Mental Health At School

What is it like being away from home while dealing with a mental illness(es)?

Going to college itself is an overwhelming experience and can create many emotions. First and foremost, remember that these emotions you are feeling are completely normal and validated. I went into school dealing with three different mental illnesses: generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and depression. Knowing what I deal with, I was scared to find out how it would affect me while being at Drake. 

How did I cope with my mental health?

In all honesty, I wanna be as transparent as possible and saying that at first, I had no clue how to manage it. The ways I dealt with it were not healthy, I went out, ignored my anxiety, and I didn’t ask for help. To me, by ignoring my mental health and throwing it out the window, I thought that it would benefit me. At the end of the day, it only brought me into a deeper hole and I didn’t know how I was going to get out. By ignoring crucial signs that I wasn’t in the right mindset it eventually bottled up so much at I got to the point of breaking. I was failing two classes, I didn’t care to try, I preferred to stay in instead of going out and interact with people, and most of all I just didn’t care. 

How did I climb my way out of this loophole?

The day I started to push for change was when I was notified by the assistant dean of students in the college of business that I was failing 2 classes. At first, I didn’t care but I reached out to my sister who has had much experience in my shoes as she was 26 years old at the time that this all went down. She encouraged me to reply to the email I had gotten about the two courses I was failing and after many tears and expressions of frustration, I did. After my meeting with the assist. dean of students I regretted the way I handled my mental health but I was lucky enough to have someone like her to help me through this situation. She reached out to my professors to make them aware of what I had been dealing with, we scheduled a therapy session with an on-campus therapist, and we talked about my priorities as those clearly needed to be set straight. 

Things that help me today!