Writing about depression in personal statement

[dmig9]

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My personal statement includes an incredibly stressful period in my life which eventually led me to have an encounter with depression which led to a poor semester. After this period I was able to set myself straight and then made the Dean's List each semester for the rest of my undergraduate career. Working through this period of emotional distress is something that I believe has transformed me into a much stronger person who is much more appreciative of the opportunities ahead of me.

My question is, will this hurt my chances of being accepted even though I am now completely stable? Also, if anyone would be willing to take a look at the essay and let me know if it is written in such a way that an adcom will see it in a positive light and if it is a solid PS in general, please PM me and I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[Desp]

It's a tossup cowboy.

As long as you keep to positive language you might be able to pull it off. But, it will definitely cross their minds that you were depressed once and very well could become depressed again.

It's a ballsy move but maybe you'll throw the ball for a homerun.

 

[alerk323]

It's a tossup cowboy.

As long as you keep to positive language you might be able to pull it off. But, it will definitely cross their minds that you were depressed once and very well could become depressed again.

It's a ballsy move but maybe you'll throw the ball for a homerun.

wouldn't that be bad

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

I would definitely avoid mentioning that sort of thing. Med school is stressful, the ad com is going to see you got stressed out in undergrad which led to bad performance and assume there's a risk the same thing is going to happen again in med school except with even worse results.

Mental disorders are perceived to be ailments that don't really ever go away, they just subside and reappear every so often. Mentioning that you had impaired performance because of a mental disorder in the past is most likely going to hurt you. Keep your PS as positive as possible. The only time you should talk about a hardship is when it's an "acceptable" hardship like growing up in poverty or battling cancer that has since undergone complete remission.

 

[deleted103644]

Do not mention depression.

Explain any other hardships, but signs of depression in an application can tank it.

Schools are worried enough about the mental health of students with no history of problems as they go through the stress of medical school, they actively try to avoid students with a history of depression.

 

[Aerus]

If you do, make sure you make it clear that you won't relapse into depression.

Depression is a common thing and sometimes, adcoms may want to play it safe and just accept someone whose never had it, because when comparing two people with equivalent competitiveness, why not accept the one who hasn't been depressed before.

The only reason you'd want to mention depression is to demonstrate superior coping mechanisms. It should never be used as an excuse for lower grades.

 

[catzzz88]

If you do, make sure you make it clear that you won't relapse into depression.

Depression is a common thing and sometimes, adcoms may want to play it safe and just accept someone whose never had it, because when comparing two people with equivalent competitiveness, why not accept the one who hasn't been depressed before.

The only reason you'd want to mention depression is to demonstrate superior coping mechanisms. It should never be used as an excuse for lower grades.

DO NOT MENTION DEPRESSION IN YOUR PS. I think that most of us understand what you are saying, but that when it comes to AdCom, they are looking for a very specific kind of person and this kind of thing can either go for you or against you. It is best to completely leave out any mention of depression.

Also, Aerus, it is not possible to "make it clear that you won't relapse into depression." This is not possible to do as anyone, including those who have never been depressed, can suddenly find themselves depressed.

Also, I agree with Aerus that if you ABSOLUTELY must mention your depression, you should not use it as an excuse for low grades or even mention low grades and depression in the same paragraph. Everyone gets a bit depressed sometimes and its the people who can keep grades up regardless that are the most impressive.

I know that this stuff is not ideal, but you have to remember what you are up against here... its truly best not to mention depression.

Good luck!

Best,
C

 

[Aerus]

DO NOT MENTION DEPRESSION IN YOUR PS. I think that most of us understand what you are saying, but that when it comes to AdCom, they are looking for a very specific kind of person and this kind of thing can either go for you or against you. It is best to completely leave out any mention of depression.

Also, Aerus, it is not possible to "make it clear that you won't relapse into depression." This is not possible to do as anyone, including those who have never been depressed, can suddenly find themselves depressed.

