Medical Education US

i'm diagnosed with bipolar disorder, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, and an eating disorder. all of these have at one point been pretty severe, but i am mostly stabilized right now, and i'm just entering college in the fall so i assume that i will be feeling even better by the time i get to medical school. my question is, have any of you dealt with mental illness while attending med school? did you have breakdowns? how did you deal with them? do you think a person is capable of attending even though they have these things in their history, with the possibility of stress-triggered episodes occurring in the future? i don't want to set any unrealistic expectations for myself. i can't realistically say if i could deal with the stress because i don't know what the stress is like. i only went to high school for three months and was homeschooled the rest of the time, so i really have no idea. i guess i'll know more once i'm an undergrad.

Medical school is a huge challenge for those with great mental and physical health. Having physical or mental health issues increases the challenge of completing medical school. I know people with mental illnesses that have completed medical school and residency and are doing okay in their profession. I'm sure it wasn't easy. I have heard of accomodations being made in some residency programs for individuals with mental illness. The one that comes to mind is hearing of someone with bipolar disorder being excused from taking overnight calls as lack of sleep clearly exacerbated his/her illness.

Your experience in college should give you significant additional information as to how you will handle the stress of medical education. The pre-med courses are academically challenging and will be a good initial "test" to see how you handle stress.

Medical school is more than just an academic challenge though, as the long hours and intense issues are also physically and emotionally challenging.

I was asked a similar question here last fall about someone with mental illness wanting to become a psychiatrist.

thank you for the honesty. i think it's definitely something i need to seriously consider, especially as an undergrad. it's nice to know someone got some accommodations made for her, especially because sleep deprivation is the number one thing i worry about with going to medical school.

qualquun wrote:i'm diagnosed with bipolar disorder, ADHD, OCD, PTSD, and an eating disorder. all of these have at one point been pretty severe, but i am mostly stabilized right now, and i'm just entering college in the fall so i assume that i will be feeling even better by the time i get to medical school. my question is, have any of you dealt with mental illness while attending med school? did you have breakdowns? how did you deal with them? do you think a person is capable of attending even though they have these things in their history, with the possibility of stress-triggered episodes occurring in the future? i don't want to set any unrealistic expectations for myself. i can't realistically say if i could deal with the stress because i don't know what the stress is like. i only went to high school for three months and was homeschooled the rest of the time, so i really have no idea. i guess i'll know more once i'm an undergrad.

Turn your mental illness into your secret weapon to becoming a great physician. There are many physicians who have never experienced adversity or health conditions. Therefore, some of them experience difficulties connecting to their patients. I equate this to not understanding the plights of the homeless unless you, or someone close to you, has lived on the streets. Standing on the outside, I can have sympathy for the sick, but someone who has lived through personal illness will be able to connect on a deeper level. You will have empathy for the patients who come to you with mental illness because of your history, and you can be a strong source of encouragement.

Now, here's the caveat. I would advise you take proactive measures before matriculating. Contact student health services for mental health support and arrange for tutoring services on day one. Taking proactive measures may help ensure that your illnesses do not intervene with your medical education. Use this time NOW to identify any emotional triggers and integrate various stress management techniques into your daily life. Sit down and have a candid discussion with your mental health provider and come up with a plan. Good luck.

Interesting. Someone was spamming the forum with links to unrelated websites, but they plagiarized some relevant information as the text of the posts. I found the plagiarized stories and am linking to them here:

Highs and Lows: Bipolar in Medical School

and

Physicians, Medical Students Struggle with Mental Illness and Suicide

Thank you medone, that was a VERY helpful post! I love it. Though I am in college now (AND DOING GREAT!) medical school is not really my main goal anymore, though I am still fulfilling the requirements out of interest in all of those subjects, and I am in a long-term volunteer assignment at a hospital. I want to shadow a doctor that I hopefully meet through the hospital as well. I'm not positive it is what I want to do but it is still definitely an option. Right now I just want to get through my freshman year alive and still enrolled...hey, I got through the first term and I have a 4.0 so far and I'm super stable and even...dare I say, happy?... so it's a start!

I know this is super old, but DrDave, what a great article (the first one, the second one does not open to anything anymore). This was really helpful and encouraging Also, medone was not the one spamming, were they?

Qualquun,

I honestly don't remember what the post was that was spamming the forum, but I am fairly sure it was NOT medone. I fixed the link to the second article as the AAMC website reorganized.

I'm very happy to hear you are doing well. Keep up the good work, enjoy college, and take care of yourself.