Stress - A Public Service Announcement

As a current University of Toronto undergraduate student, I have dealt with overwhelming amounts of stress during the school year. I am going into my fourth year of studies, and I do have to say that I learned a lot, educationally, in my three years here.

I guess the gist of the post is that I understand why most people get schizophrenia between 18-25 years of age, due to these stressors. I have had schizophrenia since I was 15, but that is a story for another day.

University is just a stressful time for everyone. I remember during my freshman year I procrastinated for a month in the beginning of the year and from then a domino effect sort of happened. By the end of the year I was so sleep deprived, and began drinking coffee more than once daily just for the caffeine – I missed the days I drank coffee as an enjoyable beverage.

But for me, as a schizophrenic, as long as I take my medications, I can function relatively well in society. Now there are things that I do that I am not supposed – I like to drink a lot with friends every weekend or so, and sometimes I skip my medications so that I can get up earlier or stay up longer. Occasionally, I skip them for the all-nighter, but proudly during my third year of studies I maybe did one or two. Which is better than 5-7 per year in my first two years of study.

However, I know that medication does not work well for other forms of mental illness. Even for me, the medication is annoying, as I will pass out from drowsiness about an hour after taking them. But if I don’t take them, I risk suffering severe hallucinations, delusions, and the inability to concentrate over time.

I think this post is more about the people who have mental illness that cannot be fully treated with drugs. Most of it is just myself rambling on, but I do want to discuss external supports, especially in a high stress time such as university. At U of T, we have accessibility services, which is very accommodating, in my opinion towards mental health and towards my own issues.

I have benefited from access to student notes and supports for tests and exams due to my side effects from the medication. Without these supports, I don’t know where I would be.

I just wanted to say that no matter what stage you are in your life, there are always supports for mental illness, from school services like the one I just mentioned, or CBT/DBT groups, and conversations with a psychologist/psychiatrist. The fact is that mental health is important.