apparently it does not go without saying, but if you’re in high school and you’re writing a college essay and have to talk about a big challenge you overcame, never ever and i repeat NEVER talk about your mental health. don’t do it. it doesn’t matter if you’re stable and healthy now, do not talk about it. just don’t. ok this has been a PSA.
uh query why not
there are very few cases where a student can pull this off without sounding like a liability to the university. the admissions office is not your friend. they may be progressive on paper, but 1000% they will avoid recruiting students who may “present problems” later on down the line. nobody wants to have it on paper that they admitted someone with mental health concerns and then later have to fight a lawsuit where something happened to the student in the dorms.
my #1 rule on this for college essay writing is you can talk about mental health only in the context of another tangible life event. your mother had cancer, this is how it affected you, this is how you dealt with it. you had a shitty childhood, this is how you survived, and you’re out of that situation now. do not talk about medications you took / are taking. do NOT talk about self harm. if you go anywhere near these subjects, you need to have an absolutely unimpeachable writing style and way of contextualizing it that firmly establishes that you are far beyond that point and will not go back.
you are sending your essay into a black box where you do not know the personal politics of the people at the admissions table. mental health stigma is very very real. you can make a point of challenging it once you get into the university, but do not stake your admissions on it! don’t risk losing out on that opportunity to make a point. there are ways to write around it. you can communicate the same depth of meaning without disclosing absolutely everything.