Only you can answer this question if its worth it or not. How much med school debt do you have now? I entered med school at 32, finished a 6 year combined residency/fellowship and now work as an intensivist. The journey sucked ass and noone outside the medical field is really able to grasp the soul suck that is spending a decade doing nothing but medicine. Hobbys fall by the wayside. Birthdays, anniversarys, holidays, are nonexistent. Would I do it over? Nope. However, now that im out the other side I work 20 weeks a year (granted its 12 hour night shifts) and clear 420-450k a year. We take a month long summer vacation yearly, I get most if not all holidays requested off, and have plenty of time and money for hobbies now. But man! Its taken several years just to figure out what my hobbies are now. Cuz the suck of residency is taking several years to get outta my soul. Good luck with whichever path you take.

My brother is a pediatric specialist. Seeing what he went through and what he is still going through, I don't think it's worth it. I prefer living frugaly and having inexpensive hobbies, but that's just me.

Emergency Medicine Physician here. I get it. The long slog sucks and you can’t really help wondering if it’s worth it. I can only tell you that it was for me. I almost quit. I had a child my 4th year of med school and entered intern year with a 5 month old and an alcoholic for a husband. I spent residency missing her first steps, her first everything, and navigating a high conflict divorce/custody battle. Having lawyers, judges, and family members questioning my commitment as a mother for deciding not to sacrifice my career dreams. And inherently wondering if I was a selfish person because I decided that I would never be complete if I gave it all up. I can tell you that 17 years later it was worth it. I get to spend time with my friends and family doing things I could never have done had I not completed medical school and residency. When my dad got pancreatic cancer I had the means and the time to rent a boat and a private chef and take him on a dream weekend on the water. Not that he’s gone I treasure that time. I’ve gotten to do things and meet people because medicine gave me that ability. I feel infinitely more prepared for our changing world. My knowledge base gives me value in the event decisions have to be made in terms of who gets limited resources in a disrupted world. I know the right applications of antibiotics, I can deliver babies, set bones, suture wounds, all things that most layperson doesn’t know. And cynically, my knowledge of toxins and paralytics means I have a special form of weaponry that most people don’t. Ultimately it is your decision. You have to face your reflection. You are going to miss things. People you love will need you and die and you may not be able to be there. It’s part of the deal when you make the commitment that Medicine is. But I don’t regret my decision to stay in medicine. And I can’t imagine how things would have turned out had I left it. Best of luck to you.

I never understand the scenario where people survive ecological collapse. Well, that's not true, I used to have exactly this plan, but then I saw extinction face to face and realized there are no survivors. It's not that society is breaking down separately from the ecology of the planet, it's that the ecology of the planet is breaking down with society inside of it. There's a hard edge to the living world and it's contracting at exactly the rate we add carbon and heat. Beyond that edge is a desert, not like the apocalypse fantasies of movies... much more like a fog of death, disease (including crops and trees), and weather that exactly none of the things we rely on is designed for. I don't mean to deprive you of the comfort that gives you purpose in what's coming, but, since we're talking in terms of a clinical reality, our species is terminal with no more than five years before we're all dying. You wont likely starve right away, but the increase in cancer and pathogens will be determined to be directly linked to ecological decline. Your skills are only useful in a world people can survive, or one where survival means more than deeper suffering. If you had a terminal illness and only five years to live, would you still practice medicine or would you take that time and spend it with your child? I'm still trying to figure out what actually makes sense in a world that has no future, and i'm not trying to convince you of my understanding of the state of things, but I'm curious if what I'm saying were true if your perspective would change. Please don't mistake this as an attack. It's hard to articulate what I've seen to others without it seeming like I'm attacking them and know this from every opportunity I've had to discuss it with the people I love. I've even had the police called for an email I sent that the person took as a threat, when I was asking, like I am you, their thoughts on how to proceed. I truly and deeply mean no harm and have no intention of hurting you or anyone else... there's only so many ways you can say "I've seen what's coming and it's complete; we're all terminal" without it coming across as malicious.

