Psychiatric illness during grad school

[ProfMoriarty]

Hi all,

 

With the big change that grad school implies for most (if not all of us), I guess it's normal to experience mood changes, too. Being away from home, in a new place, etc. can affect us in a variety of ways. However, what happens when you already have a psychiatric condition?

 

My family and I are very concerned about this... my doctor says I should be fine by September, but it's nevertheless scary to think about moving across the Atlantic while I'm in the middle of psychiatric treatment. 

 

Do any of you have experience with this? Has your mental health interfered with your grad school plans in any way?

 

 

 

And a more specific question, for people in the UK: is access to mental health specialists and medications too expensive?

[nugget]

Check if your school has a centre for students with disabilities and try to register with that department. They will be able to get you set up for special accommodations in case you need any or notify your profs that you have medical/health condition with special needs (without disclosing your condition, of course). You will need a doctor's note to do this so find out what you need first and bring it over with you when you fly out there to make it easier to register.

 

You might want to arrive 2 or 3 weeks early to familiarize yourself with the school and neighbourhood. This will take some stress off of you if you feel settled in by the time you start school (like finding out where the grocery store is, the post office, public transportation) and have all of your furniture bought and bags unpacked and organized.

 

You may also want to look for an international students group or one for South American students in case you feel a little homesick and just want to chat with other students in your mother tongue.

 

Congrats to you and best of luck! 

[PsychGirl1]

You can also work on getting referrals now to people in the area, so you can check out therapists first thing and keep your treatment continuous

[juilletmercredi]

If you are going to a PhD program and your offer comes with health insurance, your health insurance should cover some limited treatment with the counseling center at the university.  The counseling center can refer you to therapists in the area who take the school's insurance.  For example, my health fee covered 10 sessions per year with a counselor at the counseling center, and could cover an additional 40 sessions per year with a therapist outside of the center if the counselor referred me.  Some of the counselors at the counseling center actually had private practices, and if you developed a rapport they could refer you to their own private practice and continue to work with you.

 

Although I've never been formally diagnosed with a mood disorder, I had dealt with depression and anxiety issues in my young adult life in undergrad, and they came back to mess with me in graduate school.  I felt the influence in my first two years, but they were really the strongest in years 3 and 4 for me (and somewhat in the beginning of year 5).  It's been my experience that most graduate students experience serious debilitating depression at some point during the program, and the research agrees with me - over 60 percent of graduate students reported feeling so depressed they couldn't execute daily basic functions at some point during their program (don't have the citation).  It does certainly interfere with plans - the summer after my fourth year was the lowest point for me, and it was all I could do to just complete basic tasks I had been assigned, much less write some of the papers for publication I had planned.  There were spells of time in which it was difficult for me to get out of bed.  It's hard to care about your research when you're feeling worthless inside.

 

However, with some help you can control it, and you can complete your program.  You just need the help.  I agree with potentially registering with the office of disability services.  I also gave my advisor the heads up once I was comfortable with him.  I am actually in psychology and my research is on mental health, and so there is less of a stigma in admitting mental health issues around here.  But if you are in a different field or think you may be discriminated against but face difficulties, you can just mention that you have a medical condition that's interfering with your work right now but that you are working with doctors to fix the issues.

[music]

And a more specific question, for people in the UK: is access to mental health specialists and medications too expensive?

 

It's free, thanks to the NHS. In fact, all healthcare (including mental health) is free. You may have to wait longer than you'd like if your case isn't considered urgent. Register with your local GP as soon as possible, since any referral to a specialist will be initiated by your GP. You might, for example, wait 10 days for a GP appointment, then 6 weeks for a specialist assessment, then 4 weeks for regular therapy, so you see why it's worth getting into the system ASAP. On the other hand, if it's urgent you can get seen by a specialist within hours. To use a personal example, I had anorexia a few years back, and because of the severity I was referred to begin a 16-week therapy plan with a specialist the next week. But after discharge from that, the follow-up stuff with my local non-specialist mental health provider required an 8 week wait. 

 

You should also investigate your university's own provision. I believe all universities in the UK have free counselling services, again with various waiting times, and varying levels of specialisation. You'd do well to get in touch now and request that you see someone as soon as you get here, so you're in their system. It might be a good option while you're waiting for NHS referral, or at least to be known to the university counselling team in case you needed more urgent help.

 

Good luck! I hope you'll find the healthcare system here to be pretty great, particularly given that it's completely free

 

 

(ETA: prescriptions aren't free, so if you're medicated it's about £7 each time, unless you qualify for the help with health costs service which you can apply for through some government thingy...but it's pretty damn hard to qualify for that.)

Edited April 23, 2014 by music

[ldoone]

^ everything music said. I love the NHS. And students are actually in a good position because they get access to university health services as well as the usual NHS stuff. 

 

Also, I see you got accepted to Oxford. If you're going there, you'll find there's a university and usually also a college counselling service (depends on the college you're at, but we had one at mine and I think that's the norm) in addition to your GP, specialists and the JR hospital, so you should have a lot of support. There are various student-run support groups as well, and from what I've seen the university is generally v responsive to health problems of all kinds, especially mental health issues. But anyway, I imagine most universities are so you really should be fine from that point of view wherever you go!

[ProfMoriarty]

Thanks for the input, everyone.

 

Once I get accepted into a college I will look into their health services and contact them. 

 

I'm concerned about continuity with my treatment. I've been seeing my therapist for two years and I'm currently taking three different medications. I will also ask her to see if she has contacts in the UK