Petition Letter
Dear Office of the Dean Associate,
Thank you for taking time to consider my academic appeal in which I am requesting credit standing in the courses SOCY 101 A-B, POLS 101 A-B, DEVS 100 A-B, BIOL 103, ASTR 101, MATH 121 A-B, and PHYS 104 A-B from my first and second year at Queen??s University. For a request of this magnitude, I will also provide an explanation for why I was unable to process my request during the 21-day deadline or the one term deadline with evidence cited from licensed healthcare practitioners - including my Queens Student Wellness medical record - corroborating the timeline of events.
As of August 2020, I was diagnosed with Socialized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with features of Trichotillomania, and Bipolar II Disorder with features of hypomania and clinical depression - a registered disability in Canada. My diagnosis of Socialized Anxiety Disorder (SAD)11 described as Social Phobia with features of panic attacks was provided by Dr. Gregory Knoll in 2018 at the age of 16. Academic anxiety is a form of performance anxiety, which is in turn a form of social anxiety, hence the diagnosis. I applied and attended university in 2019 and was at this point unable to continue therapy for financial reasons. During my last few sessions, Dr. Knoll recommended I begin medication for the disorder in addition to incoming mild symptoms of depression, while also accounting for the ways added stress from entering university may exacerbate symptoms. At this time all mental health symptoms were managed, and my condition was stable.
In approximately October of 2019 I developed a physical and mental reaction to the medication I was prescribed which increased rapidly in severity. Symptoms included headaches that continued to increase in pain level inevitably including a feeling of an ??electric shock?, twitching also increasing into nearly convulsions, a ??lost sense of reality?, and extreme suicidal thoughts. At this point my RA was notified and I admitted myself to the Kingston General Hospital. There they could offer no help other than to advise me to stop all medications until the problem could be identified. The added complication of this is my functionality in school without the required medications to maintain my ability to function in my personal and professional life. In addition, what could not have been known at the time is a Bipolar individual's reaction to an SSRI without the primary use of a mood stabilizer/anticonvulsant was consistent with much of my earlier experience with prescription anxiety medications. Bipolar Disorder is not typically diagnosed until the early to mid-twenties because the full range of symptoms required for a diagnosis will not appear until then. Severe mental illness symptoms began to set in, and it was shortly after that I sought help from Queens Student Wellness Services.
My health declined significantly from the span of November 2019 to March 2020, and as of January 2020 I met with a variety of social workers, academic advisors, and occupational therapists through QSW as well as attending walk-in clinics where possible for bloodwork to rule out any physical illnesses. The support through QWS provided me with short-term accommodations2 and some coping strategies for approaching large amounts of work while working around ongoing symptoms. I put every intention and effort at this time into recovering my academic career despite this ongoing health crisis. At a glimpse I may have appeared like a ??bad? or ??lazy? student, but I would like to emphasize the severity of this situation, which was at this time mostly unknown to me, and still largely undiagnosed and therefore untreated.
As of March 2020, we were sent home for the COVID19 pandemic, in which it was challenging for me as well as others to complete their culminating projects, exams, remaining essays, et cetera. I chose not to participate in the pass/fail option provided nor did I choose to appeal my credits within the 21-day deadline. Regarding the pass/fail option, as a first-year student, I was hesitant to make major changes to my transcript without being able to fully understand how this would affect my academic career in the future and was therefore weary of unforeseen consequences from an uninformed decision. Regarding the 21-day deadline, I would once again like to emphasize my lack of mental functionality at this time which included delusion and grandiose thinking, as well as a lack of rationality and decision-making capabilities. This was not a state in which I could make any major life decisions, and so the conclusion from my support group (family and practitioners) was to take no action until the problem was understood.
As of August 2020, I met with psychiatrist Dr. Freire through QWS who informed me of my up-to-date diagnosis3 of obsessive-compulsive disorder with features of Trichotillomania, and Bipolar II Disorder with features of hypomania and clinical depression, in addition to my previous SAD diagnosis. From here I began taking medications immediately and classes started in the beginning of September. This was a challenging change to make, considering school was also operating online at this time and the general sense of routine that is critical to mental health conditions was virtually not existent. Shortly after my psychiatrist was no longer available and could therefore no longer monitor my general health during changes to medications. Due to the pandemic, general doctors in my area were not available to me at this time which posed a particular challenge because one of these medications produced a significant amount of side effects that impaired my ability to perform in school, once again impacting my performance with several factors being outside of my ability to control or correct them. It is not advised to stop this medication without a medical professional and so I had to stay on it until I was finally in touch with a doctor in my area that could safely take me off it, implying I worked through nearly the entire school year on a medication unsuitable for me to take.
The summary of issues leading to my request for a credit appeal for both semesters are as follows: an undiagnosed disability inhibiting my first year and medication changes inhibiting my performance second year all under the obstacles intertwined with the pandemic and its effect on the availability of the healthcare system. To expect myself to function in school under a false sense of reality that did not regulate until long term medication use could take place, an undiagnosed disability, constant medication changes, and a pandemic would have been an unreasonable expectation. This expectation is especially unreasonable under the expectations of a typical university student meant to handle a full course load and obtain sufficient grades in the process.
I then made the decision for myself to take a gap year off school to focus on my health, meaning my academic priorities had to be postponed in light of more urgent care needs and therefore did not adhere to the one-term deadline. Since then, I've taken steps to ensure academic success moving forward such as taking the time to stabilize my medications, meeting with academic advisors to review my academic plan, therapy, psychiatric visits, and lifestyle changes to ensure a more efficient work-life-school balance to accommodate my new mental health needs. The index below also includes a statement from my current general doctor, Dr. Ali, affirming the need for the appeal as well as the improvement of my condition4.
