Overcoming Mental Illness in Personal Statement

[nomoreequationsplease]

Thank You for all of the responses. I am going to omit mentioning anything about overcoming mental illness. Although it was an important amount of growth and development for me, it is quite clear that it may hinder my application.
Thank You to everyone for all of the insight that was provided.

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[Lola222]

I always feel like I have the opposite opinions of adcom members. I know they recommend not disclosing it on the application, but I think overcoming mental illness makes you look like a strong candidate. Just my opinion though.

 

[LizzyM]

If you think that an applicant who has been diagnosed with Asperger's and anxiety issues will be viewed as someone who will thrive in medical school and perform well as a physician, then go ahead and list it in your personal statement. However, interviewers may be biased in their assessment of you looking for some signs that you have not developed the coping skills you say that you have. Do you want to go into the interviews with that disadvantage?

 

[mcatjelly]

So I applied this past cycle with a PS that briefly mentioned my struggles with depression/anxiety. It's a part of who I am and played a large role in my interest in mental health which led to my interest in medicine, so I included it. In retrospect, for better or for worse, I think I would have saved myself some anxiety had I NOT included those struggles.

That being said, I was invited to 5 MD interviews and was never asked about my mental health issues at those interviews. I was waitlisted everywhere but recently was accepted to 2 schools. So if you feel you absolutely must address your mental health: keep it short, keep it concise, maybe even downplay its severity, and, as you alluded to above, make it VERY CLEAR how you addressed your mental health and how you've become resilient. Just remember that you never know the background of who's reading your PS, and you never know the extent to which it will alter your interviewers' perceptions of you.

If you'd like to discuss specifics about your PS, I'm happy to talk further over PM.

 

[dreee]

I included very briefly some of my anxiety issues, and in one application kinda went into detail about it. Overcoming it was one of the hardest and most rewarding experiences of my life, hence I felt it was important to include.

That being said, in retrospect, I think it did negatively affect the way I was viewed. Yes I did get accepted into an MD program. But I did not get even interviews at other schools that I considered "safety". The truth is many schools may view mental illness as a liability. Medical school is mentally stressing. Why would they purposely choose the student who they know has a mental illness (or history of) versus the 30+ students fighting for that one seat who do not?

In my opinion, just leave it out.