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[spartan22x]

I am a junior undergrad looking to go to graduate school and eventually go into academia. The only problem that I have is that I have a severe mental illness, although I am faring better than most people with my diagnosis do. I was wondering how having a mental illness would affect graduate school and, eventually (and hopefully), a professorship.

The main reason I am asking is because I am going through a change in medication now, and while I thought I was dealing with it well, I realized that I have no ability to concentrate on anything, and my sleep pattern has been very irregular. I have a lot of papers due in my classes that I have already missed or am missing deadlines for due to this. I'm trying my best to work on my papers, it's just not working and I don't know why.

So, my questions are:
1. Is changing psychiatric medication a valid reason to ask for an extension if you are experiencing the effects that I am from it?
2. How will having a mental illness affect me in the future?
3. Will my using disability resources go on my record?
4. Will using disability resources in any way affect my future career, if I choose to go into academia?

Thanks in advance,
Spartan22x

[t_r_b]

So, my questions are:
1. Is changing psychiatric medication a valid reason to ask for an extension if you are experiencing the effects that I am from it?

I think so. There is no harm in asking, certainly. A note from your doctor might help.

2. How will having a mental illness affect me in the future?

We have no way of knowing.

More details about your illness and your planned field of study might yield more helpful answers.

As a general rule, if you have uncertainty about whether this line of work will be good for you (i.e., if you're like most people), it's a good idea to take a few years off between college and grad school. These questions about your mental health are good reasons in themselves to hold off for a while. Spend some time away from school. It will still be there when you come back.

3. Will my using disability resources go on my record?

No. Talk to your local disabilities services office for more details: they'll be able to give you the specifics.

4. Will using disability resources in any way affect my future career, if I choose to go into academia?

Well, it will hopefully enable you to achieve more academically, in which case it would affect your career in a very positive way.

[spartan22x]

We have no way of knowing.

More details about your illness and your planned field of study might yield more helpful answers.

As a general rule, if you have uncertainty about whether this line of work will be good for you (i.e., if you're like most people), it's a good idea to take a few years off between college and grad school. These questions about your mental health are good reasons in themselves to hold off for a while. Spend some time away from school. It will still be there when you come back.

I'm sorry if I was a little reluctant to give full details, I wasn't sure how appropriate it would be. I am officially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, although my doctor now thinks that I have bipolar schizoaffective, due to having mood episodes last year. My planned field of study is anthropology, specializing in either medical anthropology or archaeology.

I am reluctant to take time off of school as I may need to do an MA to offset my less than stellar GPA (my disorder hampered my math skills and I used to be a physics major, it was a bad combination, especially because that was before I started using disability resources). I'm worried about paying off my undergraduate loans, and then having to quit working to go back for graduate school. Also, I don't want to get rusty by taking time off.

As of right now, I believe I can do graduate school, once my medications get settled at least. Are they willing to work with you on these sorts of things in grad school?

[thehanks]

Hey spartan,

I'm a first year MA student (also in medical anthropology, yay!) and I'm in a similar kind of situation as you. My mental health isn't as severe but there are some exacerbating factors.

1. I'd also say probably. In my experience just being upfront with my professors that I'm struggling and will need extra time has been fine. They didn't ask for notes or anything and I haven't told them all the details. YMMV, I'm in an awesome department with very supportive people, especially the grad director and my advisor (for program stuff, not research) who I have told all the details to. They will back me up if I need them and have been helpful for hashing out the course of my program and potential future options.

2. Nobody can really know how it'll affect them in the future. Things change. You might have similar issues to now, but if you get on the right meds you might function really well. And then something might change and mess it all up. I have learned to be patient with myself, communicate with my doctor and my support network, and pay attention to what my body and my mood are telling me. Noticing patterns and what makes things better/worse is really helpful.

3. It shouldn't.

4. I would hope that disability services would help you learn skills and strategies to deal with life, work, school, etc. that you can take with you throughout your career. I've also never known a disability office to turn grad students away.

