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Schizophrenic considering Interruption of Studies

Ok, so I'm in my second year of biochemistry at a top university. I get pretty good grades and I'm an active member of several societies, I've even won awards for some of my art.

Problem: I'm schizophrenic and its recently started getting a lot worse. I've been missing a lot of lectures but have kept up enough to avoid being kicked out and my coursework grades are still high. My tutors have suggested I take an 'Interruption of Studies' until I get better (if ever).

Has anyone taken an interruption of studies? Did it help? Was it a career setback?

Reply 1

Sabertooth

Original post by Caped Cthulu

My advice would probably be that uni puts a lot of stress on people, schizophrenia gets worse with stress (I think?) so perhaps it's not a great idea if you feel yourself going downhill already. There's also the fact that whilst you may be able to do sufficient work to not get kicked out, if it's affecting your performance in the end you might get a degree classification that you're not happy with. Whereas if you took time out, you could concentrate on getting better then when you return you may be better able to achieve what you're fully capable of.

I took half a year out of uni with depression, and from that experience I'd say if you are going to take time out things can get really really ****ing boring. :tongue:

Not just boring but no point living, like wake up with nothing to do, nothing planned, it can hurt your mental health having a life empty of any responsibilities or plans so maybe put something in place if you do decide to take time out. I dunno, just simple goals or volunteer or learn an instrument - nothing stressful but something to give you some meaning in your life. Likewise, perhaps uni is good for you in that it gives you meaning, though what you've said about not going to class and stuff that might not be the case.

Reply 2

superwolf

I agree with everything Sabertooth said, but I'd like to add that I took two years out because of depression, and it was definitely the right decision for me. In the short term it made things worse, because I had nothing to do and felt like a failure for dropping out, but in the longer term it gave me time to get over my depression, so hopefully I'll do better at uni when I go back.

What you have to consider is if you do interrupt, how likely is it that you'll be able to get better enough to go back again? Maybe you should get a prognosis from your doctor (if they're a good doctor and know your case well that is), because realistically if you're not likely to get better you might be best off sticking it out at uni and just doing the best you can (obviously that's a worst case scenario though).