Personal statement content Q

[JoeDirtMD]

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Hey guys -

I'm in the process of drafting my personal statement and had a few concerns regarding the content.

A few years ago, I had some negative life events happen and subsequently developed some fairly severe mental health issues (currently managed with meds, etc). Anyway, my PS has evolved into a discussion of this as a major motivation to enter behavioral health/blah blah blah. Do you think there would be any issues with admissions thinking me unstable, unable to deal with stress? It's a stigma I've dealt with in the past and would hate for it to affect this, but I think it has the potential to make me a more unique applicant.

Thanks.

 

[caffeinemia]

Hey guys -

I'm in the process of drafting my personal statement and had a few concerns regarding the content.

A few years ago, I had some negative life events happen and subsequently developed some fairly severe mental health issues (currently managed with meds, etc). Anyway, my PS has evolved into a discussion of this as a major motivation to enter behavioral health/blah blah blah. Do you think there would be any issues with admissions thinking me unstable, unable to deal with stress? It's a stigma I've dealt with in the past and would hate for it to affect this, but I think it has the potential to make me a more unique applicant.

Thanks.

Ideally, people would show compassion and interest in you overcoming your struggles. I wish I could support you in that. Pragmatically, an a-hole like me will always think in the back of his mind -- is this kid going to blow his brains out because he got a 190 on step I and just got dumped in the same week... etc etc. As someone who's reviewed a bajillion personal statements -- I can tell you that it's easy to overdo this kind of easy and turn people off. Takes a nuanced writer and can still have variable outcomes. Don't forget, that if you do bring it up, it's fair game on the interview.

 

[dinotso]

If I were you, I would focus more on the subsequent things you did to confirm your interest in medicine (shadowing, research, volunteering, etc).

 

[JoeDirtMD]

What if I were to instead focus on the mental health issues of my father? Would that be enough distance? If that's still enough to raise concern, I'll just rewrite. Even thought it feels disingenuous, I get it.

I appreciate all of the input. It's been very helpful.

 

[operaman]

I would absolutely not mention it at all. Mental illness and substance abuse can kill an application faster than almost anything. It's not fair and physicians should be better about understanding it, but the dumb fact remains that mental illness and substance abuse are some of the most common reasons students fail or worse. There's also a strong argument to be made about the ethics of accepting someone with known severe mental illness into a kind of training that's associated with extremely high stress and may be beyond their ability to cope.

Gonnif has the right idea above - water it down and talk about some specific stories and how you found someone to talk to which helped you navigate some tough situations and now you're inspired to find a way to do that for others.

 

[DingoPingo]

As someone who has also thought about this same exact issue, I decided not to mention any of it to my committee letter writers/application. You never know who's reading your application and what they might think about your health.

And I also don't want my mental health to be what makes me unique. I'm more than that.