Hello! I come to y’all with a question related to my possible career path. I’m highly considering studying to be a paralegal and I’m curious if anyone could give me advice (or warnings lol) regarding working a law-related job while dealing with sz/bipolar symptoms. Thank you!
[Paralegals work notoriously long hours, and their tasks include everything from office management to doing case research and preparing and editing legal contracts and documents. … In short, paralegals do difficult, challenging, and high-stakes work—with stress as the inherent outcome.]
Source: clio
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Thank you! Oof, gonna need some really good coping mechanisms if I do go through with this career plan lol.
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hey man i hope you can find your lifes path, and my only advice would be to start utilizing meds early. A lot of us werent so fortunate to have or be able to afford or just didnt take meds during the onset years and i just wanna say those are the most important years to start treatment.
Its like determining the trajectory of a rocket, if you fire it then just let it coast, the beginning stages of the launch and the angle of trajectory determine so much about where the rocket ends up. Its the same with meds. Start early and you can easily have a highly functional mind to pursue whatever career you want. God bless.
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Thank you! I have been very lucky in that I have had access to meds since the onset of my psychotic symptoms. I’m on two meds atm, both of which seem to be working pretty well for me. I haven’t experienced psychosis in a good while; mainly contending with depression and OCD these days.
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im happy to hear you havent had any psychosis but sad to hear youre still copiing with other mental health issues. I dont mean to sound preachy about taking meds so sorry, but i stopped taking meds for like 4 years and now my voices are permanent, so thats why i always recommend them. They used to go away. so hopefully someone can learn from my mistake.
Good luck tackling the other issues. btw i used to want to be a lawyer too. i studied philosophy in university but dropped out because of psychosis
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You need good memory to succeed on legal studies. If you have good reading comprehension and memory you will do ok
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You’re not being preachy so no worries! I appreciate your emphasizing the importance of meds. Sometimes I get in a mindset of thinking I might just be able to function normally without any meds but it sounds like it’s best not to risk that. This is probably the most functional I could hope to be with all my mental issues.
I’m sorry about your voices. 
And I hope your philosophy knowledge helps you with life outside the context of a career. I love philosophy and I really need to study it more.
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I was enrolled in a paralegal course once when I went psychotic. You have to be able to remember details like: under canadian law if an appeal is granted how many days do you have to file paperwork. Theres lots of details like that and they get confusing.
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Oh gosh, that is very specific lol. I’m pretty detail-oriented but my memory definitely isn’t at its best all the time.
I was pretty good at remembering different things but it killed me that some things were 30 days others 90days others 180 days one week etc
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I studied law but never practised. From my former mates I know that pretty much everyone working in law including paralegals work incredibly long hours, but if you enjoy legalese and daily practical challenges you might enjoy it very much.
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