I'm a 16 year old going into my junior year of high school. I wanna know if I can be a marine. While growing up my parents didn't know how to raise me and I was a complete wimp. My mind was weak and I became depressed around 6th grade. In 8th grade I went through this little emo fag*** phase and had a self harm issue that lasted a week. Parents took my to a doctor and stuffed me full of pills. Now lets fast forward to the present time. As I said I'm 16 going into my junior year of high school. My mind is strong. Its been 2 and a half years since that little self harm incident and I want nothing more than to be w marine. Back in 8th grade the doc put me on 2 meds. One for depression and one for some anxiety. I am still on those meds today and in the process of having them slowly decreased. My depression is GONE. That time in 8th grade was the ONLY time I ever did self harm. Any anxiety I once had is gone or reduced to your everyday exam worry. What I want to know is: will all this result in me not being able to enlist in the marines? Thanks in advance P.S. ALL VISIBLE SCARS are on my left arm within a 1.25x 0.25 inch space. They are FADED and on the inner side of my forearm where they wouldn't be visible to ANYONE unless I raise my hand. Even then they would have to know where to look and be standing within around 3 feet of me to see them. I DREAM of the corps and want it to be my career for as long as I can stay in. I want to be a part of one of the greatest warrior brotherhoods on this earth.

Originally Posted by Bowman

I'm a 16 year old going into my junior year of high school. I wanna know if I can be a marine. While growing up my parents didn't know how to raise me and I was a complete wimp. My mind was weak and I became depressed around 6th grade. In 8th grade I went through this little emo fag*** phase and had a self harm issue that lasted a week. Parents took my to a doctor and stuffed me full of pills. Now lets fast forward to the present time. As I said I'm 16 going into my junior year of high school. My mind is strong. Its been 2 and a half years since that little self harm incident and I want nothing more than to be w marine. Back in 8th grade the doc put me on 2 meds. One for depression and one for some anxiety. I am still on those meds today and in the process of having them slowly decreased. My depression is GONE. That time in 8th grade was the ONLY time I ever did self harm. Any anxiety I once had is gone or reduced to your everyday exam worry. What I want to know is: will all this result in me not being able to enlist in the marines? Thanks in advance P.S. ALL VISIBLE SCARS are on my left arm within a 1.25x 0.25 inch space. They are FADED and on the inner side of my forearm where they wouldn't be visible to ANYONE unless I raise my hand. Even then they would have to know where to look and be standing within around 3 feet of me to see them. I DREAM of the corps and want it to be my career for as long as I can stay in. I want to be a part of one of the greatest warrior brotherhoods on this earth.

The best way to figure out if these issues matter is to visit the USMC recruitment office. However, it is much better if you finish the school first and then visit them and see what your options are.

School first-then the devil dogs.

Good Luck

Very good advise from 13. The services are making a High school education mandatory these days from what I understand. I would go into the recruiters office and discuss goals and what you can do for the Marine Corps. Do not make an issue of your past concerns. Only bring it up if they ask. In other words don't shoot yourself in the foot, but as 13 advised by all means finish school 1st or they won't even consider you.

Schools really not an issue. Teachers send letters home talking about how good of a student I am. My grades are generally in the A-B range. Thanks for the help

By finishing school you will show that you had the determination to finish something that needed doing, it could also help prove that you have left the depression well behind you in your past, it's easier for someone who is depressed to just drop out and not face any responsibility. I'm not sure of the joining age for the USMC but I will say that joining while young can be a disadvantage with regards to maturity and the fact that your still growing.
I joined the British Army as a boy soldier aged 16, I spent 18 months training in a junior leaders infantry battalion. The idea was that by time we get to our battalions we would already have an advantage over the recruits who joined that were older than us. It did help with promotions but it institutionalised quite a few and it came to be that the boy soldiers now turned adult were suffering a higher proportion of casualties and deaths than there older fellow squaddies . This may be from the way that the jnco's ( corporals and lance corporals ) led the sections, from the front.







Whatever you choose to do I recommend finishing school and college if you can, speak to the recruiting sgt but only mention the depression if he brings up the subject, if so be honest and say you were depressed as a younger teen but it was only for a very short time.

Good luck

You can try, but I am almost positive you will be denied entry.

Ask a Marine recruiter about the specifics...Don't get your hopes up...

They are absolutely going to find your scars and they are absolutely going to require you to bring documentation detailing how you gained those scars.

Alright brinktk thanks for the help. Do you think that would still have been the case if they had somehow faded to nothing?

binktk I actually forgot to add a piece of information sorry. In 8th grade I had been on some things for acne. Doc said they weren't working and had me try something new. That new medication had undesirable side affects on me meaning it actually depressed me and that was what led to that little incedent. Before I had been on that medication I was fine. A little moody but thats to be expected from freaky little hormonal teenagers. When the doctor put me on that new med just WEEKS later I went to see a psychiatrist. Then as I was taken off of the meds I pretty much returned to my regular teenage self. That might bring up the question why am I still going there? Well my parents dont know jack squat about raising a living being so they just ignore me and leave the psychiatrist to fix their messes. I don't know if any of that changes anything but just thought I should finish the story

It is anecdotal at best at this point.

Your medical records are going to be asked for and if there any holes in it they are going to find out. If you omit or deny information about your past it is the same as lying. Here's the deal, even if they don't find any medical issues at first because they somehow slipped up and didn't require your medical records, you will eventually go through a security clearance screening which is a VERY in depth examination of your past and past acquaintances.

They will learn either from you or someone else that you self harmed and were treated for anxiety/depression. IF YOU LIE and they find out from someone else, than you ABSOLUTELY will be denied entry (and possibly prosecuted). If you're honest, you will have to go through, at the least, a flat refusal of them saying "no"...which doesn't waste yours or theirs time...to a battery of tests and evaluations that will likely still result in them saying "no"...but you at least have a chance at them saying yes with some waivers.

Talk to a Marine recruiter now before you get too emotionally invested in this and BE HONEST...since you're not yet 16 they can't actively try to recruit you and should give you an honest no BS answer.

Start making a few backup plans for what you want to do with your life regardless if you make it in or not...Life never goes how we expect under even the best of circumstances...however, if you plan for this you can minimize the turmoil and continue moving forward...if you don't plan for this...well...it is going to be painful and unfair and unflinching...and no one is going to care but you. Have a backup...and stay flexible.

So Brinktk, when you went through your security clearance, they never found this forum? Good we are decent, upstanding, moral individuals active here....oh hold on......I am all that. The others are.....different

Still at the Army War College?