Struggling with School, Work, and Mental Health

Yes I can’t work

I was a senior in college when I developed Long Covid and my mental health was poor as well. I physically could not hold my job anymore on top of a full course load and extracurriculars. Once I dropped some things from my plate I decided to just focus on graduating and I did it and then found a job after college. Have to listen to your body and mind there is strength in that. I felt ashamed because I had always been such an over achiever but it was hurting me and I had to prioritize my health which is something to be proud of not ashamed of ❤️

When I was in college I dropped down to a part time student to give myself some sort of free time. It was a hard decision & It took longer to graduate but I also didn’t feel as much pressure.

Thank you so much for your comment, ZappyRacc. This made me feel so much better about prioritizing school and my mental health as well. Thank you for taking the time to write this! I hope all goes well for you

Honestly, it might come down to weighing what means the most to you. When I ask the following question, think about what your heart says, not just the "logical reasoning" your brain so helpfully volunteers as to get you stuck in positions like this: Is your dream of getting your degree valuable enough to be worth having the awkward conversation with your parents and boyfriend about needing a bit of extra help financially so you can leave your job/cut your hours/possibly find an easier job to do part-time so you've got the mental energy to be successful with school? I understand how hard it is to ask for help. But approaching them with this now could mean you can later use your degree for a better job, something in your field with better pay, not to mention simply achieving that degree can be a huge confidence boost for a lot of folks. I mean, even personally, my physical health problems have cut into my ability to work or to go onto grad school (fibro brain fog is awful, I don't think I would've even gotten my BA if I had been as sick then,) but I take great pleasure in answering questions here or online, because giving people advice is honestly one of the best feelings I get these days, because I can call upon my dual psychology/sociology degree in doing so and remember how confident I was as a college senior. Honestly, I didn't go onto grad school because I didn't know how I'd get the money, and my PTSD got in the way of my confidence and made me feel too scared, ashamed, and just generally insecure to admit to anyone I might need help getting there. And now, I'm kinda wishing I'd gone and gotten my Master's degree, because then I could beat therapist like I wanted to in the first place, as opposed to a dude who gives internet advice from his long morning shower so as not to make his partner, upon whom he depends in spite of their toxic relationship, feel ignored, with an appointment to see one of his multiple therapists in about an hour. Seriously, if getting a higher education is important to you, prioritize it as best you can. Even now, not able to use my degree for much but what I'm doing right here, I wouldn't take back a minute of my college education. College challenged so much that I had learned or taken for granted as a kid. It changed the person I am, and even if I'm not always on the best terms with myself, I feel leaps and bounds more free and more ready to interact with proper "adult" realms because I had that opportunity to explore who I was in the face of information which made me brutally aware that not only was I sheltered, but all my k-12 classmates were being fed the same delusional rhetoric I was. I didn't feel like I was really part of a more universal pool of human thought until college. I didn't know life beyond my white bread, heavily influenced by Christianity and conservatism, middle class childhood until I was in classes with people who did Magick and drank kombucha and came from much different walks of life than myself. So, if college is important to you, stick with it. You might be able to soften the financial impact of your choice to focus on your degree by finding grants and scholarships. I paid about half of my bachelor's and two summers, one studying abroad, another knocking out my communications minor at a theatre conservatory in Manhattan, from probably less than a full work shift's cumulative time writing essays and applying to grants and scholarships. My trick was to gather up a list and then sort them out by similarities in essays to which they'd be more likely to respond; here's the mental health experiences essay for the counseling grants, here's the essay about growing up trans and queer in a conservative city for the sociology grants, etc. That way you can get away with applying to like a dozen places with just 3 short (we're talking like the length of a cover letter for a job application) essays.