TL;DR: I’m curious if anyone’s bipolar disorder went haywire in the middle of their semester, and if their professor showed some grace. Or, if they have experience with the disability office, and some of the accommodations they received.

As I’m sure the vast majority of the people in this thread have experienced, a lot of people don’t see mental health issues as a serious issue or something that is ever ‘that bad’.

I’ve returned to school after a long hiatus, mainly due to my indecisiveness when it came to my major, severe mental health issues, and an addiction problem.

I returned to school, and it was great!… until it wasn’t. I completely stopped being able to focus on anything. Getting up and going to class after working full time really began to take a toll on me, and for a while I stopped doing both. Homework was impossible. None of the information I had in my head would make it to the blank documents on my computer.

I finally got around to working with my job, and got an accommodation for now until I can figure out a less stressful place to work while in school.

My fear here is that my bipolar disorder won’t be viewed as a true disability, and that I’ve completely screwed up and flunked out of college when I just got my foot back in the door. I have a virtual meeting with the dean, the disability department head, and a few others next week. I’m afraid to even reach out to my professors, though. I feel like they’re going to flat out tell me I failed and there’s nothing I can do. I have been diagnosed for years, but recently went unmedicated because of a change in providers. That’s when my downfall in school started.

I’m curious if anyone’s bipolar disorder went haywire in the middle of their semester, and if their professor showed some grace. Or, if they have experience with the disability office, and some of the accommodations they received.