Adversity Essay - talk about medical problems?

[BritishDiana]

I'm trying to figure out what to write for my adversity/challenge essay on secondaries. The biggest thing that happened this year was that I started a treatment for a medical problem that caused a lot of mood changes. It's mostly fixed now, and I think I learned a lot from it (learning a lot about myself, building a strong support system to deal with stress, taking charge of my own health care even if it meant switching doctors, taking my own symptoms seriously), though I'm not sure how many of those would be good to write about.

Originally, I was going to write about the mental health side of this (aka not mentioning that the mood changes were caused by medical treatment), but I was warned against that because of the stigma. Would there still be stigma associated with the way I'm talking about the health problems now? I think it might be cool because it's my perspective as a patient, and I would talk about how it has informed me as a future doctor.

(for context, the treatment was birth control for PCOS, but I don't think I'll mention that in writing)

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[Goro]

It's fine. Having mental health issues arise from treatment is not the same as having mental health issues.

 

[BritishDiana]

It's fine. Having mental health issues arise from treatment is not the same as having mental health issues.

True! It's a little weird because I'm still not sure if it was a combination of mental health problems + treatment or just treatment, but I'll try to keep it framed as a symptom for now. Thanks!

 

[Goro]

IF you have a history of mental health issues, do NOT go down this path unless you've got this 100% under control. Med school is a furnace.

 

[tdod]

It's fine. Having mental health issues arise from treatment is not the same as having mental health issues.

Very True. Unless the treatment will continue indefinitely. But if was a discrete health problem that has been treated and overcome then it is fine.


Remember that the details of your health problem aren't interesting or important - what's important is demonstrating your own character and personality through how you dealt with the the difficulties. Learning from hardship is also valuable... especially if you can demonstrate through your actions that you have grown, not just through your words.

 

[LizzyM]

PCOS means your hormones were out of whack. You were treated for this and while it took time for your body to reach equilibrium, you had a bit of a rocky situation with regard to mood swings and other symptoms that are typical when this condition is being brought under control. I've seen the same thing with thyroid disease. I think it is a perfectly reasonable topic for the challenge essay. Just be sure to respond to the prompt specifically and not generically.

 

[BritishDiana]

PCOS means your hormones were out of whack. You were treated for this and while it took time for your body to reach equilibrium, you had a bit of a rocky situation with regard to mood swings and other symptoms that are typical when this condition is being brought under control. I've seen the same thing with thyroid disease. I think it is a perfectly reasonable topic for the challenge essay. Just be sure to respond to the prompt specifically and not generically.

Remember that the details of your health problem aren't interesting or important - what's important is demonstrating your own character and personality through how you dealt with the the difficulties. Learning from hardship is also valuable... especially if you can demonstrate through your actions that you have grown, not just through your words.

Thanks, this is all super helpful! I will definitely limit medical details to what's needed for context and be as specific as possible about what I learned/how I developed.