Education Choices

LegacyUser

I suffer from depression and anxiety and ended up dropping out of college after first year last year because of these. I'm not doing much as I've struggled to find work and when I had it, it was really stressful. I want to go back to college but I'm terrified of having to drop out again as I felt like such a failure last year.

So I have a plan; do a level 6 for the next couple of years and hopefully I can handle this. There's a (level 8) course that I have my eye on but I'm convinced that if I were to go into it, the same thing would happen again as it's meant to be very intensive.
I want to go back to college to get structure back in my life and because I miss it. Do level 6 first and then if I've recovered, go into the level 8 course. Is that too much? I'm 20 now and I don't want to be an eternal student and only come out with a degree, never mind a Masters.

Just wondering what other people's opinions on this are. Good plan/awful plan?

Diziet

Good plan, definitely. Doing something is always better than doing nothing. This is especially the case when depressed, as depression robs you of your motivation.

When you get back to the course, use the structure it provides and treat it as a job. Get some study in every day, go over the lecture notes, and do all the recommended reading. Don't cram, work steadily. Don't leave any gaps. This is great for both eliminating anxiety and pressure (because you are always up to date) and also for getting top marks.

Also worth examining exactly what it was that you found stressful about college last time and what you can practically do to address it.

tony81

Op, I assume the level 6 is a cert.. if you get 55% you do another year for a level 7, and if you get 55% you can do another year for a level 8?
So in effect, you'd like to do a level 8 course over 4 years instead of 3?

First year is often the same in a level 6 course as it is in a level 7 or 8.
The extra work occurs during 2nd & 3rd year in a 3 year level 8.

Also, when you do the cert-dip-degree route, you're doing 3 sets of final exams instead of just one. You'll be under more pressure to get good marks at the end of 2nd year because you'll want to get 50-55% so you can progress to 3rd year.

So I think your reason for doing the level 6 is a bit wrong.

I think your main problem is you haven't addressed your depression/anxiety issues (neither your last course nor your job worked out). The pressure's probably off at the moment but you need to take care of your mental health. Often that will mean seeking professional help before you need it rather than letting it get to the stage where you just drop out.


Oh - another thing.. do you actually enjoy college? And do you find your course interesting? Or is it a business course that consists of learning off page after page of powerpoints? Just make sure you will enjoy the course before you sign up.

LegacyUser

Nope, level 6 and level 8 are completely unrelated. How well/badly I may do in this has no relation on the level 8. I did a really good Leaving Cert so I'm ok for points for the level 8 in a few years time if I go ahead.

I don't have anything else to do. I'm not "bad" enough to qualify for disability according to the last psychiatrist I was talking to. I've been on the list for therapy for 8 months now so I am taking steps to address this. Not able to work, not much else left to do.

Loved college. I was doing a very hands on science course which both of the courses I have in mind are.

Kevster

Like it has already been said, you should definately do this if you can. I had actually wanted to ask you if you were interested in these courses or was it that you were just doing them 'for the sake of doing them' - I think that you've already answered this, though.

Look, I dropped out of the final year of an honours degree course with just months before the end ... and I got nothing. I then restarted from scratch on another degree and - many years later - I've got a few degrees and a PhD.

There's always time to change and to get done what you want to get done. However, I do understand your worry and your being tentative about the problem(s) arising again. So, have measures in place to deal with these along the way, such as even going to a counsellor every week. During my 'second' degree, I was on an anti-depressant the whole time.

Kevin