A’s and B’s

Thinking about starting therapy can be overwhelming if your grades are suffering. How can you afford to go to all of the sessions? Especially if you have to miss school? Do you really have time for it? Is it worth it?

If you already have good grades maybe you don’t think you need to go to therapy, because good grades means everything is ok, right? Well…grades are only one part of your life.  Are other parts of your life also working out? Like your relationships with others and your relationship with yourself? Some people also try working harder at school as a way to deal with their emotions. There are other important ways of functioning – see our past article talking about this.

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If your grades are getting worse because of your symptoms, can you afford to miss school for therapy?

The problem is if you don’t get therapy your grades are likely to get worse. That is because depression can make you feel not motivated to do your work or go to class, you can have trouble concentrating, and anxiety might make you too worried about going to class or getting through a test without second guessing yourself.

So there you have it: grades would get worse without therapy, but therapy could take you away from school so how does that help your grades?

One way is talking to your parent, teacher, and guidance counselor about whether you need special accommodations at school to help give you some space to catch up as you get better.  This website from a Baltimore initiative has links to several resources for schools. Your school can also set up an education accommodations plan for you called a 504 plan or if you need more intensive accomodations which might require you to be out of the classroom with a support staff, an IEP may be better. See kidshealth.org for an easy to understand summary about 504 plans and IEPs. This helpful site from Michigan has multiple resources explaining what a 504 plan is and how to ask your school for one. If you are in college check out the American Psychiatric Association and the Jed Foundation’s project Transition Year for help with resources that help you take care of your emotional health while keeping up with work in college.

If you have had special accommodations because of your emotional health, let us know below – especially if you have advice for others on how to go about it!