Talking about an issue with medication on AMCAS?

[NeedSomeAdviceGuy]

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Hey guys!

So a little backstory. Terrible undergrad (2.7 gpa), fantastic 2 years of post-bacc (~3.9, nothing less than a A-)

I know a lot of secondaries ask questions along the lines of "explain why you may have done poorly during your undergrad" and what not. Now for the most part there were external factors that affected me during undergrad, but those aren't the issues I like to talk about because those were circumstances I had no control over. I've been focusing on the things I can change and that's what has allowed me to do so well during my post-bacc. Of the typical solutions (better discipline, maturity, etc) there was also something else that helped tremendously.

I had been prescribed and on adderall since 7th grade. I used it every day of my life until mid-2014. When I graduated and realized things needed to change if I wanted to live my dream of becoming a doctor one of the things I did was get off adderall. Now, I understand there are plenty of people prescribed adderall for legitimate reasons and who should really be on it. I was prescribed for legitimate reasons, but in hindsight it was certainly not right for me. I've only ever known adderall during my academic career. I wasn't 11 anymore either, maybe things would be different if I got off of it.

I got off cold turkey and that started the hardest 3 months of my life. I would dream about it, crave it, tell myself "I NEED it" and that frightened me. Realizing how dependent I was on it strengthened my resolve of getting off it (I've had several relatives die of drug overdose and addiction runs in the family, so this feeling hit home)

When the fog cleared up after withdrawal I was definitely different. I didn't have the intense focus I had when I was on it, but that was a good thing. While on it I would hyperfocus to a fault. I would re-read the same sentence over and over again, or I would get stuck up on some minutia of the lecture rather than high-yield content and spend all my free time looking into it even though it was of no help to me. After being off of it and "re-learning" how to learn and focus I started doing tremendously well. At first it was A's and A-s, but after the first year of the post-bacc I was only getting As.

I'm a little hesitant to add this to my PS and/or secondaries because I fear it will be taken negatively (maybe taken as drug abuse even though it was prescribed), but it truly did have a huge impact on my life and I would feel almost disingenuous to talk about my comeback without mentioning the part adderall took in it.


Any pointers? Tips? Should I include? Any particular way I should go about it?

<3

 

[Redpancreas]

Hey guys!

So a little backstory. Terrible undergrad (2.7 gpa), fantastic 2 years of post-bacc (~3.9, nothing less than a A-)

I know a lot of secondaries ask questions along the lines of "explain why you may have done poorly during your undergrad" and what not. Now for the most part there were external factors that affected me during undergrad, but those aren't the issues I like to talk about because those were circumstances I had no control over. I've been focusing on the things I can change and that's what has allowed me to do so well during my post-bacc. Of the typical solutions (better discipline, maturity, etc) there was also something else that helped tremendously.

I had been prescribed and on adderall since 7th grade. I used it every day of my life until mid-2014. When I graduated and realized things needed to change if I wanted to live my dream of becoming a doctor one of the things I did was get off adderall. Now, I understand there are plenty of people prescribed adderall for legitimate reasons and who should really be on it. I was prescribed for legitimate reasons, but in hindsight it was certainly not right for me. I've only ever known adderall during my academic career. I wasn't 11 anymore either, maybe things would be different if I got off of it.

I got off cold turkey and that started the hardest 3 months of my life. I would dream about it, crave it, tell myself "I NEED it" and that frightened me. Realizing how dependent I was on it strengthened my resolve of getting off it (I've had several relatives die of drug overdose and addiction runs in the family, so this feeling hit home)

When the fog cleared up after withdrawal I was definitely different. I didn't have the intense focus I had when I was on it, but that was a good thing. While on it I would hyperfocus to a fault. I would re-read the same sentence over and over again, or I would get stuck up on some minutia of the lecture rather than high-yield content and spend all my free time looking into it even though it was of no help to me. After being off of it and "re-learning" how to learn and focus I started doing tremendously well. At first it was A's and A-s, but after the first year of the post-bacc I was only getting As.

