The medical student was depressed and nearly 1,500 miles from home. Feeling homesick is a common sentiment for students, but as she settled into her new life at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, the student said, she felt especially alone.
She had long suffered from depression, and now, in an unfamiliar terrain, she could feel the familiar symptoms of the condition creeping in. While she attempted to balance the stress and responsibilities of medical school -- what she described as the “innate adjustment you go through when entering a professional program” -- the symptoms grew worse.
She was told to talk to a psychiatrist, she later recalled, but she wasn’t sure she had time in her schedule for counseling. Before long, she was hospitalized for trying to harm herself.
The student is not alone. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, medical students have rates of depression 15 to 30 percent higher than the general population. Nearly 10 percent of fourth-year medical students in a 2009 study reported having suicidal thoughts in the previous two weeks. Few seek help.
[For more of this story, written by Jake New, go to https://www.insidehighered.com...lear-stigma-persists]
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