I haven’t been on this forum for a few years, so for those of you who know me, hi, what’s up?
Since I was last here I was hospitalized again (bummer) and I’ve finally come to terms with my illness and what it means to me.
I have been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, and bi-polar disorder.
This year I tried doing what I said I would do years ago and I signed up for University. I’m studying Art History and Archeology.
And to sum it up in one word it’s been difficult.
I would love to hear from any of you about experiences of going to school after the illness. I find it especially difficult to read, and also I am very scared about social interactions.
There is a program in my country for tutoring of people with mental illness but even though I signed up I for it I am hesitant to really go through with it.
Btw, all my classes are Zoom classes so far.
So what’s your advice, how can I make it through the school year?
I think you’re very courageous to go to university even if you find it difficult to socialize. Not everyone is able to do this. I hope you’ll go as far as you wish!
Its harder after sz but not impossible. I did one semester in kinesiology university major before getting diagnosed with sz. Then I did my remaining 5 semesters after my sz. It took me 8 years to finish a 3 years bachelor. My grades went down but I still passed my courses. I skipped exams sometimes bcz I didn’t feel ready and was feeling bad when I quit my meds for 1-2 years. I got a Drs note to do the exams later.
Don’t worry, it took me 8 years mainly because I stopped meds for 1-2 years and went crazy.
I’m 33 I should have finished years ago I’m not going back it’s just not something that interests me anymore. I’m not borrowing money and I get too stressed when I work evenings and weekends. I realize I’ll never make a ton of money I’ve never made more than 65k in San Francisco but I’m okay with that. Schools fine I last took precalculus class 3 years ago but I’m done with school.
Good luck with your degree. Hopefully the rest of your classes won’t be via Zoom, because there seems to be a couple of vaccines on the way for COVID-19 and these are likely to be highly effective (I’ve heard about 95%). I want to get a degree but feel a bit too old. I’m 32, I’ll be 33 in July.Interesting you are studying Art History, my sister teaches American students at the University of Oxford (UK), she has a PhD in History of Art. My brother studied his undergraduate degree at Oxford, also. I on the other hand do possess a growth mindset in terms of my capabilities, but realistically I could never compare. I read an interesting article about Maths anxiety and how people who see themselves as simply “good or bad at Maths”, tend not to have a growth mindset and often struggle. My education was disrupted because I went to Thailand as a school student and kept on failing Mathematics. I did not have anxiety, but it was International examinations, whereby the standard in such Asian countries is a lot higher. So I learnt nothing. Eventually I got my C grade at Mathematics. There’s even a UK edition of the book “AS and A-level Maths for dummies”, which is what many take after the age of 16. I’m going to work through it and see if I make enough progress to eventually sit the exams. Online courses are also very useful and the course content, at least for Computer Science, is often more up-to-date than that of many universities.