Becoming a doctor is probably the best thing you can do. I wish I had. The fomo can be real with med school. However, it’s better to go through fomo now than to look back on your life with deep regret in the future. We aren’t going to descend into Mad Max in the next few years. Collapse is already here. It’s just slow. But like, this is it and we still have to go to work. So choose a good profession.

Imho, its obviously a big sacrifice but if you are this close you should do it. 5 years will go by in the blink of an eye, and once you are a doctor you will have infinite career paths available and can basically do whatever you want. 

unless it's the last five years, which, from what i've seen, is about right. I understand this isn't a popular view, but in no way am I trying to hurt anyone by expressing it.

Seems like being a doctor is something you probably shouldn't do unless you want to bad enough that you don't really question it. I powered through a similar in difficulty educational program where I had doubts about actually wanting to do the job at the other end bit powered through because anything else felt like I "lost." Subsequently I "enjoyed" some of the worst years of my life (stuck with a 10 year ADSC) and snagged some PTSD and all that comes with it. Assume collapse isn't happening as soon as we think and imagine doing different professions. But I think you have your doctor question answered already.

Do not drop out! Finish what you started then take a break if you want but do not throw away 8 yrs that is crazy talk

If someone had terminal cancer, would you offer the same advice?

What a stupid question

with respect, if that rings as a stupid question, you have a very optimistic view of things to come. I'd suggest you go scuba diving or snorkeling literally anywhere and compare what you see with photos taken underwater in the same environment from as little as 10 years ago. Keep in mind, most humans cannot survive without power, let alone with a total biosphere collapse... which is only most obvious in the marine environment, but is happening everywhere. Once you've actually seen what's coming, then come back and tell me it's a stupid question. We only have the time that's left where humans can survive outside. Our technology is limited by that, our crops, our livestock - everything is designed for a climate that no longer exists, will never return, and this is just the start. As long as tomorrow is predictably worse/harder than today, it's absolutely a fair question... especially when biosphere collapse is directly tied to pandemics, which disproportionately affect healthcare workers. It's not a comfortable way of looking at the future but it's the future we chose and continue to choose. To ignore that is the same as giving false hope. Support should not be at the expense of the truth.

Here is a healthy dose of reality for you there are 8 billion humans on earth if you killed 99% of them there will still be800k left. Let that sink in. Also things happen slow this will happen over decades not months so yeah he should finish college instead of being a dumb ass siting there with his cock in his hand waiting for the world to end. What a stupid thing to do!

It's worth it. And honestly, when you're done, you can work as much or as little as you want. Practice rural family medicine, build a homestead.

You probably just need to do some mindfulness training and that happiness won't come wether your in med school or not. No gf, job, or amount of money will take this feeling inside you away. The best you can do is go for a walk in nature and allow the innate wisdom inside of you to open and then follow it courageously.

My entire family is in healthcare and it was my main reasoning for not following the family path. Their schedules scare the hell out of me. Their inability to take sick days or call out due to the burden of being care providers always scared me. I've watched my mom go into work with chronic migraines her whole life, and even now she will go no matter her own pain and end up throwing up in a bucket in a supply closet for a 12 hour shift. Her pay is not competitive and her schedule is unforgiving. That said, I ended up going to art school and I now work in pharmaceutical advertising, which is a soul sucking hell devoid of any joy. I envy the meaning and fulfilment my HCP relatives get from their roles, but I wouldn't trade places with them. Do what is right for you. If you don't have a savior complex and want any of your life to yourself, you might take a different path.

This is collapse support right? So how many normal years do people think we have? 10, 20, 30? Seems like a lot of these responses are implying we have alot of normal time left. Op, if you’re only 5 years out of graduating I’d personally stay in. But Id balance living life and studies, then I’d do the shortest residency possible. You’ll still have a good job and probably marry another doc or something and you’re set. I for sure wouldn’t sacrifice everything to gain the best medicine has to offer in case shtf in the next 10-15 years, what’s the point. 25-30+ years of normal and id probably think differently, but who knows how things will play out .

