Personal Statement - Anxiety?

[lare92]

The personal statement prompt is pretty generic: why do you want to go to medical school? I didn't know I wanted to go to med school until well into my college career because I lacked the confidence. I got a solid 4.0 every semester & all that but I had very low self esteem because I suffered abuse at home. It finally got to the point where I ended up in the hospital, that was sort of a turning point for me where I realized I needed to get away & get professional help for all the anxiety & depression it had caused. It was after this that I finally fell in love with college, started having a great time, & felt confident enough to shoot for medical school. My grades stayed where they were at too.

I want to talk about this but I'm worried. I've read you shouldn't mention anxiety/depression issues because they'll think you're unstable and won't be able to handle medical school.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

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[Donald Kimball]

Do not talk about your mental illness or any other personal, medical, religious or other issue that could cast doubt on your ability to succeed as a medical student or physician. Full stop.

You are making a huge gamble that admissions officers will view your story as a positive and not a gigantic risk factor.

I'm incredibly happy that you were able to pull yourself out of a hole and have the confidence and ambition for medical school, and I'm sure your story would prove just how resilient and determined you are, but it is not worth jeopardizing your chances.

 

[lare92]

I should specify: I didn't end up in the hospital because of mental illness. I ended up in the hospital because of broken bones at the hands of said abuser.

 

[Donald Kimball]

I should specify: I didn't end up in the hospital because of mental illness. I ended up in the hospital because of broken bones at the hands of said abuser.

Like I said, don't bring up issues that will cast doubt on your capability to succeed in medical school or beyond.

Definitely do not mention mental illness.

However, I think you could still discuss overcoming your abuse and the extremely terrible environment it created. Frame this story very carefully.

 

[LizzyM]

Show me your passion for medicine. Show me why you want to put up with the sacrifices, the sleepless nights, the demands of the public, the interference by bureaucrats, the aggravation, the disappointments, the anguish. What is it about medicine that will make you push through 4 years of medical school, years of post-graduate education, and a lifetime of continuing education?

Show me the skills and attitudes you have developed that will make you a successful student and a good physician.

If someone you would list as a parent on the AMCAS was your abuser, choose to list them on the AMCAS as a parent or name them as an abuser but not both. I consider it very bad form to engage in character assassination on the application. Frankly, I think you can tell a good story about your skills and your drive for medicine without going into the abuse/hospitalization story.

 

[Beargryllz]

For the love of god don't talk about your weaknesses on the personal statement

It can only possibly hurt you

Do talk about overcoming tough **** and being an all-around badass

 

[lobo.solo]

The PS is about how your life journey shaped your decision to go into medicine. Present a couple of concise examples about this. I'm not sure you want to talk about the abuse you suffered unless is pertinent to why medicine. Sorry you had to go through all that🙁 what doesn't kill you makes you strong.

 

[lare92]

Basically I never thought I was good enough to be a doctor until I overcame that.

 

[GIRLmeetsMED]

It's awesome that you were able to overcome such a difficult circumstance (to say the least)! And now that you are mentally in a place where you can really see yourself capable of being a physician try to think about WHY you want to be a physician... there must be something more than just thinking you are good enough.

 

[jm192]

I've sat through probably 10+ work shops on personal statements between med school applications and residency applications. The consensus seems to be that it very rarely helps an application. And your main focus should be NOT hurting the rest of your application.

Now if you're a borderline applicant overall or at the place you really want to go, then yeah you probably need to get out your paint brush and canvas.

I told a few experiences from shadowing and explained what they meant to me and what they had taught me that I could incorporate as a physician one day.

 

[Essee]

Firstly, congratulations on overcoming your difficulties and being in a better place now.
With that said, I would not talk about this on a PS. Understandably it helped motivate you to pursue medicine because you were now more confident in yourself, but I think you can talk about why you want to go into medicine in the first place without mentioning this story. Being finally confident to shoot for medical school =/= why you want to go to medical school.

 

[BeancheBlanco]

Basically I never thought I was good enough to be a doctor until I overcame that.

So your abuse was an obstacle you had to overcome. It wasn't your motivation for becoming a physician.

 

[mrh125]

The personal statement prompt is pretty generic: why do you want to go to medical school? I didn't know I wanted to go to med school until well into my college career because I lacked the confidence. I got a solid 4.0 every semester & all that but I had very low self esteem because I suffered abuse at home. It finally got to the point where I ended up in the hospital, that was sort of a turning point for me where I realized I needed to get away & get professional help for all the anxiety & depression it had caused. It was after this that I finally fell in love with college, started having a great time, & felt confident enough to shoot for medical school. My grades stayed where they were at too.

I want to talk about this but I'm worried. I've read you shouldn't mention anxiety/depression issues because they'll think you're unstable and won't be able to handle medical school.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks!

As someone who had a similar experience with depression, anxiety, and ADHD don't touch it. If you do, don't explicitly mention it and be vague. A warning though is if you're vague it'll be seen as really generic. Anxiety I expect is a real hot button for admissions to the point where it could easily compromise your admissions if mentioned especially if you had really bad anxiety like panic attacks. Congratulations on overcoming your obstacles, and I wish you could be more honest in the PS and secondaries to medical school, but unfortunately it doesn't work that way.