Psychiatry Personal Statement

Journey throughout the years bring opportunities, challenges and privileges that define us what we are, strengthens us as persons and above all motivates us to achieve further. As a child, I always wanted to be a soldier so that I face challenges every day and can really understand the sacred nature of this unlimited journey in the path of life. However, over the years I have learnt that helping others in their journey of life by the avenue of improving their health and guiding their paths brings the ultimate happiness that is priceless. For me this happiness begins with Psychiatry as it is not only rewarding to heal mental suffering, but also quite challenging to deal with the social stigma and ostracism that many of the psychiatric patients

Not only did I discuss the field with my professors or residents, but also I did full six months of Psychiatry training after my residency in a tertiary care facility in Eastern India. During all of these encounters I was shocked by the diversity of patient population having mental illness. I always thought if I could be of some help to these patients. My passion for Psychiatry furthered when I was shattered by a nightmare. One of my own uncles was brought to the Emergency dead. I could not help myself from breaking down, yesterday I met him alive, asking me how I was doing my residency training and today he is speechless. I reconciled myself and asked the attending police officer, what had happened? Nothing I had expected what he told me, he saw my uncle jumping in front of the running train, when he ran to the spot he only heard my uncle’s last words, “I want to die”. With pensive mood, I called up my aunt who told me about my uncle’s recent depression due to losing his job. Only thing I wished for that day was if I could have read my uncle’s mind. It is often believed that lessons learned throughout a journey make a journey

Sometimes the field of Psychiatry can be really stressful due to the sense of defeat in terms of patient’s suicide which as a physician is very difficult to accept. Still, accepting the fact that doctors are not saviors, but healers in the journey of life and being aware that they sometimes cannot make the difference they desire for, keeps me modest and makes me ready for such a prospect. I always wanted to implement research expertise in clinical decision making. To fulfill my dreams, I actively participated in basic biomedical research at the University of California, Davis for the last three years (2011-2014). In the lab of Dr. Raychaudhuri, I was involved in translational research projects with novel Vitamin-D analogs in psoriatic disease. I also worked with different neuropeptides in an attempt to establish the crosstalk between the nervous and immune system. These works got accepted in renowned journals and also critically acclaimed in international