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Many applicants have lived with anxiety, depression, an eating disorder, ADHD or another mental health condition, and many wonder whether to write about it. There is no rule against it, and some excellent essays are about exactly this. There is also no obligation: you never have to disclose anything about your health to a college.
If you are deciding, this guide is about the writing choice. If you are struggling right now, talk to someone you trust or a professional first; the essay can wait. In the US, you can call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at any time.
Should you write about mental health?
| It can work well when | Consider another topic when |
|---|---|
| You have some distance from the hardest period | You are in the middle of it and the writing feels raw |
| You can show what you did, learned or built | The essay would be mostly a description of symptoms |
| It is central to who you are now | It is one part of your story and something else says more about you |
| You are comfortable with strangers reading it | You would rather keep it private, which is completely fine |
How to write it well
My depression was the hardest thing I have ever faced, but I overcame it and now I am stronger than ever.
The counselor's first suggestion was a notebook, which I found insulting. Eight months later I have filled three of them, mostly with lists of small things that went right, and I have started leaving blank ones on the desks of friends who seem to need them.
- 1Keep the condition in the background and you in the foreground. The essay is about how you think and act, not a medical history.
- 2Spend a short paragraph on the hardest part, and most of the essay on your response: habits, help you asked for, things you changed, people you supported.
- 3Be specific about growth, and honest that it is ongoing. Recovery rarely ends neatly, and readers trust essays that do not pretend it does.
- 4Show who you are beyond it: interests, humor, values. The condition is part of your story, not all of it.
- 5End looking forward, with something you do now because of what you learned.
Other places in the application for context
If a mental health condition affected your grades or attendance but is not what you want your essay to be about, you can explain it briefly elsewhere. The Common App's additional information section and its challenges and circumstances question exist for exactly this. A school counselor can also mention it in their letter, with your permission.
Read next: The additional information section
Mistakes to avoid
- Clinical detail, diagnoses lists or graphic descriptions of self-harm. They shift the focus away from you as a person.
- Presenting the story as completely solved if it is not.
- Writing about a friend's or family member's mental health with yourself absent.
- Using the essay to explain a grade drop at length. That belongs in additional information.
- Writing about it because you think it is what colleges want. They do not need a hardship essay.
Read next: College essay topics to avoid · Common App prompt 2: a challenge or setback
Questions
A score out of 100, a note on every sentence, the paragraph costing you most and a 10-point draft check, in 5–10 minutes. We never write a word of your essay.
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