Also, I agree with Aerus that if you ABSOLUTELY must mention your depression, you should not use it as an excuse for low grades or even mention low grades and depression in the same paragraph. Everyone gets a bit depressed sometimes and its the people who can keep grades up regardless that are the most impressive.

I know that this stuff is not ideal, but you have to remember what you are up against here... its truly best not to mention depression.

Good luck!

Best,
C

Sorry about that wording. I meant along the lines of

"I was depressed but now I'm definitely better, with new found motivation to succeed. I was diagnosed for clinical depression, but seeked treatment, was on a regime, and am now much better because of it."

as opposed to

"I'm so depressed all the time, so my grades are low. If I wasn't depressed my grades would be much higher. I'm pretty sure it won't happen again in medical school."

They want to know that you've taken care of your depression before even thinking of entering Medical School. A person who has been diagnosed with depression, but seeked treatment is much less likely to relapse than a person who had depression but didn't do anything about it and tried to "wait it off" until it seemed to go away.

 

[Accalia]

DO NOT MENTION DEPRESSION IN YOUR PS. I think that most of us understand what you are saying, but that when it comes to AdCom, they are looking for a very specific kind of person and this kind of thing can either go for you or against you. It is best to completely leave out any mention of depression.

Also, Aerus, it is not possible to "make it clear that you won't relapse into depression." This is not possible to do as anyone, including those who have never been depressed, can suddenly find themselves depressed.

Also, I agree with Aerus that if you ABSOLUTELY must mention your depression, you should not use it as an excuse for low grades or even mention low grades and depression in the same paragraph. Everyone gets a bit depressed sometimes and its the people who can keep grades up regardless that are the most impressive.

I know that this stuff is not ideal, but you have to remember what you are up against here... its truly best not to mention depression.

Good luck!

Best,
C

Everyone gets "depressed" in a colloquial sense. Depressed mood is a normal reaction to a lot of stressors, but it's very, very different from clinical depression. The lifetime prevalence rate of major depression is around 10% for men and 20% for women. I just wanted to point that out.

OP, if I were you, I wouldn't mention the depression in my personal statement. Unfortunately, mental disorders are stigmatized, and while I hope that healthcare professionals would be more understanding, I wouldn't risk it. I agree with others' advice that you should try to focus on something positive. I suggest writing about the experiences that have led you to medicine. If you PM me, I'd be happy to help. Good luck!

 

[Lil Mick]

There are good and bad ways to work something like that in your PS. I have some experience (addiction in my case) and am sending you a PM. Also reading PS dealing with this if anyone else has this question/similar question.

 

[OCDOCDOCD]

Sorry about that wording. I meant along the lines of

"I was depressed but now I'm definitely better, with new found motivation to succeed. I was diagnosed for clinical depression, but seeked treatment, was on a regime, and am now much better because of it."

as opposed to

"I'm so depressed all the time, so my grades are low. If I wasn't depressed my grades would be much higher. I'm pretty sure it won't happen again in medical school."

They want to know that you've taken care of your depression before even thinking of entering Medical School. A person who has been diagnosed with depression, but seeked treatment is much less likely to relapse than a person who had depression but didn't do anything about it and tried to "wait it off" until it seemed to go away.

That still wouldn't be good. Again, ANY history of a mental illness is going to look bad, especially if it's one that can interfere with a person's ability and would be highly likely to get triggered by the stress of med school like depression. As much as med schools hate having students that fail out due to bad performance, they really hate having students drop out by throwing themselves off a bridge or using their new found knowledge in pharmacology to OD themselves.

I don't care how uplifting your story about overcoming depression is, it's not a story you should ever tell to an ad com or employer. Find something else to talk about.

 

[deleted103644]

Depression can affect med school performance in much more subtle ways than SI.

It can make you not go to class, not study, even bail on tests, as well as affecting professionalism during clinical rotations.

