KosAbility: Mental Illness and Advocacy

DrPlacebo

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 28, 2010 · 2:23 PM PST

2010/11/28 · 14:23

Half of all graduate and professional students experience depression at some point. In the spring of 2007, in my second year of medical school, I was one of them. I was first diagnosed with depression as a first-year medical student; looking back, I had probably been dealing with it for a few years before that, but didn't realize it at the time.

One of the most difficult things to do when depressed is to seek help, and as my story illustrates, a hugely important step toward encouraging those with depression to seek help is to take away the stigma that surrounds depression and other mental illnesses, and to guarantee the rights of people with mental illness.

RSS