I have this exam I gave up on a while ago,
now I had a tempting thought to try to succeed in it like in the good ol’ days, when I took endless amounts of stimulants and got extremely stressed to get totally crazy and learn an entire course in two days while getting a good mark for it in uni (A-B usually).
As my voices said at the time “How can he be that strong?” “It’s not strength, It’s insanity” ,I’ve just ignored them and felt grand as ■■■■ from the entire thing. I tend to romanticize that experience, but I know that it’s not healthy.
I kinda tried it again but I haven’t committed, couldn’t do it to myself. it seems like I’m gonna fail this exam. I can’t function without stress, but it feels like stress slowly kills off my brain.
My questions are, do some of you had similar experiences?
Guys/gals who study or studied in the past and have/had a hard time doing it (if there are any), how did you manage to do it?
LOL.
People here notably goldenrex accuse me of not wanting to recover.
The truth is, when I had a minimal capacity to study I tried to study like crazy.
I was totally obsessed with my studies(mathematics) and I hoped to make a career out of it.
This was after illness onset, I was with full blown schizophrenia back then but my cognition was better than now.
But eventually I found myself unable to study,
and this has been the case for more than a year now.
I feel you bro, it seems like I am heading the same path
I do understand why you say that sometimes recovery is just impossible
I memorize, and make flash cards and have someone test me.
The trick was to do everyday some studying, take notes during the lessons and review them many times during the day.
For example if you study for 20 minutes everyday for 30 days you’ll remember like 5 times more than if you studied 10 hours one day.
Now I can’t study anymore because my mind doesn’t tolerate interferences to its spontaneous and disorganized thought flow…
It’s a great suggestion @zeno 
Consistent baby-steps might actually work
I never really did anything consistently this far, so it might be a nice and an achievable challenge at this moment.
Dunno. I can read a chapter or two of a book but I’m not in school.
@anon76219695 I think my case is hopeless, but I will keep trying to study.
I have nothing to lose from trying.
I believe it is a good advice for you as well.
You can keep trying to study.
What do you have to lose?
In the worst case you will keep failing.
So what?
It’s still better than not trying, I think.
Text to speech software to read all the course texts to me
Hi, I earned a Bachelor’s Degree with honors in 2005, having had Schizophrenia since 1997. So, I have studied before. My best method was to quit studying at 5:00 p.m., and take one day off from studying altogether. This way, my brain/mind could rest, without me being asleep. I think the brain heals a bit with normal sleep anyway, but I wanted to enjoy some free time from schoolwork. I went to college 1999-2005, and tried several methods of studying, but that was my best method. I graduated with a 3.90 GPA.
I grew up on adderall and I’m 26, I’m literally still learning to deal with being without stimulants for the rest of my life- vyvanse actually doesn’t make anything worse for me but that’s besides the point.
I dropped out of school because I had an impressive social life at the time which fell apart- and I deemed that more important than school at the time.
Check yourself by listing what’s important to u, if this course is then somehow you will pull it off. If you’re taking stimulants just make sure you take niacin too so you can keep any potential psychosis in check.
Fortify yourself with l-Theanine it will help your focus and calm the last minute jittery stress you get because you don’t have much time.
I also used to make up elaborate excuses to get out of exams and I was brilliant at it. Can u use your disability as an excuse to buy you more time? In the future register with your schools disability office for this- I only had adhd at the time.
Take 15 minute breaks, maybe have a cig. Just maintain the right perspective through all of this. The niacin should take care of the voices commenting on your studying ability.
Good luck.
I don’t know. I’m naturally curious. I had a therapist that thought I was a polymath but I thought that was nonsense. I started getting into school around 2007 when I made some good friends at community college. I learned to like school and people that were motivated. As in terms of studying strategy, some people swear by the Feynman Method. I personally have used the Socratic Method. And I took a class on Learning How to Learn on Coursera.org. After taking that class, I learned that I did the opposite of all the recommended methods of learning. Before that course, I would study too much and not take enough breaks, which probably contributed to my schizophrenia. Basically, there are two types of learning: Focused learning and Diffuse learning. If you struggle with procrastination, use the Pomodoro Method!
Currently, I’m studying or reading a couple hours a day throughout the day. It keeps me preoccupied and stalls boredom. I am a believer that if you don’t use it, you lose it.
But I did remember that studying while in psychosis can cause brain damage. So if we’re psychotic don’t push yourself too much.
When I as studying maths and anatomy at human university I had voices screaming and also heard gunshots and moans.
They were also saying they would make sure I never get my drivers license and that I would not pass studies ever.
I failed but attended.
I did get maths correct but after awhile the voices were to bad and I was in agony so I quit.
I managed aged care course but took me two years.
And I can not work with it.
I tried but mute and others in my body hysterical no I could not do it.
I wanted one client who feel comfortable with but not found such a client.
I also attended a house keeping course .
I did not feel well enough but my employment agency pushed it upon me and I went psychotic and was in hospital shortly after.
They do not know me or my symptoms nor do they care and some might even want me in hospital maliciously.
I should not be made to do things I am not well enough to do.
This employment agency did wrong by me.
I can not study well.
I have difficulties taking stuff in and my bf says it takes a long time for me to process information and he does not think I can do everything .
Memorize on the walls of your room like me
Spoil yourself really
Study while watching favorite videos on youtube
While listening to music
Even watching to Sex but be good and pray to god and be faithful
Sustain fail and do it until you graduate!
Many many have done it !
Not to little as you may think!
And all over the world many have recovered even
Also when studying all I heard were really long bong rips. No voices at the time. Just long bong rips as if I had a roommate who was getting high while I studied.
wow! 3.9 and a bachelor’s degree is so impressive!! i need help with studying and doing hw…i mostly don’t do anything or i cram hw in taking the easy routes at the last moment. I go to community college online. it’s my first year.
@Bug said it best.
Studying is really hard. I lose what I am reading and forget. I have to go back and read it again and again.
Also, I get super stressed from assignments and think that I can’t do them. So, I have to go and make lists about the different parts of assignments. Cuz I can’t always just organize off the bat.
One thing that really helped me was writing my notes out in a journal. Sometimes, I would really copy out word for word out of the book, just so that by writing it myself I could understand.
It takes me longer to do everything. So I just stopped comparing my progress to what I thought that the other students were doing. “They take the highway. I take the country road.”
Hope this helps.
i spent fifteen minutes a day for a month figuring out how comedians memorize jokes, noone would tell.
to memorize text sit in a quiet room and read a paragraph of text aloud then immediately recall aloud from memory without text several times until recall is faster because text is easier to recall immediately than text is to recall minutes later, if they use words that are unfamiliar to you memorize a sentence at a time instead of a paragraph, this will make your brain feel tired after hours of memorizing.
You helped! 
I need to start writing out my assignment parts because they do intimidate me. We have a very similar learning style.
take a low dose of meds, get enough sleep and just do the bare minimum in terms of preparation.
dont expect people to help you out as an adult, life isn’t a liberal arts college campus.
to quote kendrick lamar “time will never wait on no man, society will never hold your hand”.