Should I drop out to do an apprenticeship?

I'm currently in year 12 at sixth form and struggling. My grades aren't bad but I know that in the current state my mental health is in I won't even be able to revise and achieve good grades at the end of year 13 let alone survive with the workload at uni (which is frustrating).
Should I try find an apprenticeship instead? A concern with this is that it's technically job and while at school I can have days off when I feel mentally unable to go in, at work I wouldn't be able to.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to what i could do because I can't just keep missing days off school and not going in.

Thank you, I would really hate to be a year behind though because I have no friends in the year below :/ Do you think I could still catch up before year 13?

I agree, avoid an apprenticeship as there’s a high risk of them not being understanding (or at least not as understanding as sixth form) about mental health.

With regard to catching up- it depends on which actions you take to improving your mental health and whether you’re able to motivate yourself. Honestly I've suffered with mental health issues since age 11, but between the ages of 14-16 it wasn’t as bad. By around this time last year, it began to spiral downhill again, and I did work hard but a chain of bad circumstances meant it got worse and worse and became a real struggle. I’m now being properly treated for my mental health and over the last few weeks have finally had a significant improvement. Go to a doctor, get whatever treatment you want to try and focus on getting yourself well for Year 13 mainly. I’m a bit behind but I’m getting it back under control, but if you get support now you’ll definitely be okay. Also, if you have to retake a year it’s not the end of the world- it’s worth it for Uni, others may end up retaking too, and if not you’ll make new friends but your main focus will be studying anyway. You could go into year 13 and if you aren’t happy with your results, retake year 13 again. Hope this helps.

Thank you!! Ahh that’s not good! I went to a set of 8 general counselling sessions which didn’t really help me at all, so I believe on my 2nd or 3rd doctors visit I asked for drug treatments- wanted anti depressants but got prescribed beta blockers to try first for a week to see if they relieved the physical symptoms of my anxiety enough to stop it (you’d only be prescribed beta blockers for anxiety I believe, not depression) anyway they didn’t really work, some physical symptoms lessened but the emotional and cognitive symptoms were just as bad, so I was told to go back a week after trying them, told her they didn’t work very well, so she has now prescribed me anti depressants and at the moment I go back every 3 weeks to check how I am, and my dose got increased gradually which is normal. They’ve really really helped me, and I also use a good self help book that uses CBT techniques until I can actually get CBT due to the long waiting list. I also use the beta blockers before things that make me really anxious or cause panic attacks and they seem to work well alongside my antidepressants. The side effects can vary a lot for different people but from my own experience I found that the main one is extreme tiredness for a week and a half to two weeks when you first go on them and whenever your dose is increased, then I found I had an increased appetite for a week after starting them and then a week when my dose was increased. You might get some nausea for the first couple of days. That was my main ones. Some people say they feel worse for a week or so before feeling better, but not everyone does. I was really against going onto drugs and wanted to treat it with counselling but when counselling didn’t work i was desperate and decided to try anti depressants and it’s the best thing I did. It’s honestly worth a try, ask your doctor if you can try it and if they say no try another doctor, don’t give up until you get help.

sorry I keep forgetting to quote you (the TSR app is confusing 😂) pretty sure I replied somewhere though!

That’s okay, yeah I find it confusing as well haha😂 yeah I’d definitely give SSRIs (anti depressants) a try, the positives outweigh the negatives and if the side effects are really bad there are loads of types of anti depressants you can try and difference doses you can try to find the right one. The anti depressants are used to treat my anxiety- SSRIs can treat depression, OCD, GAD and PTSD to name the key ones, but I also use the beta blockers occasionally, like if I’m very anxious for an exam or before parties or big group meals out as that’s when my panic attacks are most likely to happen. They just weren’t effective on their own as they’re purely physiological and don’t treat the cause in the brain whereas SSRIs have helped that aspect! SSRIs have definitely been the best treatment yet!

Ahh I see I didn't realise they treat so many things and I'll try get an appointment from my doctor and see what they can do! Thank you for all the information, it's very helpful!