Will a mental health record prevent me from working as a doctor in Singapore?

Congratulations on your admission to a medical school. You must have done well for your last examinations.

It will be good to seek treatment for your depression early so that you can recover from the mood problems and pursue your dreams of becoming a doctor. If your mood is low, you may not sleep well and your energy level may not be ideal. All this may affect your ability to study well and make the right decisions for your life.

You can also talk with a counsellor at the Family Service Centre near your place.

Another option is to see a private psychiatrist where the waiting time for an appointment is short. Treatments for depression may just be talk therapy alone and not all patients will need antidepressants.

Your records with the psychiatrist will be kept confidential. In future, when registering with SMC, you can obtain a letter from your treating psychiatrist to indicate that you are well and fit to be a clinician.

Many qualified doctors do continue to seek help from a mental health professional as they have anxiety and depression. You can appreciate that the working hours of a doctor can be long and that may take a toll on his health. His family life and social life can also be affected.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Congratulations on getting a place in Medicine. Going by first principles:

1) Yes, you should always seek out help and support for your mental health issues. There have been some previous good answers on where you can turn to seek help more discreetly in Singapore:

How do I get help for mental illness in Singapore?

2) You should never hide a record or medical condition that could negatively affect patient care. The repercussions, if you get found out later, could affect your career more adversely.

That being said, the answer to whether it will affect your fitness to practice in Singapore, as determined by the SMC, is that it really depends.

Ie if your depression is well managed because you are seeking treatment, then there should be absolutely no reason why the SMC (who are made up of a bunch of doctors as well) will deem you unfit to practice in Singapore.

If, on the other hand, your depression is poorly managed because you did not seek help and treatment for it, then it follows that they will rightfully act to flag this out to prevent possible harm to yourself and patients.

For now, I'd strongly encourage you to seek out help.