If you’re a doctor or a medical student and would like to add an account of your own experience, you can do so here via this anonymous page. You can also use the page to let me know about articles on other sites that should be shared here. Doctors and students from all over the UK have contributed their stories.

Your stories

“Running the treadmill” by a medical student with an eating disorder.

“I’m still accepting that depression is something I have” (with update) by a medical student

“It’s treatable” by a general practitioner with depression

“Life is good” by a psychiatry registrar with bipolar disorder

“Alcoholism is no respecter of persons” by a doctor

“I no longer consider the admission of personal problems a weakness” by a medical student

“I only wish I’d got help sooner” by a lecturer in psychiatry with bipolar disorder

“Depression 1976” by a general practitioner

“Things can get better” by an advanced trainee in psychiatry of learning disability with depression

“Gender reassignment” by a medical registrar

“It can happen to anyone” by a core medical trainee with depression

External sites

“Writings on the Wall” a collection of doctors’ stories about mental health and wellbeing. This is part of the Tea and Empathy Facebook page so you need to be logged into Facebook to view it.

“Burnout and depression: the doctors struggling with their mental health” Guardian article with quotes from a range of doctors with mental health problems (spot the quote from the MSMH page creator!)

“Why depression has made me a better doctor” by a consultant rheumatologist.

“A Patient’s Journey: Psychotic depression” BMJ article by a consultant psychiatrist and her own psychiatrist.

“Dealing with Depression in Medical School” by a medical student in Kansas.

“Doctors do not experience mental illness”

“Life as a doctor with Asperger’s syndrome”

“Depression: a personal view” by an ST4 in anaesthetics (page 29-31)

“Medicine and mental illness: how can the obstacles sick doctors face be overcome?” by a doctor with schizoaffective disorder.

“How I found my way back from depression” by a general practitioner who now works in the mental health third sector

“From Bipolar Darkness, the Empathy to Be a Doctor” New York Times interview with a neurologist who has bipolar disorder.

“When Doctors Become Patients” New York Times interview with a psychiatrist with depression

“Psychiatrist learns from his own mental illness” by a psychiatrist with bipolar disorder

Mini quotes

Consultant- “It took me decades to admit that I was depressed, and that the constant feeling of not being good enough wasn’t just normal adaptive medic behaviour. I wish we could be better at seeking help, and at helping each other through struggles. But with support you can keep going, muddle through, and it can get better.”

General practitioner- “I am a newly qualified GP and I have bipolar disorder. I was hospitalised once as a medical student and once as a trainee. I manage my condition through close collaboration with my psychiatrist. My partners at work know about my condition and we work around it.”

Specialist registrar, surgery- “I had a dissociative fugue as an acute reaction to stress at work.”