To the Editor: Medical students report high rates of mental illness and/or psychiatric symptoms, but few ultimately seek care. 1 Despite this concerning trend, current understanding of the underlying reasons why many medical students forgo treatment remains incomplete. To evaluate these trends in a pilot qualitative study, 7 medical students in their third and fourth years at the University of Minnesota participated in a group interview in March 2020 related to mental illness, perceptions of stigma, and access to care. The results highlight several themes related to mental health and help-seeking behaviors among medical students. Concerns regarding mental illness focused on fear of discrimination, limited time to pursue care, and worries about one’s own competency. Many concerns reflected specific pressures and expectations placed on medical students as learners within the clinical environment, such as hesitancy to request time off or worry about being denied time off for mental health care. As one participant stated, “It feels almost like weakness to reach out for help”—a perception that was echoed by many of the participants. When discussing specific barriers to students and physicians seeking care for mental illness, there was universal agreement among participants that discriminatory attitudes within the medical field play a role. Throughout the group interview, “stigma” was a salient component of many responses and was discussed as an underlying factor in minimizing one’s behavior, one’s reluctance to pursue care, as well as a factor that negatively affected peers who needed help for a mental illness. Despite this, participants strongly supported others seeking care openly, even though this differed starkly from what they would do themselves. Although the small sample size and qualitative nature of this study limit the breadth and strength of our conclusions, it provides an initial inquiry into the perceptions that drive the culture around mental health in the medical field. Career and academic demands are often blamed for physicians’ and medical students’ reluctance to pursue care for mental illness; the themes highlighted in this group interview, however, suggest that the issue is far more complex and intersectional than might otherwise be assumed. Given this complexity, approaches to ameliorating barriers to psychiatric care must be multifocal and prioritize input from all affected stakeholders. Proactive scheduling and leave policies that affirm and promote access to health care may provide the most immediate benefit for medical professionals across career stages. Initial approaches could include increased availability of in-house counselors, diversified care options to fit individual needs, and resources to assist in identifying and accessing care. Longitudinal efforts will need to emphasize cultural shifts to redefine the concept of professionalism in medicine; in particular, care for self and family, sustained well-being, and limit-setting must be central in this process of normalizing and encouraging access to mental health care. While this longitudinal component is necessarily nebulous, effective approaches could incorporate sharing personal stories and narratives of accessing health resources successfully, especially from those in power. Acknowledgments: The authors give special thanks to the University of Minnesota Office of Measurement Services for conducting the focus group and providing qualitative data analysis.