Started my masters, halp!
I'm on my 3rd week this week of my masters of history. I have an annotated bibliography due in a week and I haven't even started..
I'm getting that "oh I'mma clean, oh I'mma do this or that". My procrastination is KILLING ME right now. I haven't had meds in almost 8 months and I don't have insurance... so what do you guys do when you're unmedicated and have important things that you HAVE to do but just don't feel like it? I keep "going to do it" and then an hour later I'm like "wait a minute, I'm doing the dishes". HALP HALP HALP
Posted Jul 10, 2017, 3:00 AM UTC
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Okay. Take a deep breath. You can get it done. But it's gonna take a fair amount of work.
I agree with the other user who said don't do homework at home. Just don't. You can't get it done there. For me, I always end up doing cleaning as a way to procrastinate, which sounds like what you're doing.
Second: if you're a student, you have to have student insurance, no? If not, look into it. If you get financial aid, your loans will pay the premium before you get a refund. I don't think I could finish my degree without meds. My first semester was so difficult that I had to take two incompletes (out of three classes) and finish them by the end of the next semester. (But I also didn't get diagnosed until the next semester).
I am the pro at putting off work and having to stay up all night at least once every semester. It sucks. You don't want to make it a habit.
Some things that work for me:
Making tasks manageable. I can't put "do final project" on my todo list. It's waaay too broad and I get overwhelmed because I don't know where to start. I have to break it up into tasks like, "choose topic," "find three sources," "write outline" etc etc. I work with a therapist for help on this because I'm awful at it. It's like our ADHD brains don't know how to break big tasks down. However, I'm getting better.
Take frequent breaks. If you feel like you're getting spacey, maybe it's time for a break. Go for a little walk, go to the bathroom, whatever. Make it short - stay off your phone. That thing sucks you in. For me I will go out and smoke a cigarette.
Communicate with your professors. Seriously. This goes hand in hand with getting accommodations from your disabilities office. I've had to ask professors for extensions so many times. But oftentimes I ended up with a worse grade in the end if I didn't communicate with the teacher at all. Emphasize that you're genuinely trying, but you have certain difficulties. If you get accommodations, legally, you do not have to tell them a diagnosis, nor can they ask.
Make a schedule. Make a general plan...e.g. Monday I will read chapter one, Tuesday I'll read chapter two, etc. Figure out when you're most productive and do your work/the hardest work then.
BE FLEXIBLE. Seriously. You will try to stick to your schedule, but you'll probably fail. That's okay. Just move it around. If you miss chapter two on Wednesday, do it on Thursday. Give yourself some grace. Our brains don't work like everyone else's. It's all a learning process.
Try your best. You can't do anything more. Try to understand that most of the time, you're doing the best you can. That's all you can do.
Hopefully that helps. This is just what works for me, but hopefully you can take what you want and apply it.
Thank you SO much, I cannot express how much I'm thankful for your post.
I've been really struggling on if I should contact disabilities. I was raised on that whole "don't take hand outs", and for some reason my anxiety/crazy part of my brain is telling me not to do it. I'm going to do my best to contact 'em tomorrow.
The "break things up" kinda thing is something I did heavily in my undergrad, but I won't lie, until you just said it... I totally forgot it was a coping mechanism I was using.
And Finally. I don't know if I have student insurance. I'mma go fishing right now to go see. SWEET Jesus I hope so, 'cuz this has been killing me inside.
The way I see it with getting accommodations is this: it's not a hand out. You have a disability that prevents you from functioning as well as everyone else. You have a disadvantage. Getting accommodations levels the playing field. You're not getting accommodations that will give you advantages over others.
Accommodations I get are: the ability to have someone take notes for me; the ability to record lectures to go over later (with the permission of the prof, because intellectual rights and all that); extended test time (normally 150% so instead of an hour I get an hour and a half) and the ability to take a test in a distraction free environment.
Look at it this way: if you're in a classroom taking a test where there's loud music blaring and nobody else is distracted except you, that's not fair to you. So to compensate you get to take the test in a quiet room. You're not getting ahead of others, you're simply getting the same thing they get.
About insurance: yeah, i thought it was mandatory to have insurance. At my university you can waive coverage though...but you have to enroll in it every semester. I got into a bit of a bind when I forgot to re-enroll for last spring, and come March they were going to retroactively not cover anything since January that they had been covering since I hadn't re-enrolled. I got it fixed though, they retroactively enrolled me. So if you didn't enroll, maybe they can do that for you, too. Let me know what you find out!
I just checked, they don't have insurance for students =/
Ah, darn it. They don't have it at all? Or you just didn't opt in? My guess is depending on the university, if it's small enough they might not offer it. I went to a small public university for undergrad and they had insurance but it was minimal. During that time I stayed on my parents. Now I'm at a Big Ten university which has two different plans through actual companies.
How old are you? If you're under 26 you can be on your parents' plan. Otherwise I think it's worth looking into coverage through the marketplace with the ACA.
I'm not saying medication is necessary...if you can get by without it, good. But it sounds like meds would be pretty beneficial for you.
I wonder also if you could find a psych that would offer reduced rates on a sliding scale. I know this is more common with therapists, not sure about psychs. I know there's coupons and stuff for some meds that reduce price. But even that can be pretty difficult if you don't have much income.
Edit: my keyboard converted ACA into a Spanish word since I use both keyboards, lol