Quoted: anorexia nervosa and med school application: fit for practice?

[Doodledog]

Hi there,
I'm new to the site and just wanted a bit of advice really. I have suffered from anorexia for about four years and have had two hospital admissions. I was discharged from the most recent hospital at the beginning of May this year and am finally on the road to recovery I have decided that I want to apply to medical school but was told that in order to be accepted you have to be considered as "fit to practice" and that different medical schools have different ideas of what this means. I am concerned that my medical history will work against my application, but want to be honest about what has happened. Should I mention my illness in my personal statement? Will saying or not saying about it affect my chances of getting an offer? Thanks for any advice

A couple of things to consider

1. I do not think anyone would consider a history of AN as being unfit to practice regardless of needing to be hospitalized in the past. If you search you'll see numerous threads about applicants with a history of various eating disorders. What matters is that your recovery has been long enough for YOU to be prepared to move forward with a stressful process or application and matriculation. There are many recovered eating disorder patients in medicine in many roles.

2. The decision as to whether to include it in your application is yours alone. If you mention it, you must be clear about your having recovered and you should generally mention it briefly. That is, focus on the positives - what makes you a good candidate for medical school? If you do mention it, be prepared to discuss it in your interview and how it has affected your med school application. If you don't, consider whether it will be mentioned by anyone who writes you a letter of recommendation. Probably not, but you might wish to think about this.

3. SDN is a friendly place, but I do not recommend using any part of your real name in your posts anywhere on this site. I've omitted your name from your post and take all advice given with a grain of salt.

good luck

Tildy (my real name, but I'm a dog)

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[KN1010]

I was in a similar situation during my undergrad schooling. I never got to the point where I was hospitalized, but I did have to seek professional help and medical assistance to get me back on track again.
When it came time to write my personal statement for medical school applications I decided to make it the topic of the essay. I basically used the angle that the hardest opponent we all fight is really ourselves. And that I had fought that fight and won and it made me stronger and a better candidate to be a doctor. The schools must have eaten it up cause I got accepted at all 8 of the programs I applied to (and my grades and MCAT were nothing amazing, very average so it wasn't my transcript that impressed them).
So I say use your experience to show them you can overcome obstacles and you are willing to ask for help when you need it.
Best of luck!