Career Advice

@Dr. Nagler @here2help , This question is also for anyone else with any insight,ideas, advice, etc.

My question is regarding how t affects careers and ability to perform in the types of stressful situation that arise during an individuals career. I assume once you habituate it should not make a difference. My concern is for nearly 6 months i studied for the lsat. I got a score that got me into some great schools. Then my t hit and i was to stressed to commit to going to any and the deadlines past, putting off my law school life for at least another year. My fear is even if i do habituate what if something happens in those three years and it negatively impacts my grades. I have always had very big career aspirations and i don't intend T to stop me from accomplishing these goals. One thing people say repeatedly on the board is try to relax and don't stress, the life of a law student and later a lawyer along with the other interest i have are incredibly stressful so I wonder how to handle these things when i get there. I know I have a while until i attend law school but I like to be prepared and i plan for things way ahead of time. I think others will benefit from these questions as well. Again I hope to hear from anyone who has habituated or anyone who has any advice regarding this matter, thanks in advance!!

 

The only advice I can give you is while being a law student may be stressful at times, the stress of always thinking you haven't followed your dreams isn't to be underestimated either.

 

Thank You Tom. Very true and very good advice.

 

So it negatively impacts your grades. Instead of getting an A, you get a B. Instead of graduating in the top 10% of your law school class, you graduate in the top quarter ... or the top half ... or worse. Instead of making law review, you don't.

When all is said and done, do you really and truly believe that ten years from now your clients will care? They will get the very best you have, which I suspect will be far better than what most other attorneys will have to offer. Tinnitus or no tinnitus.

I wrote this in another post, but it bears repeating ...

Legendary basketball coach John Wooden once said: "Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do."

I think Coach Wooden had it exactly right.

Stephen Nagler

 

@Dr. Nagler Thanks very much, your words are very true and assuring. That quote is great, I think thats the way i try to live but ive never been able to word it the way Coach Wooden did. Yes your right, I suspect at this point we all have to focus on what we can offer and whats good in our life.

 

You cant stop living your life because there is a bump in the road. There will be plenty of other bumps and in time you will learn to go with the flow and do what you want despite of those things. Life will never be safe or perfect as it is in our heads. But what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger

 

Go for your dreams. My dream is serving in the United States military and I am still in the process of joining, nothing could ever stop me I'm going reserves and plan to become a dentist or a p.a ( physician assistant) still stuck on which I'll like better. T is a f**king bitch but I won't let it ruin me to that point...even though it sucks :/

Yes school is stressful but maybe stressing about school could take your mind of t? I don't think stress makes t worse to be honest. Perhaps more noticeable? But not worse.

 

My dream job would be to be apart of a band and write music since im good at drums, writing, and singing. Now i completely just dont want to risk it with my T getting worse cause lets be realistic if im banging away daily and weekly playin shows, my T at some point even with proper protection will get worse. Not that im not gonna still play but dont wanna be in a band anymore, and gonna drop down from an acoustic set to an electronic one which is quieter and i still can record songs. But now im startin dental assisting school soon and figured out i wanna work in orthodontics so im happy with that and its an actual career not just a dream like being in a band.

 

Life is way too short to let this hold you back from your dreams, man. Imagine if you don't follow through and then you fully habituate to your tinnitus and you didn't take the opportunities you should have. I think you'll look back at that with regret. I know it is really hard, but we all need to live our lives and not let our tinnitus control us.

I know that is way easier said than done; so I am not saying that lightly. But I really think that with time, you will habituate. The fact that you're on here, functioning, and looking forward to your future that you will fully recover and adapt. Based on what you're saying and from what I've seen of you on here, it's not a matter of if you have the ability to live a normal life, but a matter of when. Besides, there is also the chance that your tinnitus could go away.

 

Understandable on that one:/ being in a band is loud and usually musicians are at risk for t ( higher) I believe. Dental assisting is something I want to do! As a job for now!

 

Thank you for the kind words!

 

Then there's also this famous saying... What doesn't kill you makes you stronger

 

I myself went to law school and just had my final exams so I will graduate in 3 months once I get my results. Tinnitus hit me when I had just started law school and I still made it through it.

 

Cullen, I won’t presume to give you career advice, except to say if you are moved by a particular type of work, if it brings you to yourself and you enjoy it, and if you are fortunate to have the opportunity to pursue it, then don’t let tinnitus stop you from following your dreams and living life your way.

Tinnitus won’t impact your career, even if stress is de rigueur in the life of a law student. There is tinnitus and there are our thoughts about tinnitus and the decisions we make because we have tinnitus. At the present time, we can’t do anything about tinnitus per se. But we can do a lot about our thoughts about and responses to tinnitus.

You describe yourself as someone who likes to prepare and plan ahead. My suggestion is that you no longer put off the life you are intended to live and want for yourself. In preparation for the day when you begin law school, explore your options and get busy adopting a tinnitus management strategy to help you recognize when your thoughts about tinnitus do not serve you well. Learn how to challenge these thoughts and give them less power. When we do not challenge less-than-helpful thoughts about tinnitus, we end up playing defense and making decisions that may also not be in our best interest. (The quote from John Wooden that you like and relate to reminds me that when the “Wizard of Westwood” became basketball coach at UCLA, his initial salary was so small that he worked a second job as a dispatcher at a dairy company.)

You asked what if you habituate and “something happens” while you are in law school that would have a negative impact on your grades. This is a great example of a thought that doesn’t serve you well. You are imagining a future that isn’t real and hasn’t happened and treating it as if it will happen and will impact your grades.

It is easy to think along these lines and to project ourselves as we feel in the present into the future. This is where it can be so helpful to adopt a strategy to manage our thinking as it pertains to tinnitus, to recognize these kinds of thoughts for what they are, to challenge these thoughts, and consider whether there is another, more realistic way to think about these things.

It is equally possible that three years from now, you will be fine no matter what tinnitus throws at you. I am no better at guessing the future than anyone else, but while it is almost certain you will feel stress in law school, as a lawyer, and in your other interests, chances are good that the stress will have nothing or very little to do with tinnitus.

here2help

 

Wow thank you so much for that detailed response. It's very much appreciated. And thanks to everyone else as well, great advice guys.

 

Congrats that's great news!

 

Law school and being a lawyer is real busy work i think you wont even be havin time to think about T.. And when you graduate you can always hope by then something will be efficent enough in calming T you can do anything you put your mind too and T will just fadeeee

 

Yeah dental assistant/medical assisting is a good field to get into and the money is pretty good tooo! Best of luck to you!

 

Btw Im working 30 hrs a week and doing my Masters in stationary studies and I have a very low stress tolerance. Has been good for my T because I have no time to focus on it

 

Wow, you really are a busy bee aren't you! @Stina