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Stuck About Going Back to School

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  • April 2, 2017 at 11:55 am #143383
    Annie
    Participant

    Hello,

    I’ve been out of school for about a year now. I am lost and don’t know if I will be able to go back to school. I want to become a therapist. I can either take more classes to raise my undergraduate GPA (I did poorly in undergrad due to depression and other issues) and study for the MCAT while working full time. Then, I would be applying to med school and spending a lot of money. Or I can get a masters degree in social work and become a therapist, which won’t pay much. I was always told to be a physician by my parents (not in mental health). I don’t know if that’s why I’m opposed to getting an masters in social work? I’m lost and confused .I have depression and ADHD, which make it very difficult to learn and retain new information. I have an appointment with a psychiatrist soon to try new medications for depression and ADHD since both of them have been managed very poorly. I am exhausted of working full time and then not having energy to study at the end of the day. I am seeing a new therapist and will be discussing this with her as well.

    April 2, 2017 at 8:10 pm #143427
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Annie:

    Welcome back. If you want to be a therapist and it pays enough for you to live the life you need to live (food, shelter, health care, abuse-free)- then aim at that. Your difficulties processing and retaining information have to be considered in regard to choosing a subject.

    Those processing and retaining information is a result of anxiety, and so, the calmer your life, the better your learning ability. Aim at as-calm-a-life as you can make for yourself.

    Medications for depression and ADHD- that would be a hit-and-miss experience and it will take time… and then, when you find a combination of drugs that help, later it may stop working.  There is also the placebo affect. Psychiatric drugs are way more complicated than taking antibiotics for infection.

    anita

    April 3, 2017 at 5:49 am #143439
    Garima
    Participant

    Hello,

    I understand this fear completely. When I was in high school. I just wanted to not go to the school at any cost. I did hunger strike & stopped talking to everyone. I was feeling way too anxious. I wasn’t ready.

    As a parent it is a responsibility to take your kid out of such anxiety & raise your kid to feel perfect about undesired changes.

    When I look back, I think it was absurd decision. I appreciate myself for the courage I had, even after knowing that I am not willing to go to school. Somewhere back in my mind I was aware that I have to take care of my career & this decision in not going to make things better.

    I had to go through a lot, but it all was about my inner demons, who kept haunting me for a long time.

    Cutting off yourself is never a good choice. I learned it with time.
    You are right now in your so-called comfort zone & don’t want to break through, but trust me there will be time when you would crave to go to school & at that time you might rethink about your decision.

    Even after all this, if you want to stay back then there are education alternative for kids for whom schools alone are not enough

    April 3, 2017 at 8:12 pm #143549
    Annie
    Participant

    Hello Anita,

    Thanks for responding. I was actually looking forwards to see what you had to say. I think you have a great point. I need to stop feeling like i’ll be a failure if I don’t do something just because I was told that’s the only way to be successful. I agree, I need to be interested in the subject. I may also have fibromyalgia, which is related to ptsd, stress, depression, and anxiety.

    I agree, the information processing has become worse over time due to unforeseen circumstances. I am hoping that a rheumatologist and/or a psychologist may be able to help. I’ve been very depressed lately and feeling down. More recently, I found out my boyfriend is moving away for completing a graduate degree.

     

    Hi Garima,

    Thanks for responding. Being anxious and stressed can make it very difficult to focus on other things. I too know in the back of my mind that I have to take care of my career. It stays in the back of my mind and will be triggered by some event.  For example, I was okay until I went to the library with a friend and realized other people were studying and I had been out of school for a year.

     

    April 3, 2017 at 8:21 pm #143555
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Annie:

    I am sorry you are suffering, from depression, possibly from fibromyalgia and any other symptom of PTSD. Please be gentle with yourself, be kind to you. Don’t compare yourself to others (maybe those in the library who are in school while you are not)- they don’t have the same challenges as you do. Maybe they were more fortunate than you and didn’t go through the Traumas that you did (The T in your PTSD).

    Have empathy for yourself in everything you do.

    anita

    April 3, 2017 at 9:17 pm #143559
    Annie
    Participant

    Thanks Anita,

    I find it’s much easier to give good advice than take your own good advice. Haha I have had challenges, but I worry I use them as an excuse. I guess I consider these (PTSD, depression, anxiety) to be normal when they are not. Just have been feeling like my world is crashing down and I can’t do anything.

     

    April 4, 2017 at 8:39 am #143599
    Anonymous
    Guest

    Dear Annie:

    You can imagine a young child feeling very distressed and the parent responding with: “What is wrong with you? You have no reason to feel this way!” And the child shows the parent a wound she has, a wound that is bleeding, and the parent replies with: “This is just an excuse!”-

    Well this is similar to how you treat yourself when you worry that you use your PTSD, depression, anxiety as excuses. It is very important that you treat yourself kindly, with empathy. You have real wounds, emotional (which are by the way, physical, as there is nothing we experience that is not physical)- these are not excuses.

    anita

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