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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by CareBear04 on January 18, 2008, at 21:08:37
Argh! It's tough keeping up with your life when you're depressed, maybe even more when you're in school. At least in the workplace, you're entitled to some accomodation for your illness and [in theory] protected from employment discrimination. school, though, has a pace of its own, and it moves on whether or not you can keep up. I don't know what options I have if I just need a little time to somehow get my mood back on track because I'm caught in a vicious cycle where I'm too depressed to make it to classes or to prepare or focus, and falling behind makes catching up seem overwhelming, which makes me more depressed. depression + constant anxiety also keeps me awake and kills my appetite. i'm too busy to eat, i'm not hungry, and when i do, food seems to stick to my throat. i already have a lot of nutritional deficiencies, which no doubt make me more sluggish and could be causing some of the neuropsych changes.
what i don't want is to have to take a medical leave and withdraw for the term. My courses continue over two terms, so until the end of the quarter, i don't have final grades. if i withdraw now, i'd have to repeat the whole first quarter. My pdoc suggested some time off as an option and offered to write a letter, but, as appealing as that sounds, I don't know whether it would help. this quarter is just jam-packed with five classes a day, and missing one day of one class is a setback. The classes this quarter are much less lecture-based and more socratic method/discussion, so one person's notes don't really capture what went on in class. I don't even know if there's a practical difference between unexplained absences and absences justified for medical reasons. If not, I'd much rather preserve my privacy and be penalized for absences than explain myself to the dean for no resulting benefit. my initial impression is that the administration has no control over professors' attendance policies, especially to the extent that they are only enforcing what is supposed to be the general rule. the ABA requires 80% attendance in order to sit for exams.
does anyone have any experience with this type of situation? any suggestions as to what i can do to keep on track in school while still being able to block out the stressors in order to gain some ground in getting mentally and physically healthy?
thanks everyone! i've never posted on this board, but it seems like it could be a really good forum for support.
CB
Posted by Gee on January 23, 2008, at 23:02:32
In reply to medical accomodations in school?, posted by CareBear04 on January 18, 2008, at 21:08:37
Hey CareBear,
Have you tried talking with your Disabilities office on campus? They might have some ideas of what kind of accommodations you could receive. And if your pdoc is willing to give you a note, that will most likely be all the official documentation you need. Here this information is kept confidential, and my profs never know beyond what I tell them about my disability. They get this nice letter from the Disabilities Office saying that they have a student, Gee, in their class who has a Disability and these are the accommodations we are asking for. I have extended time on tests and a seperate testing location away from everyone else. I know this may not apply to your situation, but this little change has helped me A TON!
And while mine isn't medical, most profs are WAY more than accommodating once they find out that there is some kind of disability.So what kind of accommodations do you think would help you?
Could you drop one class? Would that help relieve some stress? Could you get credit for what you did in the first half of the year and just pick up where you left off next year? Maybe withdrawing from the class with a cause may allow you to do this? I don't know. I'd really say go talk to the disabilities advisor and see how they can help you.
I hope this helps somewhat. I know it helped me a TON and has brought my marks up over a letter grade!
Good luck!
G
Posted by Racer on January 24, 2008, at 11:07:24
In reply to Re: medical accomodations in school?, posted by Gee on January 23, 2008, at 23:02:32
I'll second Gee's suggestion of talking to your school's disability counselor. And of dropping a couple of classes.
If those don't work, I guess I'd recommend whatever tutoring your school offers. I've used tutors and gone to the tutoring centers for various subjects, and set up study groups, and generally done everything I could think of over the years to find ways to get more help with classes.
In your case, it sounds as though you've got a bit more complex issues than I ever had. The best advice I can come up with for you, in a nutshell, is "Talk to the counseling office, and see what you can work out."
Good luck.
Posted by CareBear04 on January 26, 2008, at 18:57:14
In reply to Re: medical accomodations in school?, posted by Gee on January 23, 2008, at 23:02:32
thanks both for the advice. i sent an email last week to the dean of students who basically said that there wasn't much leeway as far as curriculum requirements and that each professor can enforce his or her own attendance policy. she asked that i come in to talk about it, but if there's nothing that can be done, that's that. no point in spewing secrets for no purpose.
the suggestion of talking to the disabilities office is a good one, but in my current case, i wouldn't be able to even specify accomodations that would help. things like problems concentrating, remembering, and processing information, racing thoughts that cause more interference, difficulty motivating myself to attend classes, and just the general inability to keep up with the pace of life are definitely debilitating, but they're too vague to be addressed with any targeted measures. i guess what i really need is just some flexibility-- i don't expect special treatment with respect to a final grade, but i think it would help to be able to follow my own path to that end, meaning having the choice to miss classes for purposes of treatment and a way to make them up as best as possible by getting notes or handouts or lecture recordings.
i guess a big problem for me is the conflict between wanting to maintain privacy and wanting people to understand why i'm not performing so great. i haven't told any of my classmates or professors about my diagnoses. i know mental illness is far from uncommon and that people try to be understanding. but i think there are still at least a few areas that are not well accepted or internalized. i think people still distinguish between acute manifestations (e.g., she's depressed) and chronic conditions (she's schizophrenic/bipolar, etc.) i think the first is more readily seen as a temporal state while with the second, people have a hard time separating the person from the illness. i don't want the diagnosis to be the context in which everything i do is viewed. there were a few other things i wanted to say, but i dont' remember what they were... this is pretty typical right now...
anyway, thanks again for the suggestions.
cb
Posted by Racer on January 26, 2008, at 23:59:10
In reply to Re: medical accomodations in school?, posted by CareBear04 on January 26, 2008, at 18:57:14
>
>
> but in my current case, i wouldn't be able to even specify accomodations that would help. things like problems concentrating, remembering, and processing information, racing thoughts that cause more interference, difficulty motivating myself to attend classes, and just the general inability to keep up with the pace of life are definitely debilitating, but they're too vague to be addressed with any targeted measures.I can think of a few things that might help, as far as accommodations go. The disabilities office probably knows an awful lot more about what they can and can't do than the dean does -- they deal with it daily, the dean may never have had any direct contact with the practical side of disability assistance.
It's worth going in to chat about it. There's likely not much that can be done about attendance, but most of the rest of it can probably be mitigated with some sort of assistance.
By the way, what about dropping one of the classes for this term? Would that be possible for you?
Posted by Gee on January 28, 2008, at 17:19:23
In reply to Re: medical accomodations in school?, posted by CareBear04 on January 26, 2008, at 18:57:14
I must say I agree with Racer and here's why:
When I first went to talk to Disability services I hadn't been diagnosed with a learning disability, but I had all the mental health disability stuff. I turned down the accommodations they were willing to offer (such as extended test taking time and quiet locations). The next year I accepted them and it made a HUGE difference. My grades have since gone up. For me, it was the anxiety that goes along with tests and even just the noise of other people taking the tests distracting me.
The best part of disability assistance at school is that you don't have to tell anyone but the adviser what your problems are, so most of the time you don't get the whole stigma thing.
They may not be able to do a whole lot about the attendance thing, but they may be able to help you in other ways. Would having a tutor help -- someone who could help keep you on top of your work?
Good luck. It's not always easy, but I've been told it's worth it in the end ;-)
This is the end of the thread.
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