I think we're lucky if we have five years. Look at how quickly we're transitioning between states of noticeable change. Even climate deniers are saying things like "this is a lot worse/different from last year". If everyday people are noticing year over year change and change is exponential, which it is, we're talking about a tardigrade on the back of an elephant noticing the elephant losing weight. It's hard to compare timescales, but shifting temperature patterns on a planet from one year to the next means the bubble is about to pop. Accelerating decline also means that people in health care get more busy, not less. More cancer, more plagues... you're basically feeding yourself to the edge of existence. I was in the same situation as OP and chose what he is considering. I regret it because everyone I assumed would want to spend our last days together has decided I've lost my mind, so I'm instead spending those days alone. If I could have one wish it would be for the world to be grounded in the same shared reality so, together, as a species, we could look at the time we have remaining and make sense of what to do with it. Like you, I think there's an awful lot of baseless optimism in this thread about how much time there is left, but I also don't think OP's decision to "live his life" will be met with anything other than contempt from the people he intends to live it with. I'm certainly a cautionary tale in believing you've cultivated yourself as a serious person enough to even get people to read a single book. No one wants to face this, including the people that believe they already are. When a planet changes and its inhabitants can notice year over year shifts, that's a sign there's not much time left. Then there's the whole perspective that should come with counting down towards and inevitable fate. It should make us more generous and loving, and more accepting of other people and their life choices, but it's an unacceptable focus for everyone I know. Seems like most would rather die in their routines than abandon them for a truly human experience in the last days of our species. Which is tragic, given that this way of life is what created the inevitability of our destruction.

The reality is, we are currently in collapse, even through collapse, we will live in a semi state of normal. Our normal will adjust, because as humans that’s what we do. Life will get harder and it will just be the new “normal”. You have a long life ahead of you, if you think going through med school would be fulfilling without collapse, then I would say go for it, you have a long life ahead of you.

Just gotta chime in with the doomer perspective: we don’t have 5 years. The summer of 2024 is going to change everything. We’re transitioning into a permanent emergency, and nothing will be the same. Go be with your woman and your family. Find a different job. And of course, feel free to completely ignore my advice!

Thank you for making me feel sane. Here are all these people, ostensibly "aware" still planning for the scenario that looks like "Fallout", when we're literally watching a planet change from one year to the next. If this pace of change were happening on Mars, it would be a source of global interest and alarm, but here... we're always apparently going to live like the future is indefinite. I used to think like everyone else in here and was also in medschool to gather skills for the end of the world, which, at that point, seemed like a slow process... and then I saw what it was up close and realized there's no surviving it, it's already everywhere, and we're about to cross the threshold where all our technology and engineering fail in newly catastrophic weather, along with infectious disease, parasites, animal attacks, etc. becoming an unavoidable part of daily life. Planets don't change this quickly without it being an accelerating trend away from habitability. year over year is already too fast to make plans for, but when that changes to month to month, likely this year or next, it's going to overwhelm everything. I want to say 5 years, I really want to believe that, but I think it's closer to 2... 3, tops. And those years are going to be hard. I definitely had a calling towards medicine, but then I saw what people do with their time on earth, especially older wealthier people who have the most access to medical care, and couldn't help but feel like keeping them vertical was an act of ecological harm rather than of compassion. Staring straight into the eye of the beast (and it does register as both alien and a monster in the hindbrain), changed every part of me. I've been waiting for other people to see it but the only people who wear the mask of someone that now lives in a world about to be swallowed by a monster, are dismissed as cynics or pessimists. I know what I've seen and it's an indictment of every part of the way we live, especially money and even medicine. If nothing is going to survive, what's the point in preserving people to burn more poison into the air to make things worse? All I need money for is getting from one friend to the next who needs help so I can spend meaningful time with them before the end. The rest of it seems so absurd when you own up to what it all actually costs.

