How to fix bad feedback loop + undiagnosed insomnia?

Hey, so sorry for the weird title, but I don't know how else to put this. I'm in an out of state college, and extremely glad to be here. They gave me some financial aid, I'm in honors, it's honestly not a bad gig; however, I've noticed recently that I've been facing major problems. Basically, since I was a kid, I've had on and off insomnia, like major insomnia. This often takes the form of sleep procrastination (not to self-diagnose, but every person I have ever known with diagnosed ADHD has told me 100% that I have ADHD), or through straight inability to sleep (when I was young, a common way I used to sleep would be to straight up exhaust myself through sweating and exercise and such until I passed out). My family never got it diagnosed because my parents figured it would pass, and when it lasted too long to just be something passing, my mom who has similar issues said that it's best to just try and live with it. However, I'm extremely concerned. This is because it's flared up again throughout the summer and into this school year, and although most of my classes are going fine, in particular, my honors classes are extremely strict on attendance. As a result, when I've now ended up missing 3/5 of the current classes (the first two were straight up misses due to sleep; the third is one I deeply regret, as I had came to my room in the building over to nap for 20 minutes and I had slept through my alarms) where now I had already met with advisors for the honors once, and now I am having to schedule a meeting next week with the director of the honors program to 'discuss my participation within the honors program'. I'm very scared; I'm honestly working hard to fix this, taking double doses of melatonin and other methods to try to sleep, but when I was set to meet with the advisors yesterday, I had to reschedule it last minute because the melatonin had made me sleep for over 20 hours. Throughout this, I've explained to them that I'm trying to claim disability support services to account for this, and explained my story, for which the response effectively was "Get that diagnosed ASAP so then we can work with it, otherwise shore up and fix your schedule." They also recommended me for support from counseling and psychological services, if that helps. However, I tried to book an appointment on Monday, of which then the earliest appointment I could attend given my classes was the 23rd, far after my meeting next week and overall this whole situation has got me bogged down. I really don't want to lose this opportunity, as it had really been a godsend and I love it here, but I just feel pressed for options and I'm not too sure what to do. What path should I take here? Should I just keep applying for DSS, meet with the director, and just keep working as hard as I can and hope for the best? Do I keep trying to self medicate? Is there anything else I should or shouldn't be doing? I'd appreciate any help; thanks.

Posted Sep 13, 2025, 10:49 PM UTC

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