Thank you for your time,
Kira MacKinnon
Thank you for taking time to consider my academic appeal in which I am requesting credit standing in the courses SOCY 101 A-B, POLS 101 A-B, DEVS 100 A-B, BIOL 103, ASTR 101, MATH 121 A-B, and PHYS 104 A-B from my first and second year at Queen??s University. For a request of this magnitude, I will also provide an explanation for why I was unable to process my request during the 21-day deadline or the one term deadline with evidence cited from licensed healthcare practitioners - including my Queens Student Wellness medical record - corroborating the timeline of events.
As of August 2020, I was diagnosed with Socialized Anxiety Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with features of Trichotillomania, and Bipolar II Disorder with features of hypomania and clinical depression - a registered disability in Canada. My diagnosis of Socialized Anxiety Disorder (SAD)11 described as Social Phobia with features of panic attacks was provided by Dr. Gregory Knoll in 2018 at the age of 16. Academic anxiety is a form of performance anxiety, which is in turn a form of social anxiety, hence the diagnosis. I applied and attended university in 2019 and was at this point unable to continue therapy for financial reasons. During my last few sessions, Dr. Knoll recommended I begin medication for the disorder in addition to incoming mild symptoms of depression, while also accounting for the ways added stress from entering university may exacerbate symptoms. At this time all mental health symptoms were managed, and my condition was stable.
In approximately October of 2019 I developed a physical and mental reaction to the medication I was prescribed which increased rapidly in severity. Symptoms included headaches that continued to increase in pain level inevitably including a feeling of an ??electric shock?, twitching also increasing into nearly convulsions, a ??lost sense of reality?, and extreme suicidal thoughts. At this point my RA was notified and I admitted myself to the Kingston General Hospital. There they could offer no help other than to advise me to stop all medications until the problem could be identified. The added complication of this is my functionality in school without the required medications to maintain my ability to function in my personal and professional life. In addition, what could not have been known at the time is a Bipolar individual's reaction to an SSRI without the primary use of a mood stabilizer/anticonvulsant was consistent with much of my earlier experience with prescription anxiety medications. Bipolar Disorder is not typically diagnosed until the early to mid-twenties because the full range of symptoms required for a diagnosis will not appear until then. Severe mental illness symptoms began to set in, and it was shortly after that I sought help from Queens Student Wellness Services.
My health declined significantly from the span of November 2019 to March 2020, and as of January 2020 I met with a variety of social workers, academic advisors, and occupational therapists through QSW as well as attending walk-in clinics where possible for bloodwork to rule out any physical illnesses. The support through QWS provided me with short-term accommodations2 and some coping strategies for approaching large amounts of work while working around ongoing symptoms. I put every intention and effort at this time into recovering my academic career despite this ongoing health crisis. At a glimpse I may have appeared like a ??bad? or ??lazy? student, but I would like to emphasize the severity of this situation, which was at this time mostly unknown to me, and still largely undiagnosed and therefore untreated.
As of March 2020, we were sent home for the COVID19 pandemic, in which it was challenging for me as well as others to complete their culminating projects, exams, remaining essays, et cetera. I chose not to participate in the pass/fail option provided nor did I choose to appeal my credits within the 21-day deadline. Regarding the pass/fail option, as a first-year student, I was hesitant to make major changes to my transcript without being able to fully understand how this would affect my academic career in the future and was therefore weary of unforeseen consequences from an uninformed decision. Regarding the 21-day deadline, I would once again like to emphasize my lack of mental functionality at this time which included delusion and grandiose thinking, as well as a lack of rationality and decision-making capabilities. This was not a state in which I could make any major life decisions, and so the conclusion from my support group (family and practitioners) was to take no action until the problem was understood.
As of August 2020, I met with psychiatrist Dr. Freire through QWS who informed me of my up-to-date diagnosis3 of obsessive-compulsive disorder with features of Trichotillomania, and Bipolar II Disorder with features of hypomania and clinical depression, in addition to my previous SAD diagnosis. From here I began taking medications immediately and classes started in the beginning of September. This was a challenging change to make, considering school was also operating online at this time and the general sense of routine that is critical to mental health conditions was virtually not existent. Shortly after my psychiatrist was no longer available and could therefore no longer monitor my general health during changes to medications. Due to the pandemic, general doctors in my area were not available to me at this time which posed a particular challenge because one of these medications produced a significant amount of side effects that impaired my ability to perform in school, once again impacting my performance with several factors being outside of my ability to control or correct them. It is not advised to stop this medication without a medical professional and so I had to stay on it until I was finally in touch with a doctor in my area that could safely take me off it, implying I worked through nearly the entire school year on a medication unsuitable for me to take.
The summary of issues leading to my request for a credit appeal for both semesters are as follows: an undiagnosed disability inhibiting my first year and medication changes inhibiting my performance second year all under the obstacles intertwined with the pandemic and its effect on the availability of the healthcare system. To expect myself to function in school under a false sense of reality that did not regulate until long term medication use could take place, an undiagnosed disability, constant medication changes, and a pandemic would have been an unreasonable expectation. This expectation is especially unreasonable under the expectations of a typical university student meant to handle a full course load and obtain sufficient grades in the process.
I then made the decision for myself to take a gap year off school to focus on my health, meaning my academic priorities had to be postponed in light of more urgent care needs and therefore did not adhere to the one-term deadline. Since then, I've taken steps to ensure academic success moving forward such as taking the time to stabilize my medications, meeting with academic advisors to review my academic plan, therapy, psychiatric visits, and lifestyle changes to ensure a more efficient work-life-school balance to accommodate my new mental health needs. The index below also includes a statement from my current general doctor, Dr. Ali, affirming the need for the appeal as well as the improvement of my condition4.
Thank you for your time,
Kira MacKinnon