In today's podcast, I share my top dos and don'ts for discussing childhood trauma and related events in your personal statement.In today’s podcast, I share my top dos and don’ts for discussing childhood trauma and related events in your personal statement.Listen to this podcast episode with the player above, or keep reading for the highlights and takeaway points.By the way, the episodes in this podcast are recordings of our Facebook Live that we do at 3pm Eastern on most weekdays. Check out our Facebook page and like the page to be notified. Also, listen to our other podcasts on MedEd Media. If you have any questions, call me at 617-410-6747.[00:24] Question of the DayQ: "I've read part of your personal statement book, and you recommend telling your story that led you to medicine and your journey and all that. My story involves childhood trauma that is definitely a piece of it that has led me this way. And my physician recommended that I do not disclose it in the personal statement. However, I feel like it is so much a piece of my journey to medicine that I'm not sure how to exclude it. I survived childhood sexual abuse and had suppressed the memories until late in my junior year of college. I began volunteering as a sexual assault advocate. And through that training, the memory started coming back. So then my senior year of undergrad, I did okay, my GPA went down a bit. I had a 4.0 Junior year and then a 3.6. Senior year. Freshman year was a 3.5 and my Sophomore year was a 3.7. And then I did like a DIY postbac, which was a 4.0. I had a psych major. And then I had minors in biology and chemistry, but I took about 10 years off. So I did postbac just to kind of refresh the sciences.All the memories started coming back in my senior year of undergrad, and then I decided I needed to take time off from pursuing medicine to focus on my healing. And because I didn't think it would be fair to my future patients if I went into medical school with all that going on.I ended up taking about 10 years off and now I am looking to get back into it. So during that time, it was partially just taking time to focus on myself. And I liked the job I was doing. I was working with people who have intellectual disabilities. I was working in group homes. I was working as a case manager. And I really enjoyed that work. But then, in the past two years or so, I have really started to want to get back into medicine. Part of that was I went through another sexual assault. It's through the care that my physician provided me, and that empathy and compassion and wanting to be able to give that to others when they're going through a challenging situation. It's through the care that my physician provided me and wanting to be able to give that to others when they're going through a challenging situation that has reignited the fire to want to continue pursuing medicine.With all that being said, my question is that my trauma story is so intertwined with my medicine story and why I want to go into medicine. Is it acceptable to include the story or does it make the reader too uncomfortable to include?”[04:13] How Do You Tell Your Story?You need to be aware of how what you're saying is landing on other people just like you would in normal life. I'm a firm believer in you needing to tell your story, assuming it is intertwined with your reason to be a physician. "There are good experiences that lead to people wanting to go into...

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