And don't worry about taking time off. There are folks in my cohort who have been away from school for varying lengths of time and they are doing just fine. I'm planning to take time off after my MA because I don't know if I want to get a PhD anymore, but I can keep in touch with former professors and colleagues, continue reading interesting material, check out guest speakers/lectures, get alumni privileges at the library, etc., if I do decide to do it. As for loans, well, I'm scared of mine too but we all have to face them sooner or later!

[spartan22x]

Hey spartan,

I'm a first year MA student (also in medical anthropology, yay!) and I'm in a similar kind of situation as you. My mental health isn't as severe but there are some exacerbating factors.

1. I'd also say probably. In my experience just being upfront with my professors that I'm struggling and will need extra time has been fine. They didn't ask for notes or anything and I haven't told them all the details. YMMV, I'm in an awesome department with very supportive people, especially the grad director and my advisor (for program stuff, not research) who I have told all the details to. They will back me up if I need them and have been helpful for hashing out the course of my program and potential future options.

2. Nobody can really know how it'll affect them in the future. Things change. You might have similar issues to now, but if you get on the right meds you might function really well. And then something might change and mess it all up. I have learned to be patient with myself, communicate with my doctor and my support network, and pay attention to what my body and my mood are telling me. Noticing patterns and what makes things better/worse is really helpful.

3. It shouldn't.

4. I would hope that disability services would help you learn skills and strategies to deal with life, work, school, etc. that you can take with you throughout your career. I've also never known a disability office to turn grad students away.

And don't worry about taking time off. There are folks in my cohort who have been away from school for varying lengths of time and they are doing just fine. I'm planning to take time off after my MA because I don't know if I want to get a PhD anymore, but I can keep in touch with former professors and colleagues, continue reading interesting material, check out guest speakers/lectures, get alumni privileges at the library, etc., if I do decide to do it. As for loans, well, I'm scared of mine too but we all have to face them sooner or later!

Thanks, this makes me feel a lot better! I'm trying to pull myself together to finish up the stuff I need to for this semester, but I'm planning on seeing my professors soon and just explaining to them what has been going on. I'm planning on working on an senior/honors thesis next year (the title depends on if I can get my GPA up),  and I need to ask a professor whose class I'm behind in to do an independent study with him. He's already agreed to be my advisor for the thesis. I was wondering exactly how much information I should divulge to him. Do any of you have an opinion on this?

Also, I'm so sorry for asking so many questions, it's just that mental health is still so touchy in society and I don't know what exactly professors need to know and what is too much information.

(side note: for my second question, I meant about my academic career, not just in general)

[msparticularity]

You are entitled to accommodations for your disability under ADA. If you have not already done so (and it sounds as if you have?), you should open a file with your campus disabilities office. They are the ones to help you with things like requesting additional time on assignments when you are having difficulty with things like a change in meds. While there are probably real jerks out there among your professors who will NOT be appropriate and understanding, there are likely others who will be wonderful. This is true at both the undergrad and the graduate level.

It would also be helpful to know what area you hope to pursue, in terms of giving you good feedback about grad school. There are some fields where scheduling is pretty flexible and the occasional need for extra time is not a big deal, and others where the lab work goes on regardless of peoples' needs and issues, and the grad assistants just need to do the work according to that external schedule.

And my own experience is that academia is--like many other fields--a mixed bag in terms of mental health (as well as physical health) issues. One certainly has better protections within the state university system than in much of corporate America. Also, academic schedules, while intense, are not necessarily of the 9-5 variety, so it's a bit easier to rearrange things to suit individual needs. My sense is that it could become an issue if one were seriously undependable much of the time. However, if one is stable and productive much or most of the time with occasional "flares" that require accommodation, my observation has been that people are helpful and supportive.  

[t_r_b]

We have no way of knowing.

More details about your illness and your planned field of study might yield more helpful answers.