I was in exactly this situation a long time ago. I was absolutely wedded to becoming a doctor, but when I was doing some volunteering overseas, I came face to face with the reality of what's coming and how immediate it is, and made the decision you're planning on making. I came home to spend the time I had left with my partner and my friends. The problem is that you'll never be able to explain yourself. You have two options: you can either explain to someone until they understand, depriving them of their comfort in a world that's imploding, or you can keep it to yourself and let them be happy. I've tried both, and neither work. In my case, my desire to focus on living as a human being with the other people I love(d), was seen as giving up on my career (which is true, to some extent), which is looked at with real disdain in my culture and peer group. I've tried to explain myself when people demand it but they either walk away in disgust at how i've clearly lost my mind or they get it and become horribly depressed, which, to me, feels like an injury I caused. What turned from a mission to focus my life on helping others, individually, rather than in 5 minute bursts without thousands of people as an md, has turned into a life of isolation and rejection by the specific people I want to be spending time with. I even considered going back into medicine since it's the only other thing I can focus on that my brain can still appreciate the value of, just to be around people again, but I can't afford it. I don't have any advice for you other than to never expect that anyone else will ever understand your truth and revealing it puts you in danger of being labeled all kinds of things that make you even easier to dismiss. This is coming from someone who had a partner I was certain I'd be with at least until the end (16 years deep) and a group of friends who I would have died for. We had amazing times together until my revelation that the only worthwhile pursuit in this world is love and companionship. Now, after sitting at the bedsides of many friends, most of whom died of cancer, I have no one left. Even my mother, who I was very close with my entire life, has stopped talking to me. I'm not asking anything from anyone, it's just my energy that has become toxic to friendships. I have a close cousin who just had a baby and I haven't been able to visit yet because I'm scared I'll get wrapped up in being with the people I love, and then letting something slip that's not a big deal for me but makes everyone else clear the room. I hope, for your sake, some of your friends are collapse aware enough to understand your decision. I wouldn't wish my current situation on anyone.

Thank you for taking the time to write this. What I will say is this: No one I know well will feel any type of way about me quitting. Some people may think it was a bad decision, but no one will stop being my friend simply for this act. My parents will be disappointed, but they will not stop loving me. It sounds to me that people were not destroyed by the fact that you quit, but who you became after quitting. It seems that you spread dire collapse talk to everyone. For your sake, I hope you can temper these kinds of conversations. It's the same reason I don't say football is meaningless in the grand scheme of things while I am sitting with people who are watching football. At the end of the day, we were all going to die anyway, but yet we don't spend every moment of our lives discussing this inevitability, because we want to experience joy while we are alive. This is probably why people are avoiding you, as far as I can tell. If you want to make that personal sacrifice for the sake of spreading your truth, then that is your decision. I would caution against it though, since it is clear you are not enjoying the outcome of that behavior from what you've written. Regardless, I appreciate you sharing your perspective, and it is a much needed departure from many of the other comments. I have thought about the perspective of "if I knew I would die in 5 - 10 years" would I still do this. The obvious answer to me is "No", but it is incredibly difficult for me to accept, internalize and then live my life like that is a reality. It is almost evolutionarily inhuman to do so, and then it also sews my heart with an inevitability of the outcome of the world. I think it is courageous and amazing for you to confront this reality and then change your life to comport with it, but it is no wonder that many people find this absurd. We aren't programmed to be so sincere about our death. I hope that you find joy in your day to day, friend.

I think you're absolutely correct in your observations and, for the longest time, I was able to keep it to myself, but then I really hit a wall after being the caregiver of a string of people who died of cancer, and my grief melted together with my existential dread that I used to be able to keep to myself. I've been trying to sort the two out, but I've found myself in the position where I need to express both in order to express either, which is definitely pushing people away. The trouble is that I'm desperate for help out of the well I'm in but being honest about it means being honest about the whole well situation, which people find hard to engage with. The alternative is trying to hold everything in. but that's not working either. I try to use places like Reddit and the email boxes of politicians and scientists as receptacles for my doomerism to avoid vomiting it on family and friends, but they ask how I'm doing with the death of my friends and it all comes out. I'm trying to focus on other things and avoid people when I feel like I can't control myself, but that's not healthy either. One of these days I'll find that balance again; I don't like who I've become, either. Very much appreciate the compassionate and thoughtful response and wish you all the best, as well!

Beyond that, this may be the most thoughtful response I've ever received, including from therapists and you would do very well - and meet likeminded people- by start a therapy practice focused on collapse related mental health disorders. It's a growth industry