Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing to have the restriction of appealing 21 days in the past removed. I was not aware that there were so many resources available to assist with my mental health issue and academics. Since I have become aware of the services in place to help someone in my position I have begun to try and get all the help I can in order to be as successful as I can. I was hoping to have the restriction lifted for first semester of this year (Fall 2016) as well as first and second semester of last year (Fall 2015 and Winter 2016).

Since high school I have been struggling with mental health issues, mainly depression. I have found the transition into university to be quite difficult and had the mentality that I had to get through everything on my own. I was afraid to admit to my parents how bad things were getting and was afraid of seeking help. Since university has begun I have started to reach out a little more, I saw a doctor on campus who prescribed me with antidepressants and recommended that I see a counsellor. Since then I have changed my dosage to get me to where I need to be. I have been on highs and lows throughout my time here, but I am focusing on my mental health first so that the academics will get better. Regrettably, during the process of trying to sort out my mental health, my academics have suffered and I have not performed to the best of my ability. When at my worst I was unable to attend class due to panic attacks and feelings of severe depression. On the days that I was able to attend class, my head was full of anxieties and worries beyond the classroom. This made focusing extremely difficult and the notes I was able to jot down were often incoherent and difficult to follow when I tried to go back and read them after class. I have since met with doctors, counsellors, academic advisors, and academic accommodations. These resources have allowed me to talk to someone about my issues in and out of class. I started to work on my mental health as well as ways I could improve procrastination and effective note taking.

It was not until I became comfortable enough to communicate my struggles with my friends and family that I realized there were so many resources that were available to help with my mental health issues. Once I opened up to my friends they told me about the student support offered at Queen¿¿s and how I could go about using them to help me in any way possible. I think that my focus is on making sure my mental health is where it needs to be to ensure that I perform how I know I can with my academics. I believe that since I started to seek out help and realize the resources I have begun to better myself and am on the right track in terms of getting my mental health in check, which also means being able to focus on my academics and perform at the level that I know I can. I know that the stress of my academics has had an adverse effect on the state of my mental health, which in turn means my academics suffer and so on. Simply learning about the opportunity to drop some failed courses and changing some grades to credit standings made me feel a huge sense of relief. I know that seeing my grades reflecting what I know I am capable of will make me feel tremendously better. I will continue my efforts of sustaining a healthy mental status and I know this will only make my academic journey better in the long run. I will also be continuing to see my counsellor and communicating with my academic advisors to ensure that I am receiving the help I need to be successful.

Thank you for your assistance.

Sincerely,
Hadrianna Zätterberg
10139785