Basically, I wanted to write about my ED in 9th grade and how I used music to deal with it. I’d focus my essay on music–lots of my EC’s are also music-related–but this was the most impactful way I think that I’d be able to do it. Do you think it’s too risky? And if I was never officially diagnosed, would this hurt/potentially cause adcoms to invalidate the depth of my experiences? Thanks.
i think the general cc advice is to avoid anything about mental illness – which sucks, bc it comes entirely from the stigma surrounding it, but seems to be the case. i think there are probably old threads on this. good luck!
I participated in a webinar with a Harvard admissions rep about college essays and asked a similar question. Her response is that these things can either make you look strong, or raise concerns about your fit for the college. (Especially if you’re applying to a school like Harvard that comes with a lot of extra academic stress.) It all depends on how you write about it. Her advice was to ask someone you trust to read your essay and ask what their impression of you is after they’ve read it - Do they feel as though you’re doing better, or does it sound troubling?
As someone who’s a strong believer in erasing the stigma around mental illness, I would encourage you to try to make it work. However, it is risky. Only submit your essay if you’re confident in it and it’s message, and that it showcases you in a positive light.
Best of luck! 
You were never officially diagnosed, which probably means you were never officially treated.
In the eyes of an adcom, it might make you pretty high risk for a relapse.
The point here is to “give them a reason to say yes.” Does your essay do that? Do you come off as a healthy young woman who has beaten this disease? Or do you come off as someone who could potentially cause herself a lot of harm under their watch?
Risky
Make your essay about music and how music has helped you through difficult situations and by doing so it encouraged your interest, leading you joins the EC’s you did. Doing it in that way might accomplish what you want while lowering the risk factor. Just don’t make it a pity party story. Focus on how you’ve grown through music. Good luck!
It’s not about adcoms ‘invalidating’ the depth of your experiences- it’s not the experiences at all that is the important part: it’s where your experiences have taken you that it important to them. Can you mentally substitute another major challenge/trauma for your ED as the catalyst for your involvement in music, or is there some very specific link between the ED and the music? in other words, is the ED the key, or is it that music is how you found your way out of a very difficult place? If you can imagine that if you had been in a different, but equally challenging place, and that music could have been your way out, then the journey & the music are the key, more than the catalyst.
bjkmom, i’m actually a boy, but no worries haha. thanks for all the great responses, i’ll definitely keep them in mind!
Oops, my apologies!!