Help...

[Whiskey]

Hey, emax, that doesnt help anything at all! All it does is compound the guilt that already lives inside a mentally ill person and makes them feel worse. Everyone is aware that there is someone, somewhere worse off than they are, especially the mentally ill as we're told that fairly often. So feel free to never say it to anyone ever again, thanks!

[Seshat]

I second discussing it with your professors.

Also, go talk to your politicians' offices.

I'm serious. We got a friend of mine into subsidised housing simply by contacting her politicians' office and explaining exactly why she was falling through the cracks in the system, and what her needs were. The secretary/social worker/whatever-her-job-title-is hunted around and found a way to make things possible.

No, we didn't know the pollie in question. We were just random people off the street with a genuine need.

If your federal (er - whole-country) politician can't or won't help, try at state level. If state level doesn't help, try local government.

Try talking with your medical professionals, too.

And try getting your medical professionals to refer you to a social worker. Stopping people from being stuck living homeless is the social workers' job. (Their eternal problem is a lack of resources, but the sooner you ask, the sooner you get to the top of their list.)

[Solumina]

If your federal (er - whole-country) politician can't or won't help, try at state level. If state level doesn't help, try local government.

Good advice but, honestly, you are better off going local first. I've worked as a staff aide for a local politician and I know how many programs are all but impossible to figure out if you don't know the ins and outs of local legislation, hell by the time I left there were still plenty of things left to learn. Not to mention there aren't all that many people reaching out to their local politicians who genuinely need help, most of the people contacting them are just bitching, want them to override some very important process that is delaying them, or want someone to hold their hand an entire process that is clearly laid out on the county/city/whatever's website (for some reason it is always the really simple step by step things that people want help with). Also if the actual representative isn’t in the office when you call go ahead and ask for their staff aide (very few officials don't have at least one these days). Both voicemail and email generally will get you a reply within 24 hours, the only difference is that email tends to get a response from the aide and phone calls have about a 50/50 chance of getting a response from the actual official, so go with whatever makes you feel more comfortable.

Other than that my only advice is that once you feel like school is hopeless, that you aren’t making any progress, and that you would be better off working full time (not that you would be better off simply not being in school but that you would be emotionally better off working) then take a semester to do just that. It took me four years (earning only two years worth of credits) to realize that leaving school didn’t mean that I was letting myself become a failure and that if I’m not emotionally healthy then I would never be able to do well in my classes but I remembered in my semesters that I took off (well one voluntarily and one due to low academic standing) where I was working full time, even when I was working a stressful job, I was doing better.

There was just something about the structure of university life that was worsening my emotional problems. I wasted a lot of time, money, and effort trying to make school work but in the end I had to leave in order to do what is best for me. I thought that everyone was going to be ashamed of me but they weren’t. I found out that my mother was actually relieved.

I wont lie and say that things became easy, it was a real struggle while I was finding a job. Thankfully I was able to get a job working Howl-O-Scream at Busch Gardens that let me work 36 hours a week, even though the park was only open on the weekends (and yeah three 12 hours shifts in a row kind of suck, especially since I had to be active and on my feet the whole time). The park owned me Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and I was dead on Mondays (sometimes Tuesdays as well) but still I was doing better than I was at school. I didn’t have a single day where I couldn’t will myself to do everything that I needed to do (and I had a lot of those in school). It was amazing and thankfully I am a good saver so after that job was up (since it was seasonal) I had enough to tide me over until I could get something else.

Now I have a job that I like and I am happier than ever. I still occasionally have some problems (being bi-polar is fun like that) but the depressive lows are shorter and less severe than in the past and my manic episodes are less destructive. I’m not on any meds, none of them ever seemed to be able to do much good, except when I was in deep depression, but even so I risked very destructive manic episodes, but I am able to function without my disorder getting in my way, I can actually do well at work and have a social life. This isn't to say that things have been a piece of cake, far from it, but they have been doable.

I’m not saying that you have to quite school or that it is even the right thing for you to do, I just want you to know that it isn’t the end of the world and can lead to better things. I would just make sure that you have a job lined up before leaving school cuz they aren’t easy to come by these days. On the up side you could try applying for disability, though without a firm diagnosis that could be difficult.

Goodness that ended up being far longer than I expected, I hope my experiences might be helpful for you. I wish you the best.

[Seshat]

The staff aides (thanks for the correct term!) are actually more likely to be useful in your case than the politician themselves.

The politician's job involves a lot of reading up on proposed laws, finding out what the electorate wants, and - well - politicking.

Some of their aides help with that. The rest of the aides are there to actually help their electorate, and are the ones who learn about resources, options, etc.

So yeah. Don't feel like you need the politico themselves. Go to their aides.

[trailerparkmedic]

I second Seshat's suggestion for hooking up with a social worker. Social workers know what is out there and how to work the system for you.

[Taboo]

Alright. It's taken me a while to get back to this because I've been trying to get things worked out with my school.

For right now, I've dropped down to minimal full time classes. I won't be able to graduate on time but I'll figure it out when I get there. So that gets rid of a lot of my classwork, honestly.

I also decided to just go manipulative first. My grandparents happened to call and I did this whole suckup "I'm sooo glad daddy is helping me pay for therapy so school makes me less stressed" song and dance, they bought it, then called him and praised him. Annnnd now he's socially roped into actually doing so, otherwise he knows I'll go tell them and he'll look like the asshole he is in front of the rest of the family.

Maybe not the nicest way to handle it but... honestly at this point I'm going to do whatever works.

I'm going to get through the end of the semester in December, then I'm off for a month and I'll reevaluate whether or not I'm going back to school or dropping out entirely or taking time off or whatever.

Thanks, everyone.

[Taboo]

And on the last note.

I have talked to professors, some have been helpful, I still have the same workload but all of my due dates are flexible. I can turn in nothing some weeks if I'm doing worse and they won't bug me about it. Just so long as it's all in by the end of the semester. The one who was a jerk about it - his class was one that I dropped because I did not want to deal with it.

[Whiskey]

Annnnd now he's socially roped into actually doing so, otherwise he knows I'll go tell them and he'll look like the asshole he is in front of the rest of the family.

very nice