From Anxiety to Miss Arkansas USA: How PGx Testing Transformed Madeline Bohlman’s Life

 Who I Am Now

My name is Madeline Bohlman. At 22, I carry the momentum of a recent graduate from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where I earned my Marketing degree from the Sam Walton School of Business. That path led me home—to Bentonville—where I now work as a Merchandising Senior Analyst at Walmart.

I’ve always gravitated toward this world of products, people, and stories. For a time, I even ran my own boutique, shaping my aspirations with my own hands.

A Childhood Marked by Quiet Battles

Long before college, long before pageants, I learned what it meant to navigate life with general anxiety disorder. I was diagnosed so young that my memories blur around it; I must have still been in elementary school. Those early years were heavy in ways I couldn’t quite name then.

When I arrived in Fayetteville, something in me reached for confidence and community. I stepped into the world of pageantry and eventually wore the crown of Miss Teen Arkansas. I loved every part of it—the rituals, the sisterhood, the purpose in serving others.

But anxiety, persistent as ever, soon intertwined with depression. It dimmed the shine of the stage I once adored, until stepping away became the only choice I could manage.

When Walking Away Wasn’t Enough

Leaving the pageant world didn’t quiet the storm. If anything, the silence made it louder. My friends noticed the shift before I could fully say it out loud—they worried, and I finally allowed myself to accept the truth: I needed help.

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When I sat across from my doctor and explained the weight I’d been carrying, she told me that different medications could be explored, though it might take time to find the right one. The idea of waiting, of enduring more weeks of uncertainty, terrified me. I felt like I was running out of time emotionally.

That was when my doctor introduced another possibility—pharmacogenomic, or PGx, testing. She explained that it analyzes your DNA for genetic variations that may influence how your body responds to medications, information that could help guide a treatment plan more precisely.

A Test That Turned the Tide

I had never heard of PGx testing, but desperation often becomes the doorway to hope. I took the simple mouth-swab test, and a week later, the results arrived.

Reviewing them with my doctor felt like lifting a veil. I learned that the medication I had been relying on might not be compatible with my genetic makeup. My doctor, using both her medical expertise and the insights from the PGx test, decided to switch me to a different medication.

The change was not subtle—it was life-altering. I’ve been on that medication for more than a year now, and it has helped me reclaim clarity, stability, and joy.

A Return to What I Love

With my symptoms finally easing, I stepped back into the world that once lifted me. I was crowned Miss Arkansas USA and had the honor of competing in the Miss USA pageant. My platform—fittingly, inevitably—is mental health.

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During college, I was an active member of the campus chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). That passion has only grown. Now, I speak to young women like me—and to anyone who needs to hear it—about how PGx testing may help identify a medication that works better for you, so you can begin to feel like yourself again.