I’ve seen a few (fabulous) posts about dealing with school and mental illness, but I’m hoping mine will be useful to people with more severe forms of mental illness, who might need slightly different advice. That isn’t to say all mental illness isn’t difficult to live with, just that I don’t really see posts for people like myself. Another disclaimer: this might not be true for everyone, but it is true for me. Read lots of guides and find out what works for you!

1. Communicate with your professors

I know how hard it is to talk to your professors sometimes, but it really is so helpful. If you’re having trouble completing work on time, speak to the ones you feel comfortable with in person, and to the ones you don’t feel comfortable with (this may be all of them! That’s okay.) feel free to shoot them an email asking for help. It’s still scary, but it’s better than living in a pit of unfinished work. (I have a prof who lets you text her and it’s so much more comfortable for some reason!)

2. Do NOT take break days

This seems counter intuitive, but in my experience, mental health days quickly turn into mental health weeks, which are not good for your long term mental health or your GPA. What I would suggest is taking lighter days. Always try to complete at least one goal. That goal can be small or large, whatever you feel you can handle. The important thing is to stay in the habit of working, so that even if you hit rock bottom you maintain that habit.

3. Prioritize high value assignments

So you’ve got 50 pages of reading for a lecture tomorrow, vocab to study for a ten point daily quiz, and a paper due in two days. That reading might be really important, but it isn’t immediately important to your grade. Work on your paper first. Even though you have a few days to get it in, it’s a big stressful project and it’s better to break it into chunks (however many you want). If you still have time after a reasonable amount of work on the paper, study for your quiz. Prioritize high value assignments first. One of my biggest mistakes was trying so hard to get absolutely everything done during bad periods. 

4. Get your chores done/practice good hygiene

Chores don’t seem like a top priority, but just trust me. You’re not going to feel very good if you’re unshowered with your teeth unclean as you trudge into a kitchen that smells like rotting food because of the giant insurmountable pile of dishes in your sink. Just do a little bit each day, like with the studying. I even micromanage my hygiene and daily chores using Habitica. I find this incredibly helpful. You want that check box filled in so you don’t have to see a three day streak of not having your teeth brushed. Embarrassing.

5. Micromanage

As you may have been able to tell, I’m a big fan of micromanaging. I have a planner for school assignments and Post-It to-do lists. Planners are for accomplishing assignments, and to-do lists are for when you’re actually at your desk and breaking an assignment/other coursework down into parts. It’s motivating to see a visual representation of all your hard work, and the system also makes me want to tick off all the boxes.

6. Get ahead if at all possible

This might not be possible for everyone. I have bipolar disorder, so I have good days and bad. The most important thing you can possibly do is work hard now so that you don’t have to on bad days. Falling behind sucks. It’s extra stress that might trigger more of your symptoms. We don’t want that! Don’t treat yourself like a slave, but aim to work daily. 

Like people will say "You're a homophobe" if you don't feel comfortable around gay people or flamboyant feminine guys.

Why am I supposed to feel bad for not wanting to be around guys that are kissing each other, holding hands and flirting with each other constantly? Like I'm uncomfortable around straight couples who do that shit too.

But people will be like "Oh so you're a homophobe"

Or "You're a transphobe" because I don't believe in gender identities. Like, who cares? Who fucking cares? I'm one person, I don't believe in that shit and I think it's disgusting how many trans women catfish people and don't mention that they're trans after flirting with people online for months or even years.

I digress back to the question: Why am I required to care?

"You're homophobic, you shouldn't act like that, you'll hurt the feelings of gay people who are trying to feel comfortable expressing themselves"

I DON'T CARE. WHY AM I REQUIRED TO CARE?

Because they are OpPrEsSeD vIcTiMs and they need constant affirmation or else you are committing genocide against them!

But those people as a group need to learn that people not actively wanting to be exposed to that behavior and aren’t into it and don’t want it or don’t like it aren’t being homophobic or transphobic.

It just shows how fragile and pathetic that community is to need the active approval of everyone around them to “exist.”

“When the protagonist of George, a book for young teenagers, thinks about kissing a boy, 'the idea made her tingle' (female pronouns are used for George, even before he identifies as Melissa). ‘He's such a freaking girl anyway’, says a classmate. These books never make the connection between homophobic bullying and identifying out of one's sex. A generation ago, progressives campaigned for schools to crack down on taunts about gay boys being girls; now, the bullies are presented as right.”