As a general rule, if you have uncertainty about whether this line of work will be good for you (i.e., if you're like most people), it's a good idea to take a few years off between college and grad school. These questions about your mental health are good reasons in themselves to hold off for a while. Spend some time away from school. It will still be there when you come back.

I'm sorry if I was a little reluctant to give full details, I wasn't sure how appropriate it would be. I am officially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, although my doctor now thinks that I have bipolar schizoaffective, due to having mood episodes last year. My planned field of study is anthropology, specializing in either medical anthropology or archaeology.

I am reluctant to take time off of school as I may need to do an MA to offset my less than stellar GPA (my disorder hampered my math skills and I used to be a physics major, it was a bad combination, especially because that was before I started using disability resources). I'm worried about paying off my undergraduate loans, and then having to quit working to go back for graduate school. Also, I don't want to get rusty by taking time off.

As of right now, I believe I can do graduate school, once my medications get settled at least. Are they willing to work with you on these sorts of things in grad school?

Are who willing to work with you on "these sorts of things"?

I suggest you peruse some of the dozens of threads on the grad school board, and elsewhere, on the general topic of whether to go to grad school. Many of your questions will be answered there.

It's not my field, but I suspect there is a pretty big difference between medical anthropology and archaeology. Any decision about whether to go to grad school should come after deciding what you want to study, not before.* That may seem counterintuitive, but it is true.

I am perfectly willing to believe that you can do grad school, in the sense that you have the requisite intellectual ability. Lots of people do. But the more important question is whether you should do grad school. On that topic, in just a couple of posts, you have offered several big red flags:

1. a major mental disorder, for which the specific diagnosis and plan of treatment (and therefore prognosis) remains uncertain.
2. you have student loans to pay off.
3. your field(s) of choice are unlikely to offer you secure employment after your PhD

#s 2 & 3 together are a big problem. When you consider that lack of secure employment probably means lack of consistent health benefits, #s 1, 2, and 3 add up to very very big problems. When you add to the mix uncertainty about what you'd study, we end up with a massive neon sign looming over you saying, "DON'T GO!!!"

Your mental health concerns should give you pause, but in many respects they are the least of the many reasons you should second guess your plans for grad school. As I said above, take time off. Pay off those loans. Get to a better place mental health-wise. Figure out what you want to study. Find out about alternative career options - preferably some of the ones that offer better job prospects than anthropology (which would be most of them). Give it a few years, and then decide whether grad school is for you. Any "rustiness" you acquire will be more than made up for by a clearer sense of purpose, a lighter debt load, and some experience of life outside of school.

On preview: your thesis title depends on your GPA???

* On edit: I'm not saying you need to know your future dissertation topic. But knowing whether you want to do research via participant interviews or by sifting through five thousand-year-old garbage is, I think, a key thing to work out.

[spartan22x]

We have no way of knowing.

More details about your illness and your planned field of study might yield more helpful answers.

As a general rule, if you have uncertainty about whether this line of work will be good for you (i.e., if you're like most people), it's a good idea to take a few years off between college and grad school. These questions about your mental health are good reasons in themselves to hold off for a while. Spend some time away from school. It will still be there when you come back.

I'm sorry if I was a little reluctant to give full details, I wasn't sure how appropriate it would be. I am officially diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, although my doctor now thinks that I have bipolar schizoaffective, due to having mood episodes last year. My planned field of study is anthropology, specializing in either medical anthropology or archaeology.

I am reluctant to take time off of school as I may need to do an MA to offset my less than stellar GPA (my disorder hampered my math skills and I used to be a physics major, it was a bad combination, especially because that was before I started using disability resources). I'm worried about paying off my undergraduate loans, and then having to quit working to go back for graduate school. Also, I don't want to get rusty by taking time off.

As of right now, I believe I can do graduate school, once my medications get settled at least. Are they willing to work with you on these sorts of things in grad school?

Are who willing to work with you on "these sorts of things"?

