In the summer after my A levels, while most of my peers were downing jäger bombs and grinding to Taio Cruz, I was being dragged down to King's College London for psych analysis. I had to prove I was sane enough to start medical school in September (if I didn't get my grades for Cambridge). I'd declared I suffered from depression on my application form and now, having survived what felt like endless entrance exams and hours of wiping dribble from the chins of the elderly, it felt like I was about to have everything I had wanted snatched from me. Needless to say, I was shit scared.

I will soon join a secret class, a group of doctors who suffer from mental illness. I’m almost ten years into my battle with depression and anxiety, but am blessed to have been able to cultivate an understanding of my illness in an arena of openness. Sadly this is not the case for the majority of practitioners, who, to the detriment of their own health and that of their patients, are often prevented from seeking the treatment they need due to the stigma surrounding mental illness.

Perusing the blogs on the Time to Change website, a project aiming to challenge mental health stigma, I find a post from a doctor going by the username __Anna__ about her experience of being sectioned. She talks about the initial shame she experienced, heightened by her seniors’ suggestion: “doctors do not experience mental illness”. It is this belief that leaves so many medical practitioners isolated both within and from their own profession.

Louise Carpenter’s article for The Guardian particularly highlights how pervasive the problem of mental illness stigma is within medicine. She reports that 20 per cent of doctors experience mental illness at some point in their careers. Her interviews with high-powered consultants crippled by their personal demons reveal the vulnerability of the professionals relied upon by so many for support, and the difficulty of their battle to keep their secrets hidden. The pressure is felt at both ends of the hierarchy: a Medical Protection Society survey of junior doctors conducted in 2013 found that one third had considered leaving in their first year due to the pressure of long hours and stressful working conditions.

Stigma towards mental illness is rife in society. While campaigns such as Mental Health Awareness Week work hard to overcome this, there is a widespread and undeniable insensitivity to the issue. How often do we refer to our mental capacities in a derogatory way? How many of us observed with simultaneous revulsion and glee as Britney and Amanda shaved their heads and threw vases from hotel windows?

Patient expectations also add to the worries of the mentally ill practitioner. The role of the doctor goes beyond just doing their job. Taking up the coveted stethoscope means accepting certain expectations from patients, such as remaining calm and polite at all times – even at three in the morning, covered in multiple bodily fluids, and wondering whether your banking friends might have made better life decisions. Depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses don’t tend to fit this idealised mould patients expect doctors to conform to.

The profession itself propagates stigma to a degree. Doctors avoid speaking out when things are getting too much, wanting to avoiding looking weak in front of colleagues. The competitive nature of the career can prevent admissions of mental illness, for fear it may be detrimental to career progression. The Good Medical Practice guidelines issued by the General Medical Council are often misunderstood, with doctors reading the section entitled “Protect patients and colleagues from any risk posed by your health” as “We might sack you if we think you’re a bit barmy”.

In my first term at Cambridge, four students committed suicide. It was a bleak way to start my university career, and a stark reminder of the pressures faced by current university students. It is therefore unsurprising to me that the GMC is looking to medical school to help curtail mental illness stigma in later careers. Last September, in conjunction with the Medical Schools Council, the GMC produced guidelines for medical schools on how best to support their students. As well as promoting health and wellbeing and providing support for students, the guidelines aim to challenge common misconceptions that begin at clinical school: having a mental health condition will not damage career prospects, and the GMC will not refuse to register you as a doctor if you have a mental illness. It’s still early days but I have already experienced some effects of this programme during clinical school. Nevertheless, there is still a lot of work to be done on this issue.

In an occupation pervaded by vestiges of antiquity, like “that dusty old consultant ENT surgeon who sometimes is a bit racist but we just don’t talk about it”, it will take more time to fully overcome the stigma that’s attached to mental health. However it is refreshing to see such forward thinking on the part of the GMC. The myths they are attempting to bust are some of the very fears that doctors spoke of in Louise Carpenter’s article. Hopefully it will become apparent to more people that such experiences can be enriching to an occupation that often loses its empathy beneath a pile of routine examinations and protocols. I therefore remain optimistic that, as I progress towards my career goals, I will do so with more people by my side sharing their experiences and accepting that mental illness is not a weakness, even if you’re a doctor.

Want to take a stand? Make a pledge to end the stigma: http://www.time-to-change.org.uk/.