Just learned that my brother who is in medical school took an urgent leave of absence and needs to remediate four classes. How can I support him?

Pre-Med & Medical School
1

Hey everyone,

Need to make an obligatory statement that I’m not a med student. Rather, I’m a fourth year Ph.D student in Experimental Psychology. For those who don’t know, Experimental Psychology is doing research in Psychology but it doesn’t involve any clinical work at all.

I’m extremely proud of my brother given that we are all first generation college students in general and made it to terminal degree programs. Unfortunately, I just learned that my brother needs to remediate four classes and a first year exam this summer. Although I’ve had my academic issues at the undergrad and Master’s level (see my post history for more details if you wish), I never outright failed any classes at all so this is concerning to me. His undergrad record was also exponentially better than mine (he had a 3.9 GPA with two majors worth of credit hours since he switched his major his third year). We both went to regional colleges despite our parents’ relatively high income partially because they didn’t want to budge on college expenses at all. Since this regional was a four year college that gave us the most scholarship money, that’s why we went there.

Anyway, I learned he had a nervous breakdown and MDD at the severe level back in March. This seems to be a running theme in my family as I was partially hospitalized in late January to early February myself since I had a hard time adjusting to the demands of a full time job, especially given my other neurodivergent conditions.

What can I do to support him and remain supportive? What are some other tips to help keep my concerns at bay throughout the process? I have a bad tendency to get hung up on what I can’t control at times so I want to avoid that as much as possible.

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Medical school is one of the most difficult experience anyone can go thru. Unfortunately it is also not uncommon for the stress and fatigue to unmask mental illness, encourage drug use, or other abnormal behaviors.

In my experience, people who fail classes due to poor academic preparation are usually well supported by school, to make up deficits over the summer and/or repeat the year entirely without judgement. Allopathic medical schools are generally considered to be “pipelines” meaning once you are in, you should get out.

BUT people who suffers mental issues, addiction, or loss of interest are different. Schools can’t “fix” these things. You best get him the MH he needs and see if he is fit to return in Fall. If he is deemed incompetent, you can get legal help to set up conservatorship or legal representation to communicate with school. He will not be the first, last or only student to have this happen, so school should already have some protocol setup to assist the student, someone just need to call and ask.

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