Was I the only one who got sick of the med school rat race?

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I used to be a healthy, vibrant kid, but medical school changed that over the years. Near the finish line—during the last few months of my internship—my health collapsed completely. I found myself hospitalized on IV fluids and steroids.

Lying in that hospital bed, I had a sobering realization: my body had been throwing up red flags for months, and I had systematically ignored every single one. The very profession teaching me to diagnose symptoms in others had trained me to blind myself to my own.

In a high-stakes rat race, competition becomes so toxic and consuming that health stops feeling like a priority—it starts feeling like an inconvenience. I told myself that stepping back to rest meant losing ground to someone else. I pushed past fever, fatigue, and pain because the culture subtly convinced me that enduring self-neglect was a badge of honor. I was completely burnt out—the living, breathing result of a toxic environment.

Naturally, I started asking questions: Was this toxic, hyper-competitive drive to self-neglect unique to medical school, or does every intense field push its students to burnout? I dug into the research expecting to find that medicine was the undisputed king of student burnout. What I found completely surprised me.

The evidence doesn’t fully back up the idea that medicine is uniquely toxic. A large comparative study of over 1,900 university students found that medical students actually reported lower rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation than their non-medical peers—with emotional exhaustion being the sole exception. In another cross-faculty comparison, medical students had the lowest overall stress and burnout, while informatics students topped the list.

Burnout isn’t proof that medicine is exceptional; it’s proof that medicine concentrates familiar stressors—long hours, sleep deprivation, constant evaluation, and low autonomy—far more densely than most fields.

Even within India, the pressure isn’t uniform. A comparative study across Eastern Indian medical colleges showed that burnout was significantly higher in urban colleges (61%) than in rural ones (41%). This suggests that environment, competition density, and systemic support shape our mental health just as much as the heavy curriculum itself.

What I finally realized is this: other competitive fields show similar—or even higher—rates of burnout. It’s the culture of intense competition and dense stressors, not medicine itself, that breaks people.

Burnout is the price of admission in any hyper-competitive system, not just medical school.

Was my batch specifically that competitive, or was yours too?

MBH/PS

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Medical school tends to take a toll on your healyh. We become so immersed in the rat race trying to become saviors that we forget to save our health first. Skipping meals, not drinking enough water sacrificing sleep is a common norm in medical colleges. But we end up paying the price of all this woth our health

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Yes, you’re absolutely right. In this rat race, we are all players caught in a continuous loop of competition and self-improvement. I can personally relate to this—I worked 12-hour shifts every day for two months to gain more knowledge and experience, but eventually, my health suffered, and I developed spondylitis.

This experience taught me that achieving our goals should not come at the cost of our health. We need to learn to balance ambition with self-care, because taking care of ourselves is not falling behind—it is what helps us continue moving forward sustainably. We can work hard toward our goals while also listening to our bodies and prioritizing our well-being.

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Trying to keep yourselves up to date with medical knowledge, competition and comparison increases stress for healthcare students. This long-term stress leads to burnout and affects health and sleep quality. It is very important to prioritize self care. Organisations and workplaces should try to create an environment, where one can learn at their own pace without feeling unnecessary competition.

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Couldn’t agree more, Asra. It’s wild how we’re literally taught how the human body works, yet we treat basic stuff like water, food, and sleep like they’re optional. We’ve somehow normalized the idea that to be a good health professional, you have to run yourself into the ground first.

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I’m so sorry you went through that, Divyasri—spondylitis is no joke, and running 12-hour shifts for two months straight is brutal. But you said it perfectly: taking care of yourself isn’t ‘falling behind.’ It’s the only way to actually last in this field without breaking.

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100%, Ishmeet. The constant pressure to know everything right now creates so much quiet anxiety. And you’re spot on about institutions—we can talk about self-care all day, but unless colleges and workplaces actually stop rewarding overwork, people are still going to burn out.

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My batch was competitive too. But in the end, I realized the best thing you can do is focus on yourself, set your own goals, and stop comparing your journey with others. The rat race is never-ending. Great post!