How to Pace Yourself in Pharmacy School

For the last three years, I’ve made the mistake of bulldozing my way through pharmacy school. This included neglecting my mental health in favor of perfect grades and academic success. I could sustain it for about half my pharmacy journey before I finally cracked under pressure. The imbalance in my life created this never-ending cycle of continuously stepping on the gas even though I don’t have any left in the tank.

Over the past six months, after working through my emotions and daily habits, I’ve assembled a few tips for taking care of yourself mentally through pharmacy school. This also applies to anyone in school or at work.

1. Take more frequent breaks!

I remember not allowing myself to take breaks from studying, even when I felt like I was splitting my brain in half. That habit not only increased the frequency of my headaches but also made me more neurotic than I have ever been. It took me a while to realize that more is not always better. Your brain learns its best when it’s at rest.

Giving myself more frequent and meaningful breaks has helped me not to let school consume my life. I can test myself on the material I learned with enough time to master the material. Even since doing that, my grades, as well as my life, have been more balanced.

2. Forgive yourself for your shortcomings.

Getting a B on an important exam would usually send me into an emotional spiral. The expectations of myself were to be perfect, and I had no room to “mess up.” I would mentally beat myself up because of questions that I “should have known.” It did nothing but make me feel unworthy. Compared to my friends, my exam scores would always have to be higher because I was considered “very smart” in my friend group and the whole class.

Through extensive therapy sessions, I am learning to forgive myself for the unrealistic expectations I set. If that was my best at that moment, there was nothing else I could do. I’m still working on that, but the important lesson is that you don’t have to be flawless to be a great pharmacist.

3. Don’t forget the activities you enjoy doing.

Whether reading, photography, or drawing, your hobbies are sacred, and you shouldn’t compromise them. I told myself I didn’t have time to read or write. Schoolwork was all that mattered. I expected myself to function normally after taking away the one thing that gives me the most serotonin.

I will again reiterate that it was a bad idea. It made my depression worse. I thought that I had to sacrifice someone of mine to excel. How wrong I was. Since then, I have normally been reading and frequently writing for this blog. I picked up meditation and continued weight lifting to maintain my mental and physical well-being. Doing it for fun instead of obligation is a freeing experience.

4. Recognize your potential outside of school.

There is more to a person than academic success. I was told this when I was younger, but it never sank in. Being praised every time I did well in school made me want to keep doing well. I was obsessed with the validation that adults gave me. So I adopted academic success into my personality and ran with it. I value people for who they are and not what they can do, so why couldn’t I do that myself?

Looking back on it now, I realize how obsessive I was. It must have been exhausting to be around me. Discovering my personality again and allowing myself to exist has helped my mental and emotional well-being exponentially. I took a step back and told myself, “There’s more to life than this! I’m a person with wants and needs!”.

These are my experiences, and I’m willing to bet that many others have experienced something similar. Now, I always remember that there is more to living than school productivity and excellence.