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    Hello Kon,

    I read your thread titled 'SAD/Introversion and working in Pharmacy' written in 2011 and I found it very relateable. I am currently a fourth year pharmacy student in the United Kingdom and work part-time as a pharmacy advisor in a Boots pharmacy. While working in the pharmacy I experience severe severe social anxiety and have regular panic attacks. Tomorrow I will be working on my own with a locum pharmacist and will have to open and close the pharmacy on my own, which is giving me severe anxiety. I am strongly considering not entering the profession and using my pharmacy degree to enter another career such as doing a masters in health economics.

    I was just wondering if you ever managed to control your anxiety while working in a pharmacy and if you could give me any advice on managing my anxiety in the workplace. I also wanted to thank you on making these posts and how helpful they are to other people suffering with social anxiety. It makes me realise I'm not alone.

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    hey Kon I read that you are a pharmacist on one of the forums. I was wondering if I can chat with you about the career. I am also in Toronto.
    You can pm me. thanks!

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    Hey man. I'm new to this site and read one of your posts a while back where you said you'd successfully been treated with Klonopin. You said you'd rebounded out of $100k of school debt from years of not being able to complete your degree. I'm kind of in the same boat - my anxiety has been the bane of my entire existence and kept me from completing my chem/math degrees for 2 years after I should have graduated, plus a similar amount of school debt. This has caused a great deal of depression on top of it all. Plus, my social anxiety has limited my ability to enjoy what should be one of the best times of my life, with some exception. How did you rebound? Was Klonopin alone enough? What was the dosage? How did you manage your debt? Do you think I could have a second chance at enjoying my prime in graduate or medical school (although the latter may not even be an option at this point). Your whole story gives me a glimmer hope in what is otherwise a black hole.

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    Yeah, I was looking at industry internships and one of the first expectations from students were presentations. Eek. Given this narrow window of career paths for me, on top of the supposed limited job opportunities for future pharmacists, I'm beginning to second guess my career choice here. Was there any other career you would have wanted to do besides pharmacy? I think I read somewhere that you had an interest in geology/geophysics.

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    Thanks, Kon. I'm really hoping I wind up in the same working situation as you once I graduate. Would you happen to know of any pharmacy roles that would be SA/introvert friendly? My impressions as of now are (1) nuclear pharmacy, (2) mail service pharmacy, and (3) industry/R&D. Maybe even something more corporate/business-inclined. I'm okay dealing with co-workers, and probably even patients on a one-to-one level, but I really don't think I'd fare well with the demanding customers in retail. I think limited patient contact is my key concern, which seems like such a contradiction for a pharmacist candidate.

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    Hey Kon, I'm currently a first-year pharmacy student from Chicago. I've been doing a lot of Googling in hopes of finding a pharmacy role that would be more suitable for my introverted personality. I'm a long-time reader of your posts in this forum (they are extremely relatable), but only now am I contacting you because I'm having an intrapersonal conflict of whether to accept an intern position at Walgreens or not. I visited the pharmacy and it really looks like something that would make me go crazy! Did you ever work as a tech while in pharmacy school? As someone with SA, do you ultimately like your job as a pharmacist? I am starting to regret not sticking with engineering after I finished my BS in biology. Sorry if I'm coming across as some kid who is hoping you'll solve his problems. Those aren’t my intentions, I just don't have anyone to talk to about this issue... not even my parents.

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    I wanted to PM you about something you wrote, but this doesn't seem "private" at all lol.

    How do you privately message someone without it going up on this board for everyone to see?

    · Weeeeeeeeee!~
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    332 Posts

    I hope you have a wonderful year~ *Your profile reminded me to watched the movie "The good, the bad and the ugly." :D. Also, nice pic*
    Cheers!
    [img]

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    hi Kon, I read a couple of your posts on career issue and have to say i really admire you for trying all those. If you don't mind me asking, i am just wondering what kind of job you are having right now? I am struggling with my choices and hopefully this could give me some pointer.

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    I have huge problems multi-tasking. I can't concentrate on dispensing scripts if someone is talking to me. Also, I find myself getting distracted. I'll start doing something, and then forget about it and start doing something else. My pharmacist keeps pointing that out to me, and because she's my boss I get very anxious around her now.

    I'm getting confident with the phone though, but I have to talk myself through what I'm going to say and I get SO anxious when I know she can hear me talk.
    It feels so good to have someone understand that!

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    Hi there, I read one of your older posts about some of the problems you faced when working in a pharmacy that I can really relate to. I'm studying pharmacy at the moment, and working in one to gain some experience. Not enjoying it much at all.
    I'm really wishing I'd chosen a different career path...
    I find my SA is very much obvious to co-workers and customers, and I struggle to connect with either of them. I don't really think my personality is suited to pharmacy either, but I wouldn't have a clue what to do. The only thing keeping me in this course is the fact that the pay is so good.

    · anxiousnervous
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    I know that your question is directed at someone else but here is my two cents. It took me 10 yrs to get my AA in Information Technology while working full time. I probably could have finished sooner but was only taking two classes a semester, and then I won't even tell you how many times I had to take math but finally passed. Do it know while your parent's are helping you. You'll never regret it and thank them in the end.

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    Thanx...
    May I ask you...during your working time and later in college...could you afford to live in an appartment or did you have to live with your parents?
    If I want to continue to study, I have to live with my parents....pretty embarrassing, but I guess I have to go through it.

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    106 Posts
    Hi Kon,
    what was your dose of Clonazepam during your time getting pharmacy degree?
    Did you use it daily...no tolerance and cognitive/memory problems?

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    106 Posts
    Thanks...very inspiring....I thought I`m done...lol
    I started in industrial engineering in my mid twenties. I`m in electrical eng. right now and just turned 30. But I`m looking like 21...so nobody knows it...lol
    I could get my hands on nardil now and will probably go to a clinic for 2 month where I will get group- monotherapy daily for SA.
    I hope I can fix it to a certain degree and can go back to school.
    One possibility I also see is to go study psychology and working in health industry.
    My CV is basiclly ****ed up...so I dont have to "sell" it in the buisiness world if I study psych. and work as a psycho-/neuropsychotherapist.
    Did you say in job interviews that because of your SA you couldn`t finish degrees?
    Did you have any problems with it? I can imagine it`s pretty tough to "sell"...thats why I plan to go to the health field...but only if I can fix SA.

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    106 Posts
    Hi Kon,

    just curious...how old were you when you finished your pharmacy degree?
    I`m in a similar situation...will probably drop out of college 2nd time because of SA.

    · anxiousnervous
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    41 Posts
    Absolutely one of the greatest actors of the Western genre. If you had to symbolically represent “spaghetti western” with one person’s face, it would be the awesome Lee Van Cleef. He was one cool motherflipper.
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