Social Isolation in Medical School

Profession: Medical Student

Submitted On: October 26th, 2020

Trigger Warnings: depression

"I’m an MS2 who is struggling to hold on. I already struggled to make friends pre-COVID, and found it difficult to connect to many of my classmates. As a result, going into the pandemic, there weren’t many people that I felt comfortable turning to in times of stress.

COVID has amplified the baseline anxiety and isolation that comes with medical school by 1000. I feel so alone and there are days when I struggle to wake up in the morning. I opted in to spend more days at school, vs being entirely online, but it still doesn’t feel the same. No one tells you how important the little things (saying hi to people you know, shooting the breeze with casual friends during a break, grabbing lunch with friends) are until they’re gone. Now, everyone races out of the building as soon as the required class/workshop/etc is over.

I recently talked to a friend about my feelings of isolation and sadness, and they said they couldn’t relate because they had a roommate and family close by. This was probably the most un-empathetic comment you could say to someone who lives alone and is far from family. It sounds terrible, but it made me wonder whether this person has the compassion and emotional intelligence to be a caring doctor. 

I’m homesick, lonely, sad, and lost. I’m not sure how much longer I can last as this pandemic goes on...."

We appreciate the opportunity to share stories like these with our community, with the goal of destigmatizing the struggles faced within the medical field.