Working in mental health is not a good way to get rich. Efforts to make a lot of money through psychiatry tend to take practitioners into ethically dubious territory. In every other respect, however, a career in mental health can be incredibly rewarding. Working as a psychiatrist can offer an extraordinarily rich experience and an unrivalled window into some of the most hidden aspects of human existence. The work can be intellectually demanding, stressful and frustrating, but it is never, ever, boring.

Two things become increasingly evident as you become more experienced. Firstly, it becomes obvious that the way that you deal with patients is at least as important as what you do by way of technical intervention. The second is that over time you encounter many people who overcome devastating mental illnesses with their dignity and self-respect intact; people who may still need the assistance of professionals from time to time, but who have learned to manage their mental illness, and in doing so, have recovered. To be of assistance in this process is a humbling experience.

Psychiatry: far from perfect …

One of the things that makes psychiatry so interesting is that it is full of ambiguities. Working as a psychiatrist routinely presents you with dilemmas that defy simple or formulaic resolution. Dealing with such situations demands creativity and, in the absence of a right answer, you are bound to get things wrong sometimes.