A little context here: I graduated from medical school in 2012, practiced briefly till 2016 and stopped. I simply got bored with traditional medical practice and then decided to pursue my first love - research. I'm naturally a curious individual and I would prefer doing research all my life. My medical background makes it best suited for me to do research in medicine or health in general.
However, it appears that it is difficult to simply just leave medicine to do ONLY research. People say that there are no support structures for researchers outside academia or medical practice, and that worries me. Now, I have been out of medicine for about two years and not really making much headway with research. I have gotten to a point at which I am confused and thinking I might have made a mistake focusing solely on research.
Is it normal to feel this way? Is there any hope/opportunity for any researcher outside academics or clinical medicine?
