Taking medical leave and feeling like a failure

BookLvr
Thu, 10 Jan 2019 13:14:05 +0000

PLEASE DO NOT FEEL LIKE A FAILURE. Your path has a detour. That’s all.

PSYCHOLOGICAL ILLNESSES ARE AS REAL AS PHYSICAL ILLNESSES. Everyone understands that when you are sick, there are things you cannot do until you get well again. My daughter had to miss a crucial period of her sophomore year of high school due to mono. JUST LIKE IN YOUR CASE, she had absolutely no choice. She missed her sophomore PSAT, a dance competition with her team, auditions for the musical, all her regular classes (even though her general point of view was “You can’t miss a day of chemistry or when you come back you will be hopelessly confused!”), and rehearsals for the play she was in. Her fever went as high as 107 and she looked and felt horrible. But you know what? She bounced back. (She even pulled off an A- in Chemistry!) YOU WILL BOUNCE BACK TOO!

I am a college professor and I have seen MULTIPLE students have to take leaves of absence for mental health reasons including suicidal ideation over the years. Many of them have come back and had GREAT SUCCESS. One of these students is a student who is directing a play that I am in and doing great in an array of interesting classes. She is in a 100% different place now mentally than she was 6 months ago and I am so grateful she did not give up on herself. YOU ARE A SUCCESS STORY. You may not be in a chapter of that story where you can see that success right now, but if you could peek ahead, you would be excited by the chapters still to come!

PLEASE CONTINUE TO GET PROFESSIONAL HELP. That you are in therapy is a great thing.

PLEASE make sure that that professional help understands how badly you are feeling right now.

PLEASE do not compare your path to other people’s paths and to what you think you are “supposed to be doing.” There is no one size fits all to college paths or paths through life in general. Really, truly, some of the most successful people in life have not marched through school in eight consecutive semesters of everything going right in every respect. Detours ARE permitted. They really are. So right now, your project is getting yourself healthy. Everything else can wait.

YOU ARE WORTH IT. YOU HAVE SO MUCH TO CONTRIBUTE. Do not give up. Worry about getting through the next hour. Then worry about the one after that. There’s plenty of time to do all of the things you aren’t doing this semester after you get better. I promise you that school WILL STILL BE THERE!