I suggest you peruse some of the dozens of threads on the grad school board, and elsewhere, on the general topic of whether to go to grad school. Many of your questions will be answered there.

It's not my field, but I suspect there is a pretty big difference between medical anthropology and archaeology. Any decision about whether to go to grad school should come after deciding what you want to study, not before.* That may seem counterintuitive, but it is true.

I am perfectly willing to believe that you can do grad school, in the sense that you have the requisite intellectual ability. Lots of people do. But the more important question is whether you should do grad school. On that topic, in just a couple of posts, you have offered several big red flags:

1. a major mental disorder, for which the specific diagnosis and plan of treatment (and therefore prognosis) remains uncertain.
2. you have student loans to pay off.
3. your field(s) of choice are unlikely to offer you secure employment after your PhD

#s 2 & 3 together are a big problem. When you consider that lack of secure employment probably means lack of consistent health benefits, #s 1, 2, and 3 add up to very very big problems. When you add to the mix uncertainty about what you'd study, we end up with a massive neon sign looming over you saying, "DON'T GO!!!"

Your mental health concerns should give you pause, but in many respects they are the least of the many reasons you should second guess your plans for grad school. As I said above, take time off. Pay off those loans. Get to a better place mental health-wise. Figure out what you want to study. Find out about alternative career options - preferably some of the ones that offer better job prospects than anthropology (which would be most of them). Give it a few years, and then decide whether grad school is for you. Any "rustiness" you acquire will be more than made up for by a clearer sense of purpose, a lighter debt load, and some experience of life outside of school.

On preview: your thesis title depends on your GPA???

* On edit: I'm not saying you need to know your future dissertation topic. But knowing whether you want to do research via participant interviews or by sifting through five thousand-year-old garbage is, I think, a key thing to work out.

Oh, sorry, by thesis title depending on GPA I meant whether it's an honors thesis or simply a senior thesis. My doctor hasn't rediagnosed me, but he has been treating me for schizoaffective for a year now, and that seems unlikely to change. He said I have a very good prognosis, as long as I continue to make it to appointments and keep taking my medicine and such. By "they" I meant professors, but that's been answered that most of them will work with you.

I should be able to decide which area of anthropology to study after this summer, as I applied to an archaeological field school, and if I like that, I'm pursuing archaeology, but if I don't, then I'm pursuing medical anthropology.

Edit: Sorry if I'm coming across as defensive, I've thought some of these things through, although I wasn't sure whether those "Don't go to grad school in the humanities" threads counted for anthropology too.

[t_r_b]

My doctor hasn't rediagnosed me, but he has been treating me for schizoaffective for a year now, and that seems unlikely to change. He said I have a very good prognosis, as long as I continue to make it to appointments and keep taking my medicine and such.

Okay, but you said above that:

I am going through a change in medication now, and while I thought I was dealing with it well, I realized that I have no ability to concentrate on anything, and my sleep pattern has been very irregular. I have a lot of papers due in my classes that I have already missed or am missing deadlines for due to this. I'm trying my best to work on my papers, it's just not working and I don't know why.

You need to focus on the present. Get healthy, and get the degree you are working on now. The future can wait.

It's also worth considering that your present preoccupation with the attitudes of hypothetical future grad school instructors may well be a symptom of your concentration difficulties. "What ifs" about the distant future are a favorite distraction tactic of mine, anyway, and I don't think I'm alone there.

Edit: Sorry if I'm coming across as defensive, I've thought some of these things through, although I wasn't sure whether those "Don't go to grad school in the humanities" threads counted for anthropology too.

I imagine the anthropologists here will weigh in, but I'm guessing the answer is yes, they do. I don't get the sense that there will be a shortage of anthro PhDs any time soon.

But before you even start thinking about that, you need to get through this semester, which means getting those papers written and/or requesting a medical incomplete (which would be, I suspect, quite justified) so that you can write them over the summer, once your medication situation has improved.