I'm a little hesitant to add this to my PS and/or secondaries because I fear it will be taken negatively (maybe taken as drug abuse even though it was prescribed), but it truly did have a huge impact on my life and I would feel almost disingenuous to talk about my comeback without mentioning the part adderall took in it.


Any pointers? Tips? Should I include? Any particular way I should go about it?

<3

Do not mention this. It can only hurt you. Medical schools will not see any value in it. It is also nothing unique as you'll be surprised by the stimulant use/abuse at the high school, undergraduate, and medical school level. Your PS/secondaries at best should be strongly polished statements that demonstrate your professionalism and humanistic values while being crisp. I would take a forgettable PS full of platitudes than anything memorable that resembles your OP. This is not the place to talk about your deep, personal struggles. Everyone has comebacks. Don't even allude to it. Sorry for being harsh, but this will do you no favors.

 

[NeedSomeAdviceGuy]

Do not mention this. It can only hurt you. Medical schools will not see any value in it. It is also nothing unique as you'll be surprised by the stimulant use/abuse at the high school, undergraduate, and medical school level. Your PS/secondaries at best should be strongly polished statements that demonstrate your professionalism and humanistic values while being crisp. I would take a forgettable PS full of platitudes than anything memorable that resembles your OP. This is not the place to talk about your deep, personal struggles. Everyone has comebacks. Don't even allude to it. Sorry for being harsh, but this will do you no favors.

Technically I wouldn't say it was abuse. I was taking my prescribed dosage.

But I understand what you're saying.

I assume when secondaries ask me questions that have to do with academic struggles I should focus on the maturity/discipline aspect and not touch on things like divorce/deaths in the family/aderral then correct?

Edit: also what I wrote in the OP is not how I would've written it in my secondaries. It would've been a 1 or 2 sentence mention.

 

[LizzyM]

I think that the question to ask yourself in these situations would be, "would knowing this about me make an adcom more likely to offer admission than they would be if I withheld this information?"

 

[NeedSomeAdviceGuy]

I think that the question to ask yourself in these situations would be, "would knowing this about me make an adcom more likely to offer admission than they would be if I withheld this information?"

Do you think it'd be a good idea to mention that there were external factors at play (without explictly stating what they were) but that I focused on the internal factors as that was the only thing I could change and that after doing that is when I was able to dig myself out of the hole that had been dug

Edit: if an interviewer asked about these external factors would be okay to briefly mention it on the context of it being prescribed?

 

[LizzyM]

Do you think it'd be a good idea to mention that there were external factors at play (without explictly stating what they were) but that I focused on the internal factors as that was the only thing I could change and that after doing that is when I was able to dig myself out of the hole that had been dug

Sometimes it is the external factors over which you have no control that are relevant. (Parent or sibling dies, house burns down, etc) Sometimes these just look like an excuse (my father's 90 year old uncle was treated for prostate cancer during my freshman year).

I don't know much about the drug you were taking but if you decided on your own to stop taking it and to manage your condition on your own, then you might be considered to have poor judgement by anyone who believes/knows that those types of decisions should be made under the supervision of a clinician who provides medical advise about how to safely taper from the drug, manage side effects or withdrawal, etc.

 

[NeedSomeAdviceGuy]

Sometimes it is the external factors over which you have no control that are relevant. (Parent or sibling dies, house burns down, etc) Sometimes these just look like an excuse (my father's 90 year old uncle was treated for prostate cancer during my freshman year).

I don't know much about the drug you were taking but if you decided on your own to stop taking it and to manage your condition on your own, then you might be considered to have poor judgement by anyone who believes/knows that those types of decisions should be made under the supervision of a clinician who provides medical advise about how to safely taper from the drug, manage side effects or withdrawal, etc.

