It is hard to go to school when you are bipolar. It is hard to stay on schedule and get anything done cause you never know when you will go manic or be paralyzed from depression. I want to major in philosophy. I was majoring in Christian Religion...but i grew up learning all that. i want to learn other things now. I am thinking about going to a university with a good student disability program...but i would rather find an online school with a philosophy degree. any ideas?
fuck i just wrote a response and my browser crashed. to summarize - being bipolar and trying to study sucks, i know from personal experience. check out Athabasca University (in canada) - http://www.athabascau.ca/ it is an 'open' university, which means you don't need to go through an application process at all. i've tried their courses a couple of times and although i wasn't able to finish either time, it was because of my mental health and not because of anything wrong with the classes. the courses are a bit more expensive than regular university courses (at least the ones around here), and i don't know if there is a higher cost to international students or not, but its worth a look.
I have a pretty severe (treatment-resistant) case of Bipolar Schizoaffective Disorder. I always excelled in school through my sophomore year as a Mathematics major in undergraduate school. I was getting award after award. Then my illness became so out-of-control that I needed to be put on medication or else I would end up in jail (seriously) or dead by suicide. The medication and my still prominant mood and psychotic episodes made my last two years of undergraduate school hell-like. Mathematics is a pretty tough field and being on antipsychotics isn't the best route to take if you plan on doing abstract mathematics. I hated those two years and I honestly don't know how I came through it both alive and with a degree in Mathematics. I have now taken almost two years off, attending graduate school one semester and planning to resume in the Fall. It is unbearably hard, but the government simply doesn't provide enough assistance to support independent living and the economy is so poor that finding a job that won't stress me out to the point of going nuts is very slim. So I now take a reduced course-load at grad school for mathematics. I hope to become a Lecturer (in between a highschool teacher and full university professor) in the coming years. It is a hellish experience. I suggest you read my Blog entries to learn more.
i'll definitely check out your blog - always nice to read about someone going through the same thing as me.
Clearly you have never had a psychotic break before... I take great offense to your statement, but I have heard it so many times that I don't care about it anymore. Just be glad you have your sanity...
The thing about having bipolar disorder is that you are going to have to learn how to deal with it at some point. Life's problems don't get easier, but as you gain expierence your arsonal of ways to deal with lifes problems grows. Confront what ever comes at you head first. Put in 100% every day... but remember, your 100% today may be different than your 100% tomorrow. To be a sucessful individual with bipolar, one must learn to accept this, work hard, and do what ever possible to avoid self defeating behaviors. You can do it, it wont be easy... but there isn't much of a choice in the real world. Sink or swim. Bout time to start swimming
I actually agree with you, even though I have been diagnosed with bipolar. In fact....I think that insanity is actually the ONLY kind of sanity and that sane people are really insane. HAH!! Maybe we should have a discussion about neurodiversity...MAYBE ALL mental health professionals are actually bigots who want to suppress peoples natural minds and put them on oppressive medications to dull their minds to the level of the rest of the ignorant world population... BUT....In reality, the only thing you can KNOW is what you experience. So for all practical purposes, I say that I am bipolar because my emotional patterns (which i experience daily) match what so called experts say is a condition called bipolar. so fuck you. anywho....does anyone have any ideas?