[spartan22x]

My doctor hasn't rediagnosed me, but he has been treating me for schizoaffective for a year now, and that seems unlikely to change. He said I have a very good prognosis, as long as I continue to make it to appointments and keep taking my medicine and such.

Okay, but you said above that:

I am going through a change in medication now, and while I thought I was dealing with it well, I realized that I have no ability to concentrate on anything, and my sleep pattern has been very irregular. I have a lot of papers due in my classes that I have already missed or am missing deadlines for due to this. I'm trying my best to work on my papers, it's just not working and I don't know why.

You need to focus on the present. Get healthy, and get the degree you are working on now. The future can wait.

It's also worth considering that your present preoccupation with the attitudes of hypothetical future grad school instructors may well be a symptom of your concentration difficulties. "What ifs" about the distant future are a favorite distraction tactic of mine, anyway, and I don't think I'm alone there.

Yes, this is exactly true! I always do that, it's very difficult for me not to think 10 steps ahead of myself.

Edit: Sorry if I'm coming across as defensive, I've thought some of these things through, although I wasn't sure whether those "Don't go to grad school in the humanities" threads counted for anthropology too.

I imagine the anthropologists here will weigh in, but I'm guessing the answer is yes, they do. I don't get the sense that there will be a shortage of anthro PhDs any time soon.

But before you even start thinking about that, you need to get through this semester, which means getting those papers written and/or requesting a medical incomplete (which would be, I suspect, quite justified) so that you can write them over the summer, once your medication situation has improved.
[/quote]

This makes a lot of sense as well. I will be talking to my professors tomorrow and on tuesday about extensions or getting incomplete marks in those classes, if it comes to that. I will also try to focus a lot more on the present and less on the future.

[t_r_b]

I will be talking to my professors tomorrow and on tuesday about extensions or getting incomplete marks in those classes, if it comes to that. I will also try to focus a lot more on the present and less on the future.

Also talk to the disabilities services people, and/or someone at student health services about available accommodations. Your professors are not qualified to evaluate your mental health, so you (and they) will need guidance from the professionals as well. The more you (and they) learn now, the easier things will be at the end of the semester.

Good luck.

[spartan22x]

I will be talking to my professors tomorrow and on tuesday about extensions or getting incomplete marks in those classes, if it comes to that. I will also try to focus a lot more on the present and less on the future.

Also talk to the disabilities services people, and/or someone at student health services about available accommodations. Your professors are not qualified to evaluate your mental health, so you (and they) will need guidance from the professionals as well. The more you (and they) learn now, the easier things will be at the end of the semester.

Good luck.

Thank you again.

To update, I spoke to disability services today, and they said that asking for extensions is something that I have to go to professors myself to accomplish, although they will support me if needed (after I provide them with a doctor's note). I also spoke with two of my professors and emailed my other two professors to meet with them. The first professor I actually met last week. He said that he would give me until he needed to turn in grades to hand in my essays to him (they are short, two essay question take home tests). The second agreed to give me until the day we take our final exam to hand in my essay, and if I'm still having problems and can't make the deadline, he'll give me an incomplete and work with me over the summer on it. I am going to begin intensively working on the papers tomorrow (I didn't today because I got into the field school that I applied for and had to go through the process of enrolling at that university for credit)

[macaroon]

2. How will having a mental illness affect me in the future?

Okay, here's my 2 cents.

Don't go into academia because it is a national job market.  For grad school, you'll likely move away from your family.  After that, you'll move anywhere you can get a job.  Again, most likely, far away from anyone who knows you.  You may move across the country several more times.  What happens if you become acutely ill in a new town?  Your family possibly won't know for months.  Your new employers and neighbors won't know what to do, likely won't know you well enough to realize that you are getting very sick, and possibly won't even care enough about you yet to help you out.  I'm sorry, but I've seen the worst happen to schizophrenic academics.  I think you should pick a career that allows you to stay geographically near your family.