So, my question is, when (if ever) does it become appropriate to share this with my colleagues?
Disclosing that you had a mental illness IMHO can go either way during an interview.
It can prove you're passionate about treating people because you-yourself suffered the same problems.
It can also create a situation where some programs may consider you a problem because you'll relapse.
I took a year off from medschool. Why? The real answer was women. I was a single guy in my 20s and had little time to date women because of premed & medschool responsibilities. Most of my college buddies were by that time successful in their careers and living life for real--either married or doing something fun in their free time. I felt like I was missing out on life.
During that year, I day-traded, & ran a small Ebay business. I made a lot of cash, dated & basically felt like a human being. I don't regret it. I think it made me a better person, resolidified my desire to go back to medschool & become a psychiatrist and gave me better life experience.
OK-, so now every residency I interviewed at brings up the year gap. Some of them even claimed they knew why I took the year off---> "we know what's going on. You were diagnosed with some mental illness right?".
It appeared that some programs have had bad experiences with residents because of their mental illnesses and may have had some shell-shock over it. No they didn't say it, but let's just say my taking a year off seemed to touch a nerve; a nerve that had to be there for a reason.
My own program admitted someone as a resident who appeared to have histrionic personality disorder. She was also diagnosed with Bipolar & OCD. She was removed from the program. She did several things out of line such as make false accusations against several of her colleagues & attendings, dressed inappropriately at work & didn't set proper boundaries with patients. I'm being very tame in my descriptions.
So are we shell shocked over this? Yes. Do we want someone else coming in with that same problem? Of course not.
But at the same time, if someone came in, mentioned they had mental illness, but also made it clear that it would not affect their performance & that they also showed themself to be a good candidate, I wouldn't hold it against them, it might even prove their enthusiasm for the field. However I don't know if others would be as open minded about it.
I've heard a saying. Medical students go into psychiatry because 1) they're lazy (don't want to work in high pressure fields like surgery) or 2) they're crazy (had a mental illness) or 3) they actually like psychiatry.
I don't want #1s coming into the program. I don't mind #2s if they'll be good psychiatrists, and definitely want #3s in.