Hey guys,
Thanks for the replies.
I guess my doubts lie if I should specifically mention ADD. because i agree with the post above, some doctors are really polarized about ADD..
and additionally, I'm worried admissions com will look "down" on the diagnosis.. since there are people who abuse ADD drugs to help them study and get better grades. Thus maybe in the eyes of an adcom there's no difference between us, except for the fact that I was legitimately diagnosed with ADD.
I was initially thinking to state the situation as something along the lines of I resolved a personal psychiatric disorder .. do you think this is unethical/incorrect?
i don't know if this makes sense to anyone.
If you were diagnosed and still maintained the same stats, I'd say leave it out. But you showed improvement, which further shows the validity of your disorder and the success of the treatment. I'm still in the application process, but I have taken medical physiology alongside medical students, and pharmacology. We have discussed AD/HD in both courses as a real and treatable condition. In the neurology part of our physio course, we saw scans of "AD/HD brains," and we covered how (they think) the meds work in pharmacology, down to the signaling pathways and long-term benefits.
In all fairness, I know people who have been prescribed meds after one or two meetings with my college health center's physicians. It's so easy to get this that I know students who can point you to the "drug sources" for all-nighters. This is the sole reason some don't take the disorder seriously.
I was diagnosed with AD/HD in 1997, during my first year of college. One of the preeminent psychiatrists in the field happened to practice near me (I found him in the book "Driven to Distraction" and he is by all accounts an expert). It took months for him to officially diagnose me. He met with my mother, and had her fill out an inch or two of paperwork. She submitted my report cards and school records starting with kindergarten. I took a battery of tests, including the TOVA (Test of Variable Attention), and had brain scans, blood tests, thyroid function tests...the physical workup alone was more thorough than the one I had when they suspected I had cancer.
I went on Adderall, but only after months of counseling and an official diagnosis was made. He told me that I should only be on the medication for a finite amount of time. Medication, he said, was a tool to be used in conjunction with behavioral therapy, and he would only prescribe it as long as it took for me to be equipped to deal with my AD/HD. So he taught me how to restructure my life so that I could tap into the one advantage of AD/HD: the hyperfocus component. Those of us with the disorder are distracted by nearly everything during lectures or things that don't grab our full attention, but we have an unusual ability to spend hours doing something that we love or just NEED to get done. This is why (to this day) I procrastinate with papers. I can sit down and crank out an "A" term paper within 24 hours of submitting it. In fact, he and others have suggested re-naming it "Attention Inconsistency Syndrome," because it's a more appropriate term.
Anyway, I stayed on Adderall for just under a year. I learned to restructure my life and figure out how to stay on top of what needs to get done. I learned how to make it work in my favor. Keep going to a psychiatrist or psychologist who can help you with this. Medicine is actually the perfect job for someone with AD/HD...my high school counselor even said that with my brain, I needed to do something that engaged me and never stopped moving, like emergency medicine.
Back on topic, AD/HD is regarded in the medical community as something real, but you still have to back it up by demonstrating that you've learned to work with it, and be able to speak to how it will actually be an asset to you as a physician. It doesn't hurt to tell them that you learned to work with it and came off the medication, which should be the end goal. Part of the reason I trusted Dr. LoPresti (besides his accolades, credentials, etc.) was that he was up front with me about the serious risks involved with AD/HD medications, and his refusal to allow me to use them long-term...especially considering the health risks and risk of dependence. That said, he had no problem with prescribing SSRI's and S/NRI's in the long-term. Stimulants should only be used (in this treatment) short-term, and not as a crutch.
I returned to school to pursue medicine almost ten years after my initial diagnosis and treatment. I've considered trying medication again when it's 2am and I have an exam coming up and I'm totally distracted. Instead, I take 15 minutes to goof off on Facebook or SDN, then remind myself what my goals are. I'm graduating this May with a 3.9+ GPA, not because I'm anything special, but because I've learned over the course of many years how to make this work for me.
If you have any questions, please PM me! I'm always happy to help a kindred spirit
🙂
If you're not willing to talk about this in detail, leave it off your application entirely. Definitely don't be vague about personal or psychiatric problems...that will only make them doubt your ability to make it through medical school. They're not allowed (by law) to ask or to judge, but they will (and should) question whether you're mentally and emotionally fit for such a rigorous curriculum and career. In my experience, full disclosure (though carefully worded) is the best approach--and ADCOMs may even feel more confident in you than they do in other similarly great applicants who have yet to deal with adversity.
On another note, Caligirl, you should definitely let medical schools know how you've triumphed over tremendous adversity. Just like with anything else, make sure you don't use it as an "excuse" for bad grades, but as an example of what you've overcome to be a competitive applicant. Who wouldn't admire your tenacity and strength??
