Parent's suicide, my mental health, PS what is too much?

[Futurehuman]

So, I went through very bad depression and anxiety toward the end of high school. It was so bad that I dropped out my senior year. One college kept their acceptance because of my extracurriculars and SAT scores, which is where I ended up going. My first few years in college were also not great academically speaking. The end of my college career was better, and since then I have been working a good patient care job and retaking courses getting As. During these points my mom was very sick with BP which did not help my mental health. She took her life when I was in college. I believe this part of my life taught me a lot about struggle and the depths of the human mind, which in turn taught me a lot about rebuilding myself, self discipline, routines, motivation etc. I do not think my drive to want to become a PA would be there had I not gone through what I went through.

With that being said, I have a draft of my personal statement and only at the end is where I decided to include a few sentences about my past which wrap into my general passion to become a PA. I do not mention my mom, but I do mention my past struggles with mental health have allowed me to learn how to re-structure and rebuild. How to be compassionate and truly motivated to find resolutions for people within the healthcare setting. Is this TMI? I know the general consensus is explain why areas in your transcripts are weak (in my case GPA) in your PS, but I don't want to seem like I'm over sharing.

[floooo]

2 hours ago, Futurehuman said:

So, I went through very bad depression and anxiety toward the end of high school. It was so bad that I dropped out my senior year. One college kept their acceptance because of my extracurriculars and SAT scores, which is where I ended up going. My first few years in college were also not great academically speaking. The end of my college career was better, and since then I have been working a good patient care job and retaking courses getting As. During these points my mom was very sick with BP which did not help my mental health. She took her life when I was in college. I believe this part of my life taught me a lot about struggle and the depths of the human mind, which in turn taught me a lot about rebuilding myself, self discipline, routines, motivation etc. I do not think my drive to want to become a PA would be there had I not gone through what I went through.

With that being said, I have a draft of my personal statement and only at the end is where I decided to include a few sentences about my past which wrap into my general passion to become a PA. I do not mention my mom, but I do mention my past struggles with mental health have allowed me to learn how to re-structure and rebuild. How to be compassionate and truly motivated to find resolutions for people within the healthcare setting. Is this TMI? I know the general consensus is explain why areas in your transcripts are weak (in my case GPA) in your PS, but I don't want to seem like I'm over sharing.

Hey, I think you have a very unique story. In your PS let them know how you handled the stress that you faced, and how you hope to use your knowledge to treat future patients who may be going through the same things you went through. You can briefly mention your low academic performance but then turn that into a positive note and how you began to excel academically. 

Speak about an experience while doing your patient care hours and how it impacted you ,and how it solidified the idea of pursuing a career as a PA. 

Good luck !

[Guest mands]

Hi! 

Okay, I want to give all the possible support I can to you: 

1. i'm sooo incredibly proud of you for overcoming, coming to terms with things, and taking this HUGE step for yourself. 

I think talk about how experiencing mental health first hand, but also through your mother's experience will be a really strong talking point in your personal statement! One thing that is lacking in the medical field is the holistic component. We, as future medical providers, treat the physical, but the intangible is often pushed aside to a tele-psych. Talk about how this is important to incorporate - e.g. incorporating increases medicine compliance, patient care plan compliance, and has better individual outcomes. 

Maybe tie it into a specialty you are interested in - how about psychiatry?? how about emergency medicine??

^That can help with building on your general passion in becoming a PA.

I don't think it's TMI  -  Def. talk about it, and think of it as being vulnerable (which is a huge strong point). 

However, make sure that you really hone in on how you have good ways to help cope with mental health! For me, in one of my essays, I talked about how I had close family members involved with drugs, and how it affected me. Then, I talked about how I was denied mental health care by my family (suggested by a doctor after my dad died when I was 3), and how it was the best thing I gave myself after I moved out of my family home. Like, you have to bring it back and tell them that you are READY to be a PA, and mental health will not be an inhibiter if you were to be admitted into their program. 

When and if you are ready, feel free to shoot me a DM to help you look over your essay! Or I can send you mine/my resume. Even if I can't help with content, i'm happy to help with grammar!