Barriers and Motives on Why I Want to Be a Psychologist

Before starting this essay I want to mention that there are various factors why I'm interested in helping people with mental dissabilities and the main one is a massive discrimination of such people. Before starting my academic path I asked myself “why I want to be a psychologist?' This essay will show my purposes to chose this career path. I am getting so disappointed and sad because people who do not know about mental illness and keep on criticized people with mental illness. This makes me want to be a psychologist and help and treat people with mental illness.

The main reason why I want to become a psychologist is that I am so obsessed with mental illness. I want to have the opportunity to help others, who had this kind of problem. I remembered last time, I was reading an article about depression. The article describes how stress leads people to get depression. I wonder how stress leads to depression and this makes me get interested and start to find more about it. I read a lot of books and articles to gain more knowledge about mental illness. I found out that in Malaysia, there is a lot of people who have been diagnosed with mental problems such as depression, schizophrenia, dissociative identity disorder and more. In many types of mental illness, I was so obsessed with schizophrenia. Many people might get confused about schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. After understanding the difference between this 2 mental illness, this attracted me more into mental illness. Another reason is that I want to have the opportunity to help others, who had mental problems. People with mental illness dare not to find any treatment for their problems because they are afraid to get criticized by everyone. And also, they do not want to be a burden to anyone so they decide not to find any treatment to cure their problems. They might pretend normal in front of others. Many people commit suicide because of mental illness. I had heard a lot of people around me criticized people with mental illness by calling them abnormal or crazy. Not only cure and treat but also make a difference in the lives of others. Last but not least, the reason is that I love learning about psychology. I enjoy learning new facts about psychology.

There are barriers and motivators for me to becoming a psychologist. Since I am an introverted person, being an initiative person and interact with others is a difficult task for me. This is one of the barriers that might stop me from being a psychologist. I am shy to talk to strangers and cannot take the initiative in every decision. Every time when someone I do not know comes to approach me, I will start feeling anxiety and keep myself away from strangers. Being a psychologist needs to have the ability to communicate with the clients and being initiative. I know that I cannot be a psychologist if I cannot overcome these barriers. Another barrier that stops me is that I am not good in the way of expression. I am not good at explaining anything even though I know what it means. Every time I try to explain something easy but it turns out to become more complicated.

There is also something I good with. I am a good listener and a patience person. Every time when my friends or siblings got their own problems, they would come to find me and complain about their problems. This is an important skill for everyone who willing to be a psychologist or counselor. Put your hand into other shoes, how do you feel when your psychologist or counselor being annoying because you keep on complaining everything? Another personal strength of mine is that I love to learn new knowledge. I love to learn anything new to me. Being a psychologist or a counselor needs a specific body of knowledge. If a person does not have any knowledge relates to psychology or counseling, it will be a dangerous situation for the client.

Since I was bad in explanation, I will try to improve my ability to explain things better. First, I will start to learn how to avoid tangents that distract from my explanation. I need to know the others are looking for detailed re-telling or just a quick summary. And also, I need to start a strategic framework in my mind and a working understanding of how information can be organized in an explanation. Whenever I want to explain, I can write down on a sheet of paper and what it is I want to explain and include a few main points related to my conclusion. Of course, practice explaining more and more, and use other techniques and get better in the areas I lack. Last but not least, learn more about the field I want to explain. My explanation can be as good as my own knowledge of what am I explaining. The better I know the subject, the better I can select what information is relevant to my audience.

In conclusion, once barriers forces that I being introverted is I do not see any enjoyable social activities around me. I can be more extroverted by finding the social activities I really enjoy. The best ways to find new groups of people are through clubs, volunteering or small classes. It was easier to connect with people if we have a common interest and the environment designed to help me meet new people. Another strategy is that push myself out from the comfort zone limits. Getting outside with a comfortable feel will help to embrace me more extroverted. I can start from small steps. For example, going to sports or movies with friends or try other things that I had never try before.