Hey! I’ll be graduating high school soon and I plan to pursue physics. Do you have any advice for incoming college freshmen dealing w/mental illness?

quantum-friend-theory:

Hi, anon! I hope you’re having a great day. It’s hard to give universal advice for navigating academia with mental illness because of the many forms it can take. I’ll provide an account of my own experiences, but I’d love to hear advice from others.

College courses come with certain rigid expectations (e.g. having to be attentive in certain places at set times) and certain nebulous expectations (e.g. finding time & energy to do homework and study). In the first year or two of your college physics career, rigid expectations involve having to go to lecture and take lab courses, while nebulous expectations involve doing problem sets and reading the textbook. I know many people who succeed by turning their nebulous expectations into rigid ones by setting up–and sticking to–a schedule. This can be especially useful because many nebulous expectations (like homework) ultimately have rigid deadlines; making everything rigid can help ensure progress as you approach those deadlines and thereby curb potential stress.

For me, I tend to struggle with the rigid expectations, because 1. I have chronic insomnia, and 2. I’m manic-depressive. My chronic insomnia makes it hard to be awake at the right times (like, y’know, during lecture), and even when I’m awake, my depressive periods impair my productivity.

To counteract my constant exhaustion, I got in the habit of drinking coffee before class (while also being careful to not overdo it). Habits are nice in that they can program your brain to automatically enter certain modes, e.g. my brain knew “oh, we’re drinking coffee, that means I need to enter class mode.” I also got in the habit of keeping extensive notes during lecture: if I’m writing, it gives my brain something to do, and I’m less likely to lose focus or fall asleep

(though it definitely still happens). Plus, even when I’m extremely depressive, the mechanical task of “write down everything the professor writes on the board and as much of what they say as possible” is do-able. Sure, my notes might be Pretty Bad some days, but at least there’s something for me to utilize when I finally muster up the energy to study or work on homework. In the same spirit as the coffee before class trick, I frequently go to coffee shops or cowork online with friends in a discord server to create environments that trick my brain into entering physics work mode.

Speaking of habits: Being able to work on most days is a skill, and like most skills it’s developed through practice. I find that when I work there are two types of energy cost: an activation barrier (the energy to get started) and a friction (energy lost over time while working). Generally speaking, the more you practice a certain task (such as taking notes in lecture, or performing a certain kind of calculation, or taking exams), the more the energy barriers/costs of that task are decreased. There are still days where getting started is Too Much for me, but those days are fewer and further between because I’ve practiced.

That being said, I know plenty of people who (for instance) experience extreme exam anxiety and Absolutely Cannot take exams in the traditional format. Practice isn’t going to change that. In that spirit, if your school makes available certain resources that you’d benefit from

(such as giving extra time on exams, or counselors, or tutors), I highly recommend utilizing those resources. A key part of taking care of yourself is recognizing how you actually operate and responding accordingly, as opposed to forcing yourself to just push through any and all obstacles you might face.

I recommend working with your classmates if possible, e.g. talking with them about homework problems and asking them about concepts. After all, they’re working on the same homework as you, and “teamwork makes the dream work.” I can’t tell you how many times I spent SO MUCH TIME working on a homework problem only to have a peer be like, “Yeah, that’s just Eq. 2.5 in this one book.” As a physics major, you’ll likely have a lot of classes with the same people, so this kind of support network can support you through your entire college career. Reducing energy costs means more energy overall.

The professor and any TA’s are resources you can utilize too. If you find yourself struggling in certain ways (like with certain course material or tasks), it can be useful to say as much to the teachers. For example, there were occasions when a homework was due that I needed at least a few more hours to work on because I’d spent the previous few days unable to get good sleep and/or in a depressive haze, so I’d ask the professor something like “Hey, I’ve been having a real rough week, could I get the homework into your department mailbox before 5 PM today?” Not all professors will be receptive to this (in fact, there’s some real jerks out there), but I think it’s worth a shot.

Even during some of my better weeks, there were assignments I simply did poorly on. It’s easy to internalize a bad grade as some sort of fundamental failure (which can then lead to downward spiraling), but nah. One bad grade is one bad grade. Even if you’re presently on an up swing, you’re not infallible, so try to fight the urge to let a few failures drag you down. Don’t be too hard on yourself when you try and don’t meet your goals. Failures happen, especially when you’re using a brain that spends a good chunk of time working against you.

This is getting long, so I’ll wrap it up here. My biggest piece of advice is: Take care of yourself. Make a point to regularly remind yourself that there’s much more to you than your status as a student.

Your humanity and overall well-being are very important.

Best wishes.