I'm having trouble answering a SOP question that asks about particular challenges I've faced and how I've overcome them, as part of a more general question about what I feel I'd bring to the clinical social work field. The only compelling issue I could discuss would be seeking therapy for anxiety/depression related to family problems growing up and how that might allow me to empathize with youth seeking treatment, but of course there's a lot of uneasiness about mentioning personal mental health history. I'm truly not going into this line of work to try to sort out current or past problems, and I don't want to send that message and jeopardize my application. At the moment in my essay I just ignore that part of the question and discuss my potential strengths, but I'm wondering if it would be better to vaguely refer to my actual experiences (obviously without digressing into a TMI sob story)? Not sure if something is better than nothing.
More minor question: when a question asks about how you plan to manage the time commitment etc. involved in the program, how detailed an answer are you supposed to give? Is this just a dry reality check to make sure you have an idea of what's involved, or are they hoping to get a sense of your coping strategies in general?
Any thoughts would be a big help, thanks!