To the first part - that's one of the reasons I don't want to go into the external factors too much because on paper they don't seem as impactful as they were to me. For one, had an uncle and an aunt both die of drug overdose within 18 months of each other (strong history of drug problems in my family, which is why I'm hesitant to bring this into the picture with Adderall in the same boat). Second, my grandma died after falling in her home (on a weekend I was supposed to go home and spend time with her nonetheless). While having a grandmother die on paper is sad but not an excuse, it was exceptionally hard for me because she was the one who really raised me. My dad worked extremely long hours then was off to the bar, my mom went back to school and worked nights and I spent the majority of my time with my grandmother growing up. During high school I was the one who took care of her after her second bout of cancer, and she was the person more than anybody I wanted to see me get into medical school. I'm actually having a hard time writing this without getting teary-eyed, but back to my point it would be rough to throw in the story of my grandma to have weight without also mentioning my relationship with her which would get wordy. And on top of all this was the close-calls divorce of my parents (which if not for the fact my dad requires my mom's income/health insurance to live would've definitely gone through) which was an ongoing 3 year thing, and the question of my paternity was even brought up.


All in all, these factors were hard on me but would be difficult to universally share with ADCOMS which is why I do not want to focus on it - especially for the fact that if I had the maturity and discipline I did today these situations would not have affected me as much as they did, bringing back to the fact that internal factors are still mostly at fault.



As for second, that's a good point you bring up about the Adderall and not one I thought about. The reason I didn't consult my neurologist (and not one I would bring up here) is because he was plainly an idiot and didn't seem to even understand basic neurobiology half the time. He was erratic and hostile at times, and his behavior was all over the place. He even went on to accusing me of stealing his prescription pad once when it was stolen 2 weeks before our appointment and I had not seen him for over 3 weeks. I could've gone to a different doctor but I'm from an extremely underserved area healthcare-wise, and the only doctors that took my insurance without copays were extremely limited. This is definitely not something I would go into with adcoms, so all-in-all I think you're correct about dropping the Adderall subject.

 

[LizzyM]

Dead grandmothers are a bit of a cliche but in this case, it might be worth saying that you lost your grandmother who had raised you due to disfunctional family circumstances and her death, due to a fatal fall, and the death of an aunt and uncle all within xx months of each other was very difficult. That really doesn't take up much room. Are you applying as a disadvantaged applicant due to being raised in an underserved area? You should.

 

[NeedSomeAdviceGuy]

Dead grandmothers are a bit of a cliche but in this case, it might be worth saying that you lost your grandmother who had raised you due to disfunctional family circumstances and her death, due to a fatal fall, and the death of an aunt and uncle all within xx months of each other was very difficult. That really doesn't take up much room. Are you applying as a disadvantaged applicant due to being raised in an underserved area? You should.

Yes, I am definitely doing that. Is there a way to officially look up underserved communities (I still know for a fact my neighborhood qualifies, it's the de-facto "ghetto" and "projects" of the area, home to a hospital that's almost closed so many times it isn't funny. One that's joked about if you were ever shot you'd rather treat your own wounds than go there).

And thank you I will work with the wording to make sure it fits as a viable excuse and not sound like a cliché as you said.

 

[LizzyM]

Is there a way to officially look up underserved communities

HRSA Data Warehouse – Shortage Areas

 

[NeedSomeAdviceGuy]

HRSA Data Warehouse – Shortage Areas

I put my address into the "Find Shortage Area" and got the results

In a Primary Care HPSA: Yes
In a MUA/P: Yes
(Weird it says there's not a mental health shortage, the nearest psychiatrist that I'm aware of requires you to travel to a different county, unless the mental health status has more to it)​

The DS part of the AMCAS allows me 1300 characters to explain my status. Should I go into more depth about my financial situation (I of course would include the facts that I qualified for free lunch at school, etc).

Thank you again

EDIT: Is there any negative to applying as a DS? It's difficult to write about my hardships in light of those around me. When it came to all the people I met during my undergrad, I was easily the most disadvantaged of the bunch but back home, compared to the majority of my friends and neighbors, they faced some significantly extra hardships it's hard to pool myself in with them. Would ADCOMS look at this, compared to others who came from significantly worse backgrounds, and see it as a pitiful attempt to be noticed?

 

[LizzyM]

It doesn't really matter what the feds report about shortages; if you feel that you or your family did not get adequate care due to shortages, you can check that box.

Start a separate thread and ask someone to read your "disadvantaged" statement and someone may PM you (send a personal message).