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Advice regarding university

Myrmeleon

Hello NAS forum (I hope I'm posting this in the right section!)

I would like to ask for some advice regarding my possible options with my university studies. To start, I have a diagnosis of Asperger's Syndrome and also mental health issues in the form of anxiety (OCD in particular) and psychological trauma. I study a part-time distance learning course with a university online. I had to complete a written assignment recently, which I did not do very well on at all. In the weeks leading to my submission of said assignment, a sequence of events occurred in my personal life that triggered a lot of anxiety and traumatic flashbacks, which in turn affected my ability to work on the assignment in question.

I contacted my tutor of the module the assignment was for once I had submitted it, who had suggested I fill out a mitigating circumstances form as I had explained how my experiences leading up to my completion of the assignment had affected me and the work. Since then, my tutor has emailed me to say that he recommends discussing potential options with the support team at the university I study with. I'm currently waiting on a response.

I don't know what the options are at this time, but I feel very anxious about what I will be offered as potential alternatives, if anything at all. I worry so much about failure, with a lot of anxiety about having to work in something I would not get any kind of fulfilment in whatsoever (such as a retail job) as a result of my lack of qualifications. 

Does anyone have any advice about how I can deal with these kinds of thoughts and anxieties, and if there's anything I might be able to do going forward?

Thank you for reading. 

Parents

  • Have you applied for any DSA funding to pay for a mentor to keep in contact with you and motivate, memory jog and talk to you when it's all a bit too much?

    Anxiety is part of ASD - your fight-or-flight is permanently set on 11 so understanding that means you can develop strategies to mitigate or avoid stress triggers..   That should be your primary concern - all of your other symptoms spring from the inability to cope with anxiety.

    What subject are you studying? - there's often weird jobs that you might not think of immediately that you can monkey-branch to.

  • in reply to Plastic

    I haven't applied for DSA, I kept meaning to but I never seemed to get any consistent responses from the university or SFE about whether having it would impact my disability benefits (I'm unemployed currently due to my mental health difficulties). Seeing if I could get a tutor or something put in place along those lines was something my therapist suggested to me earlier today, actually.

    With regards to the subject I'm studying, I am currently studying natural sciences, with an emphasis on biology. My hope is that someday I can work in something to do with entomology (the study of insects), cell biology, or generally something to do with animals. I'm worried about failing my university work altogether as I only really just got in with my limited qualifications (I only did the compulsory science GCSE and wasn't able to take biology as an A-Level. I wanted to go into the visual arts before I decided to pursue my other passion that is biology instead). 

  • in reply to Myrmeleon

    cool - sounds interesting.   Smiley    There's lots of science jobs - I used to look after the building management systems for the animal house for a medical research company - mainly mice or bunnies giving the odd blood sample.     There's loads of technician-type jobs on good money in medicine productions - mainly in the quality departments.   

    Visual arts are a good entry into professional training - creating the learning programs for teaching specialist subjects - I used to produce the interactive GxP annual company quality training course - basically a complex Power~Point.

    There's also companies manufacturing control machinery - ever thought about ergonomics?     Man-Machine Interfaces?   Making things intuitive and simple rather than a visual nightmare.

    There's lots of avenues open for you.

    As a word of warning - working directly with animals is incredibly rewarding but incredibly boring and repetitive - and a massive tie - you're responsible for them 24/7 - that can build into a lot of stress that won't go away-  and how would you cope if they become ill?.

  • in reply to Plastic

    I see, I suppose that's stuff to think about. I have a fair amount of experience working with animals (both with pet insects and other invertebrates I've kept, in more specialist terms and the fact I used to volunteer at a farm), so I know what it's like and how repetitive it can be. That said, I do rather enjoy the sense of routine from it. Most people would turn their nose at scooping up animal poo all day but I quite enjoy even very mundane tasks like that.

    Thank you for your advice. :>

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  • in reply to Plastic

    I see, I suppose that's stuff to think about. I have a fair amount of experience working with animals (both with pet insects and other invertebrates I've kept, in more specialist terms and the fact I used to volunteer at a farm), so I know what it's like and how repetitive it can be. That said, I do rather enjoy the sense of routine from it. Most people would turn their nose at scooping up animal poo all day but I quite enjoy even very mundane tasks like that.

    Thank you for your advice. :>

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