I Wish I'd Done..before I went to college Sza

School and Work
1

Looking back, there are certain things I wish I had done earlier in my academic career that would have made my life so much easier, and my time in the community college system and grad school would have both been much shorter and on time! I made a long list, feel free to add your own insights!

The first thing I would have done is to

go straight to the services for students with disabilities department at my first school and request accommodations like private test taking, maybe permission to record class lectures for when my mind couldn’t concentrate, etc…

I would have gotten a smartwatch as an assisted device earlier to keep my schedule, texts, emails, reminders on. It zaps my wrist lightly when my cell phone gets a new notification.

I would have asked the services for students with disabilities what forms I would need to turn in on the chance that I had to wipe a semester’s grades off my academic records with withdrawals due to hospitalization or illness and kept copies of those forms at home.

I would have gotten a whiteboard and a big felt pen to write daily, weekly, and monthly goals/deadlines.

I also would have used the time before and after class to practice socializing skills with my classmates. Knowing how to politely chit chat would have been very handy…it was a lesson I had to relearn later in life in my late-20’s after nearly a decade of solitude and silently staring at people’s shoes during class.

Learn from my mistakes, as I took longer than 5 years for my BA. I spent 3 years in the MA program before graduating, too…but that was partly due to mania-induced ambition. I now have more completed credits than my peers due to a mild mania-induced decision to switch into computer science without much background in it, and now my transcripts are more diverse than others with courses in a range of humanities and stem courses that went above and beyond what was needed for my degree. It’s half impressive and half the sad reality of a mild mania stalling an academic career and also a math class and computer algorithms class wrecked my gpa. So, my last piece of advice?

take your meds
`

and monitor your moods if you’re szA. Thank you, that was my TED Talk for the day lol bows

11 Likes
2

Congratulations on your academic achievements, HQuinn! And thank you for sharing worthwhile advice!

1 Like
3

I would have definitely gotten in touch with disability services right away. I would also have only taken four classes at a time. Any time I tried taking more, I failed a whole bunch. And definitely, I would have stopped drinking.

I’ve done all of these things now, and my second try at school is going much more smoothly.

1 Like
4

What was ur gpa if you don’t mind me asking? Is that private maybe?

5

Major or overall?
My graduate major gpa was a 3.6 but my overall gpa was a 3.0-3.2 around there, due to pre-cal, computer science, and some stem classes I took that weighed down my GPA

1 Like
6

I went to college for 2.5 years after sz with severe negative symptoms. I didn’t need or want any of your reccomendations (no offense, i mean this politely). I dont have cognitive symptoms and i didnt need accomodations, i also had no trouble doing group work, but i wasnt there to make friends, and didnt bother chit-chattin. I made deans list last 3 semesters. But it got too much once i found out the truth, that my life was gone.

7

sorry

okay, yea, tbh I took that as rude at first, as my intentions are to keep others from failing out due to multiple hospitalizations like I did…but I’m glad you finished quickly and with a high GPA. For me, being hospitalized over a dozen times in the course of like 5 years, usually at least once during finals, I would have liked to have read those tips before hand. I still stand by my tips, they would have saved me a lot of wasted effort and feelings of failure and inferiority.

I didn’t either, but I wish I had, because stuff like tact and learning to read body language is necessary for reintegration…if you’re severely mentally ill, anyways. If you don’t have negative symptoms I assume you function well socially, so you’re right, you don’t need my tips.

8

Dang I’m with you on that, I wish I would’ve gone straight to disability services as well. I didn’t even know they existed for people with mental health issues. They helped me tremendously though.

1 Like
9

I don’t need to monitor my moods. I’m sza. My mood has been content and stable for the past twelve and a half years.

10

That’s great! what do you wish you’d done before you went to college sza?

11

I wish I had gone to see a psychiatrist about my psychosis before I got deep into nursing school. But, then, I wouldn’t be where I am today, so, maybe not. I’m sitting pretty good right now.

12

No, i said i have severe ones, just the two anhedonia and avolition both very bad, also blunted emotions. No cognitives tho. Btw my experience with college has been very rocky, age 18-27 time in school 28 credits shy of graduating. I was too lazy to even want accomodations, like having to use a pen to record lecture and having to listen to it afterwards;no-no. Lol

If i wanted friends i dont think it’d be an issue, i prefer isolation. Social ability wasnt affected by sz much. Desire for social bonds definetly was tho.

I was just wanting to share a different perspective, sry if i sounded rude, i kind of dont like it when ppl think everyones experience of sz is like their own so wanted to put mine out there. We all struggle in our own ways, ur problems maybe someone else’s strengths.