Thank you everyone for the support, comments, and words of encouragement. To all of you who have had similar experiences...you are all amazing and wise for doing something that bold... and to be honest it makes me feel slightly better about my decision. The more people I know who have done this, and the more people who I meet that consider this a wise decision, the better I will feel. I've realized that some of my friends have dropped out or started school late: one is in her first year at 26, one started at 28, and one dropped out of both Uni and College before returning to Uni at 28.
I've decided not to drop out entirely, but to take a semester-long leave of absence...the reason being that I have to work on my mental health first as it is keeping me from attending school in the first place, despite the fact that I want to finish up more than anything. I love the material and love learning...but it's all about how it's set up that irks me: I get anxious in class as I compare myself to the other people around me constantly, and during exams and tests I get extremely pessimistic, perfectionistic, and push myself unbelievably hard. If I keep going, I'll just be wasting money because I will keep dropping my classes and having panic attacks...nothing will change.
The main thing I am concerned about, however, is being able to get this leave of absence. I am not in a position to do my finals, and I don't want to be taking this leave with Fs on my transcript.
Im currently on Celexa, seeing my counsellor, getting an updated assessment done, and starting 2 kinds of group therapy in January, so I am optimistic about my recovery from my mental health issues...once the ones regarding school have been settled, I will return.
PaleBlueDotty wrote:
you mention in your profile you are interested in mentoring, consider becoming a mentee/protegee,.
I currently mentor individuals on the spectrum as well as do speaking engagements for various organizations, so I will be mainly focusing on those things as of now...mentoring and speaking aren the two things in the world that make me genuinely happy.
_________________
Given a “tentative” diagnosis as a child as I needed services at school for what was later correctly discovered to be a major anxiety disorder.
This misdiagnosis caused me significant stress, which lessened upon finding out the truth about myself from my current and past long-term therapists - that I am an anxious and highly sensitive person but do not have an autism spectrum disorder.
My diagnoses - social anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
I’m no longer involved with the ASD world.
07 Dec 2010, 10:27 pm
