Graduate School with a Mental Illness: A Guide to Success

• Symptoms: Many people experience occasional anxiety or even panic attacks. They can have symptoms such as sweating, rapid heart rate, feeling light headed, panic, breathlessness, etc. Some people liken the feeling to being in fight or flight mode. Symptoms and triggers vary depending on severity or the individual. Many people with anxiety disorders consistently experience higher levels of anxiety that often worsen over time. A person is typically diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when their anxiety or panic attacks interfere with their relationships, work, or other daily activities.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Students with anxiety or panic disorders may find that their condition makes it difficult to concentrate or retain information. Additionally, some students may find that everyday situations, including attending class, presentations, exams, or meetings, trigger their anxiety.
• Success Strategies: Students with anxiety/panic disorders can manage their symptoms by ensuring they have their tools ready. This means identifying potential triggers and having a plan in place to manage their anxiety. For some, this includes breathing exercises, rehearsing the situation in advance, or engaging in preemptive self-care. But since you can’t always predict your triggers, it’s also essential to have some coping strategies in your back pocket. Think about what works in the moment, make a list for yourself, and pass it along to supportive people in your life.
• Resources: The Anxiety & Depression Association of America has an extensive library of resources to help you make a game plan to manage anxiety and panic disorders as you embark on your studies. On the site, you can hear from experts and community members and connect with other support resources.

• Symptoms: People with depression experience a wide range of symptoms, including sadness, hopelessness, decreased interest in hobbies or relationships, changes in appetite, and unexplained aches and pains. In some cases, depression can lead a person to consider or attempt suicide. A depression diagnosis can coincide with major life or environmental changes or as a result of another health condition. However, people of all ages and circumstances experience depression.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Depression symptoms can affect motivation, focus, and interest in engaging with daily activities. Because of this, students managing depression may struggle to attend class and keep up with assignments.
• Success Strategies: Make sure you have support in place. If your symptoms increase in severity, it may be difficult to reach out for help. Plan regular check-ins with your healthcare provider, family, and supportive friends. In addition, consider using a mood tracker to record how you feel over time. Finally, be sure to register with your school’s disability services office and get accommodations in place in case you find yourself struggling with deadlines or attendance.
• Important Note: If you or someone in your life is at risk of self-harm or suicide, reach out immediately to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 (in the US) or through the chat feature on their website.
• Resources: Students Against Depression has a broad range of resources specifically for students experiencing depression or anxiety and those who support them.

• Symptoms: Strong shifts in mood, energy levels, focus, and participation in daily life and relationships characterize bipolar disorder. People with bipolar disorder, to varying degrees, experience manic and depressive episodes that can last days or weeks. Symptoms of manic episodes include high energy levels, outsized self-confidence, sleeplessness, irritability, and jumpiness. Depressive episodes closely mirror the symptoms of depression described above. However, some people experience these episodes more severely than others, and the duration of the episodes vary widely.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Students with bipolar disorder may have trouble establishing a routine or study schedule, making it difficult to attend class or turn in assignments consistently. Students who manage their illness using medication may find that medication side effects contribute to academic challenges.
• Success Strategies: People with bipolar disorder, especially those taking medication, should be in regular contact with a healthcare provider. In addition, some evidence shows that cognitive behavioral therapy can help patients manage their episodes.
• Resources: Stanford University’s School of Medicine maintains a wide-ranging resource page for people with bipolar disorder that includes personal narratives, legal and social resources, and mental health service information.

• Symptoms: A person with PTSD cannot recover from a traumatic event. They may experience flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, disrupted sleep, and anxiety symptoms for an extended period. It’s important to note that not all people who experience a traumatic event go on to develop PTSD.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Students with PTSD may struggle with information retention, anxiety, concentration, and avoidant behavior. These challenges can make it difficult to complete assignments, focus during class, or feel secure in some on-campus settings.
• Success Strategies: Be sure to register with disability services so your accommodations are in place in case of a severe episode. Have routines in place to help you manage day-to-day stress and identify strategies to help you feel secure and calm when your symptoms are aggravated.
• Resources: The Sidran Institute works to advocate for people with PTSD. Their website hosts up-to-date information related to the science of trauma, treatment opportunities, and resources for people with PTSD.

• Symptoms: People with schizophrenia experience three groups of symptoms described as psychotic, negative, and cognitive. Psychotic symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, and illogical thought patterns. Negative symptoms mirror those of depression, including difficulty focusing, struggles with motivation, and withdrawal from daily life. Finally, cognitive symptoms might present as challenges in processing and applying information.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Psychotic episodes interfere with class attendance and impact interpersonal relationships. Negative symptoms make managing one’s workload or attending class difficult. Cognitive symptoms mean that a student might struggle with regular class formats and readings.
• Success Strategies: Many students with schizophrenia benefit from accommodations such as assistive technology and extended or distraction-free testing. Students with schizophrenia should maintain regular contact with their healthcare provider and may benefit from medication or therapeutic intervention. It can also be helpful to engage family and trusted peers by asking them to check in and to keep an eye out for increasing symptoms.
• Resources: The Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance maintains a number of support groups for people with schizophrenia and their loved ones. The site also contains valuable resources for self-care and treatment options.

