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Everyone on this thread is right in saying that you don't know what it's like to be a med student and you can't know that until you are one. But they are forgetting one crucial thing. They don't know what it's like to be a high functioning bipolar person and get from your bottom to where you are now. I've done both, and I can tell you that what you've already done is harder than med school.
The "even healthy people break" thing - to be honest at my school I see the healthier people who've had easier lives break first because they haven't had to handle adversity before. And if I'm being really honest, medical school isn't an adversity. Sure it's stressful at times, sure it's more work than I could've imagined, but it's nowhere near as hard as my life before. And, like you, I do much better with structure and a lot to do, so med school has improved my mental health if anything.
If this is what you want to do, talk with your treatment team, be religious about taking your meds, and make sure you understand exactly what you need to do to maintain stability. Go to a supportive school - regardless of where you are, there will be a disability office that can arrange for accommodations in advance should you have a mood episode. I would advise not disclosing a diagnosis in any applications - perhaps a reference to health problems influencing the poor academic performance in your past if you need to, but see if you can find some good school advisors to talk to about that.
I think everyone here means well, but I'm inferring a general consensus from the thread that people with mental illness are more fragile and more of a liability, and for someone who's made quite a recovery like yourself, that simply isn't true.
The "even healthy people break" thing - to be honest at my school I see the healthier people who've had easier lives break first because they haven't had to handle adversity before. And if I'm being really honest, medical school isn't an adversity. Sure it's stressful at times, sure it's more work than I could've imagined, but it's nowhere near as hard as my life before. And, like you, I do much better with structure and a lot to do, so med school has improved my mental health if anything.
If this is what you want to do, talk with your treatment team, be religious about taking your meds, and make sure you understand exactly what you need to do to maintain stability. Go to a supportive school - regardless of where you are, there will be a disability office that can arrange for accommodations in advance should you have a mood episode. I would advise not disclosing a diagnosis in any applications - perhaps a reference to health problems influencing the poor academic performance in your past if you need to, but see if you can find some good school advisors to talk to about that.
I think everyone here means well, but I'm inferring a general consensus from the thread that people with mental illness are more fragile and more of a liability, and for someone who's made quite a recovery like yourself, that simply isn't true.
