I have been going to online college since 2020. I am expecting to graduate next year, but I feel so done. Like last year I was crying bc I didn’t want to leave my University, but now I want to get out as fast as I possibly can.
My mom says that the only reason I am feeling stressed is because I took two classes that I don’t normally take, and most people feel like this at college. And if I haven’t felt stress before, It’s bc I wasn’t pushing myself enough.
I felt stressed before, but this is different. I broke down in tears when I realized the winter break for this year was a week shorter. It’s also freaking me out bc I love school, and loving school was always a big part of my personality. I got to know how I can deal with this.
I would seek out a qualified/licensed therapist to help you work through these feelings.
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Do you see graduate school in your future ?
I felt like this right before I finished grad school and was taking exams. I cried and couldn’t figure out why it was hitting me so hard.
For me, I was doing too much. I can multitask and pride myself on that, but that last year was just the worst.
I was trying to finish my thesis research and subjects requirements, as well as, working to support myself, while going to school and finishing the research for my thesis.
Everyone around me was going through interviews for jobs in our field. I was just struggling against the ocean current, because I chose to take every course that would cover my licensing in the hospitals, in the schools and in private practice. I was being recruited to continue onto my ph.D
My boyfriend, at the time, gave me the best advice. He told me that I was wearing myself down and he told me to take everything -one step at a time, complete one task at a time, then move onto the next task.
He said it didn’t have to be perfect but just “complete it”, and he used a metaphor: He asked: “you take Tylenol and NyQuil when you’re sick, right?” And he said “picture all of your work tasks, as symptoms of an illness. Have a headache? deal with that first. (Tylenol or rest) Then move onto the next symptom. Cross it off of your list of things to do. Slowly, you’ll feel better and your work will feel better.’
I know I probably shouldn’t use that metaphor because we have such an opioid crisis in the US, but at the time I needed to hear a common sense approach to getting myself out of feeling underwater. Seek out mental health professionals for continued health if you don’t feel you can do it alone. You need someone on your team, battling for you. It does help and gets better.