O AGENTE SECRETO - THE SECRET AGENT (2025)

air travel is a mess? shortage of air traffic controllers - for some mysterious reason

logistics a mess? shortage of truck drivers - for some mysterious reason

public transit can't meet demand? shortage of bus drivers - for some mysterious reason

We even mysteriously have shortages of doctors, nurses, teachers... FOR SOME MYSTERIOUS REASON

I’ve seen a few (fabulous) posts about dealing with school and mental illness, but I’m hoping mine will be useful to people with more severe forms of mental illness, who might need slightly different advice. That isn’t to say all mental illness isn’t difficult to live with, just that I don’t really see posts for people like myself. Another disclaimer: this might not be true for everyone, but it is true for me. Read lots of guides and find out what works for you!

1. Communicate with your professors

I know how hard it is to talk to your professors sometimes, but it really is so helpful. If you’re having trouble completing work on time, speak to the ones you feel comfortable with in person, and to the ones you don’t feel comfortable with (this may be all of them! That’s okay.) feel free to shoot them an email asking for help. It’s still scary, but it’s better than living in a pit of unfinished work. (I have a prof who lets you text her and it’s so much more comfortable for some reason!)

2. Do NOT take break days

This seems counter intuitive, but in my experience, mental health days quickly turn into mental health weeks, which are not good for your long term mental health or your GPA. What I would suggest is taking lighter days. Always try to complete at least one goal. That goal can be small or large, whatever you feel you can handle. The important thing is to stay in the habit of working, so that even if you hit rock bottom you maintain that habit.

3. Prioritize high value assignments

So you’ve got 50 pages of reading for a lecture tomorrow, vocab to study for a ten point daily quiz, and a paper due in two days. That reading might be really important, but it isn’t immediately important to your grade. Work on your paper first. Even though you have a few days to get it in, it’s a big stressful project and it’s better to break it into chunks (however many you want). If you still have time after a reasonable amount of work on the paper, study for your quiz. Prioritize high value assignments first. One of my biggest mistakes was trying so hard to get absolutely everything done during bad periods. 

4. Get your chores done/practice good hygiene

Chores don’t seem like a top priority, but just trust me. You’re not going to feel very good if you’re unshowered with your teeth unclean as you trudge into a kitchen that smells like rotting food because of the giant insurmountable pile of dishes in your sink. Just do a little bit each day, like with the studying. I even micromanage my hygiene and daily chores using Habitica. I find this incredibly helpful. You want that check box filled in so you don’t have to see a three day streak of not having your teeth brushed. Embarrassing.

5. Micromanage

As you may have been able to tell, I’m a big fan of micromanaging. I have a planner for school assignments and Post-It to-do lists. Planners are for accomplishing assignments, and to-do lists are for when you’re actually at your desk and breaking an assignment/other coursework down into parts. It’s motivating to see a visual representation of all your hard work, and the system also makes me want to tick off all the boxes.

6. Get ahead if at all possible

This might not be possible for everyone. I have bipolar disorder, so I have good days and bad. The most important thing you can possibly do is work hard now so that you don’t have to on bad days. Falling behind sucks. It’s extra stress that might trigger more of your symptoms. We don’t want that! Don’t treat yourself like a slave, but aim to work daily. 

so for example, if you want to be a morning person that gets up at ass crack dawn so that you can work out, eat brekkie, shower, and get to work at a leisurely pace, and you're not that person because you will hit your snooze button 800 times, you have to get the big picture goal out of your head. think smaller. "I want to get up 15 minutes earlier than I normally do." If you can't do that, make it 5 minutes. "I want to cook breakfast every day" hell no too big. "I want to eat something, anything, before I leave the house" hell yeah, fantastic. When you go to the grocery store to make sure there are things in the house for breakfast, if you keep buying bagels and microwave sandwiches that you ignore, you gotta think smaller. SMALLER. What's something so easy to eat that you'll never say no to. Is it a yogurt? Is it a handful of grapes? Is it a hostess ho ho? is it hot cheetos? FORGET the big picture of the fantasy put-together woman preparing a full nutritious meal that you'd be proud to admit to. Think only of the smallest goal you can achieve. If you know you can't say no to an ice cream sandwich, put a ton of ice cream sandwiches in your freezer and have one for breakfast every day until it's so instilled in you that you gotta get up to eat something you can start diversifying.