Someone with a history of depression is much more at risk for recurrence than someone without a history, so adcoms take it very seriously.

I'd wager depression is behind a majority of the cases of people not finishing medical school, so they want to protect their graduation stats.

 

[wolfie77]

My personal statement includes an incredibly stressful period in my life which eventually led me to have an encounter with depression which led to a poor semester. After this period I was able to set myself straight and then made the Dean's List each semester for the rest of my undergraduate career. Working through this period of emotional distress is something that I believe has transformed me into a much stronger person who is much more appreciative of the opportunities ahead of me.

My question is, will this hurt my chances of being accepted even though I am now completely stable? Also, if anyone would be willing to take a look at the essay and let me know if it is written in such a way that an adcom will see it in a positive light and if it is a solid PS in general, please PM me and I would greatly appreciate it.

Was your depression precipitated by some event in your life? If so, it's less likely that your illness would come back and I would consider mentioning it (if it was that important in shaping you).

If your depression out of the blue, it's more likely it may come back at some point down the road, and in that case I would not mention this in your app.

 

[dmig9]

In response to wolfie: yes, at the time i had taken an extensive role in my family business and thus my future livelihood. I was also participating in both football and track and field. These responsibilities became overwhelming and I received the worst gpa of my life (3.33) which all accumulated to precipitate my depressed state.

 

[1289]

In response to wolfie: yes, at the time i had taken an extensive role in my family business and thus my future livelihood. I was also participating in both football and track and field. These responsibilities became overwhelming and I received the worst gpa of my life (3.33) which all accumulated to precipitate my depressed state.

I don't know if those life events are the types of things that adcoms would look for to justify a depressed period of your life. I'm not trying to minimize your level of stress at the time, i'm sure it was a lot to handle, but something like a serious illness/loss of a parent etc is what one might expect to see.

 

[Bro Dude]

It may be a huge red flag on your app. Some adcoms will probably be like...

Depression?! ...

 

[penguindoc2012]

I agree with everyone above. You want to avoid mentioning anything in you personal statement which could cause adcoms to question your ability to handle med school.

 

[Aerus]

That still wouldn't be good. Again, ANY history of a mental illness is going to look bad, especially if it's one that can interfere with a person's ability and would be highly likely to get triggered by the stress of med school like depression. As much as med schools hate having students that fail out due to bad performance, they really hate having students drop out by throwing themselves off a bridge or using their new found knowledge in pharmacology to OD themselves.

I don't care how uplifting your story about overcoming depression is, it's not a story you should ever tell to an ad com or employer. Find something else to talk about.

Yes, as I said before, I agree that talking about depression can be used as possible ammunition against you. I was only giving a "If you MUST mention depression at all".

Saying that "it's not a story you should ever tell to an ad com" might be a bit of an extreme statement. There are possible circumstances where depression might have been significant in that person's life and a portion to their "Why Medicine?" answer. It's impossible to account for all the possibilities.

Anyways, yes, it's much better to think of something else to write, but if you must, it must be made clear that this has long been taken care of.

 

[450618]

NO NO NO. Absolutely DO NOT mention depression in your PS. An undergraduate asked my master's faculty advisor if she should include a depression comeback story in her PS statement for grad school, and my advisor (Ph.D. Clinical Psychologist and a leading researcher in the field) said absolutely NOT. And this was for psych school, for god sake. Med school adcoms are looking to make sure you can handle chronic stress/high pressure life and death situations while running on 4 hours of sleep for the last week. Unless you want to apply next cycle, I would avoid this at all costs. Redemptive ending or not, this will be a major red flag.

 

[Hour30]

My advice for the personal statement would be to keep it simple and mainstream. You don't want to be too creative, as it could do you more harm than good. Set yourself apart with "slam dunk" material, such as volunteer activities, board scores, leadership skills.

With depression, 50% may see it in a positive light, and 50% may not. It is a toss-up to know who is reading it. Why leave it up to a toss-up?