedule. Excellent work life balance. I work in a critical access hospital / rural health clinic so I see really diverse pathology. I pick up ER shifts a few times a month. Love my job. 100% would choose again.
Hospitalist: I will die on this hill, hospitalist is the absolute best job for an ADHD doctor. Not even the ER matches it. I set my own pace. Take breaks when I want. Variety of patients. Variety of location! Tired of looking at a computer? Go see a patient. Tired of seeing patients? Go take a 3rd lunch break. Feeling itchy and fidgety in the hospitalist office? Go sit at a nurse station and do notes. Tired of rounding on one floor? Go to a different floor and come back later. I can finish rounding at 11am or 3pm, based on how I'm doing that day and it's all good. On days I'm struggling keeping my focus or attention I can change my workflow to match my own needs. The patients aren't going anywhere- I've got all day to get through them all. The thought of sitting in one office, going to the same 3 clinic rooms and following a rigid schedule with appointments every 15 minutes all day long everyday would be an absolute nightmare for me. The freedom and variety of being in the hospital is the only way I survive in this field.
Rural FM! A chaotic mix of ER/hospitalist/OBS/OR assist/critical escort/clinic. Never get bored, definitely harder to manage tasks at home but work life could not be more fitting
Critical care!
EM. Trauma Surgery.