• Symptoms: Eating disorders are characterized by intense preoccupations with food, body weight, and physical appearance. This is generally accompanied by emotional distress and sudden shifts in eating behaviors. While eating disorders vary widely, the most common forms include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Students with eating disorders may find that an intense focus on food and body image distracts them from their other work. Additionally, some people find that their disordered eating can be triggered by stress, which is ever-present during grad school. If a student’s eating disorder involves food restriction, they may struggle to find the energy and focus to study.
• Success Strategies: Techniques for managing eating disorders are highly individualized. What works for one person may trigger disordered eating in another. Because of this, it’s essential to work with a healthcare provider to develop a strategy that works for you. Additionally, you can create a routine to manage stress and tools to avoid or cope during triggering situations.
• Resources: The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders is dedicated to providing tools and treatments to people with eating disorders. Their services include a toll-free helpline, free webinars, and organized support groups.

• Symptoms: People with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) struggle with obsessive, intrusive thoughts that cause anxiety or recurring behaviors that they must repeat compulsively. People have different combinations of obsessive and compulsive behaviors; some have motor tics that cause sudden, repetitive movements. People are diagnosed with OCD when their behaviors start to impact their daily lives or cause mental distress. It’s important to know that people with OCD don’t have control over their thoughts or behaviors and generally don’t derive pleasure from them.
• Impact on Master’s Students: OCD may make it difficult for students to focus or attend class. Repetitive actions and intrusive thoughts can also present challenges for studying and information retention.
• Success Strategies: Many students with OCD benefit from accommodations provided by their disability services office, including extended or distraction-free testing and assistive technology or a note taker. Some people with OCD benefit from medical or therapeutic intervention. As a rule, all students with OCD should meet with their healthcare providers to discuss how the rigors of grad school might affect their symptoms and develop strategies to manage their conditions.
• Resources: The International OCD Foundation can connect you with support groups, local treatment providers, up-to-date resources, and community-building opportunities.

• Symptoms: Generally speaking, the term “personality disorder” refers to people whose internal and external behaviors are dramatically inconsistent with cultural norms. A key characteristic of this diagnosis is that their behaviors cause them distress or impact their ability to participate in daily life. The most common type of personality disorder is borderline personality disorder, characterized by volatile moods and actions.
• Impact on Master’s Students: Personality disorders make building relationships with peers and instructors challenging. A personality disorder can also affect focus and motivation, depending on one’s specific symptoms.
• Success Strategies: Personality disorders can be extremely difficult for an individual to manage independently. They can also be challenging to treat effectively. However, promising new therapeutic and medical interventions are emerging. The best bet for a student with a personality disorder is to work closely with a mental health specialist.
• Resources: The National Education Alliance for Borderline Personality Disorder maintains an extensive multimedia resource library for people with personality disorders to learn about their condition and strategies to manage it. In addition, there’s an extensive section on the site for the family and loved ones of people with personality disorders.

Students with mental illnesses are covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as well as the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. These laws and regulations are designed to guarantee equal access to education for people with psychiatric disabilities. As a student with a mental illness, your rights include, but are not limited to:

• Freedom from discrimination. A school cannot consider your disability as a factor in acceptance and enrollment.
• Accessibility. Buildings and services must be accessible to all students regardless of their disability status.
• Reasonable accommodation. Your school must have a process in place to determine and provide accommodations for students with documented disabilities.

• Disability Services: This department manages accommodations for students with a broad range of physical and mental conditions that limit course accessibility. When you submit documentation of your mental illness to the disability services department, a counselor will work with you and your professors to identify accommodations that will help you succeed in your coursework.
• Student Services: The student services offices provide a host of services to support you. These can include tutoring, advising, and career planning. Some schools’ student services programs also offer specific programming for students with disabilities alongside other efforts to support diversity and inclusion. If you’re struggling with your academic responsibilities or in search of supportive communities, student services is a great place to start.
• Counseling Services: Many schools offer on-site or virtual counseling services for students who are struggling with their mental health. Depending on the department’s capacity, your school’s counseling services may provide long-term care or a limited number of visits for students in crisis. Additionally, they can help you obtain documentation to register with disability services.
• Student Health Center: The services available through the student health center differ widely among schools. Generally, they are dedicated to students’ physical health. At some schools, these centers cover all of the services of a regular doctor’s office, including prescribing and refilling medications. Other schools may even offer urgent care services.

