I am writing my personal statement. I am trying to decide if I should include what I've been through growing up. My dad was a terrible alcoholic and prescription drug addict for 15 years of my life. My family was verbally, emotionally, and sometimes physically abused by a man we loved. There were incidents with guns, him going to jail, and going to rehab many, many times. We look like a normal, nice family from the outside. He destroyed his body and now he is paying for it. Anyway, I know that this has greatly affected who I am as a person. Everything with him got very bad the summer before I attended UW-Madison. I left for college and was worried about my family all of the time. I saw the doctor many times due to stomach ulcers; I think the anxiety was making me sick. My head wasn't in the right place and I did not do well my freshman year. I finished up the year and transferred to a college near home because I wanted to be there to make sure my mom and brother were okay and to help mom out with her business. I did better throughout the rest of college, but still not awesome. I am still dealing with my addict father. I have a whole lot of patient contact experience from working as an EMT, so I am working that into my statement, but what do you think is the best way to approach/explain my situation?