Always a good sign

I chuckled when I got this e-mail. 

After speaking with several fourth year students and Dr. [X]... several of us felt it imperative to inform you all that there is NO box to check or area to denote any form of mental illness or having ever received counseling of any sort on the residency application. You tell a residency program if you have received counseling for or suffer from depression, anxiety, burnout, etc. AFTER you have matched. It will be the paperwork you fill out for the specific program like any other job you have had.
We bring this up because students fear seeking help from counseling services on and off campus. This is unnecessary as you will not be asked about such information when applying for residency during fourth year through ERAS. Please, PLEASE seek help if you need it. We have amazing resources available to us!

This is an old link from KevinMD, but it's relevant: Medical schools need to better recognize mental illness in students. 

Physicians have traditionally experienced higher rates of suicide than the general population – 40% higher for male doctors and a whopping 130% for female doctors. Students who enter medical school with a relatively “normal” mental health profile, in the end, suffer a higher rate of burnout, depression and other mental illnesses. In fact, over the course of med school, up to a quarter of students may suffer from depression and over half from burnout.

This is a friendly reminder that burnout, depression, anxiety, etc. are all a depressingly normal part of medical school. Please get treatment if you need it. To my knowledge nobody will know outside of your school's student health department, or whichever physician or counselor whom you see. Mental health issues are common and highly treatable.

I'm not surprised that one of the main hindrances to seeking help for mental health issues at my school appears to be "What if people find out?" I would like to think doctors and healthcare workers are more enlightened about mental health issues than other people, but I'm not sure the data really bears that out. My anecdotal experience sure doesn't.

So I wonder to what extent should medical students (or residents, or doctors) suffering from mental illness speak out. If you're in a stigmatized group, how much responsibility do you have to other people in the same boat?

Maybe that's the final step in getting better. Where you've reached the point where you aren't afraid to talk about it. Or maybe that has nothing to do with healing at all but rather with where you are in your career.