Usually, schools have you submit a letter from your healthcare provider documenting your disability. This can come from your general practitioner, psychiatrist, licensed clinical social worker, the university’s counseling or health services, or any other licensed provider you work with to manage your mental health. The letter must be sufficiently detailed to establish your disability status. Rutgers University has an excellent overview of its documentation policies to help you get an idea of the requirements. Understandably, disclosing your mental health condition to your school can feel nerve-wracking. These disclosures are strictly regulated by state and federal laws to protect your privacy. Your documentation or diagnosis will not be disclosed to anyone outside of the disability services office.

During this meeting, a disability services counselor will go over your documentation and identify accommodations that can help support you in your studies. We’ll cover specific accommodations later in this guide, however a few common ones for people with mental illnesses include assignment extensions and a more flexible attendance policy. Before your meeting, consider how your condition may impact your studies and what types of interventions would be helpful to you. Come prepared with your own ideas. Sitting down with a stranger to discuss your mental health needs can be stressful, but remember that disability services offices are there to help you succeed. By utilizing these services, you’re ensuring that you have the tools to manage your mental health and academic obligations effectively.

At the beginning of each semester, your instructors should be notified of your accommodations. Usually, the disability services office takes care of notifications, but in some cases, you may be given an official letter to pass along. To be clear, these notifications aren’t the same as the more detailed documentation of your disability that you submitted to the disability services office. Instead, these notifications simply state that the office has deemed you eligible for a specific set of accommodations. Your instructor won’t receive information about your diagnosis or particular circumstances. It’s a good idea to check in with your instructors at the beginning of the term to make sure they’ve received your accommodation notification. If they have any questions, your instructor can contact the disability services office to clarify your accommodations. You aren’t required to disclose any information about your diagnosis or circumstances to your instructors.

Depending on your accommodations and school policy, you may need to get in touch with your instructor when you are using accommodations such as extended deadlines or additional absences. In other cases, simply reach out to the disability services office and they will contact your professors. If a professor isn’t complying with your accommodations, remember that they are human too and may have simply forgotten. A quick verbal or email reminder should do the trick. However, if you encounter an instructor who is repeatedly or willfully ignoring your accommodations, contact the disability services office and a representative will intervene on your behalf.

The disability services office has a wide array of accommodations available to help you manage your mental health during grad school. These accommodations include tools to help you manage your environment, workload, study plan, and physical access. However, there are some limits to accommodations. For example, the University of Washington does an excellent job of outlining the difference between reasonable and unreasonable accommodations.

In general, disability services offices cannot approve accommodations that require significant alterations to course curriculum or objectives. Additionally, accommodations that require a significant financial expense or negatively impact the safety of or accessibility for other students will not be allowed. However, that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of opportunities for support. Keep reading to learn about some of the most common accommodations below.

• Test accommodations: These can include, among other things, extended testing times, the use of noise-canceling headphones or visual barriers to limit distractions, the opportunity to take exams in an otherwise empty room, or changes to test format. These accommodations can be helpful if you have difficulty focusing, anxiety, or a condition that affects your comprehension time. Note that many testing accommodations require you to schedule a separate testing time through the school’s testing center.
• Disabled parking passes: These passes allow you to park closer to your classrooms and know in advance where you will park. This accommodation can be helpful for students whose mental illness impacts their physical mobility, students who require predictable routines, or students who may feel unsafe traveling to and from class for various mental illness-related reasons.
• Course waivers and substitutions: As we mentioned, accommodations that require significant changes to a course’s curriculum or goals typically won’t be approved. However, if a required course’s content poses a significant challenge to your health, you may be able to substitute the class with a safer option. For example, a student with an eating disorder may be excused from a mandatory class on nutrition by replacing it with another lab science course.
• Scribes, note-takers, or copies of class slides: For students who struggle with focus, retention, or attendance, having access to verbatim transcripts, comprehensive notes, or visual materials can make a huge difference. In some cases, students may be able to access PowerPoint slides before class time, allowing them to familiarize themselves with the day’s material and mentally prepare.
• Adjusted attendance policy: This accommodation can make a huge difference for students whose conditions sometimes make it difficult to leave the house or attend class. Generally, the adjusted policy allows students to take more unexcused absences than their classmates without affecting their attendance grades. The opportunity to rest and care for yourself without stressing about your next class can allow you to get back into your normal routine more quickly in the event of a crisis.
• Assistive technology: Some students may benefit from speech-to-text or text-to-speech technology, videotaping, audiotaping, or other technological assistance during class time. These tools help students with concentration or comprehension challenges receive the same quality of instruction as their fellow students.