Petition Letter
I am requesting a late drop for my 2024 Winter term classes I am diagnosed and struggle with Major Depressive Disorder that manifests in a cyclical nature. My depressive episodes can last anywhere from a week to months with essentially no warning and can be debilitating, especially in regard to academic performance. I do have supports in place such as medication, therapy, routines, and academic accommodations which are helpful and make things more manageable. However, early into the Winter 2024 term I experienced a particularly bad depressive episode that my existing supports were not enough for. This episode lasted for months and was much worse than ones I had experienced in the past, greatly affecting my academics.
During a depressive episode, I have a very hard time with motivation, energy, and caring about my own well-being. This makes it very hard to find the effort to go to class, complete assignments, study for tests, sleep and eat properly, and maintain focus when I am able to get to class. Furthermore, this particular episode was bad enough that I did not have the energy to go to therapy or even get to the pharmacy to refill my anti-depressants prescription when I ran out. This resulted in me being in a very bad place mentally where dealing with my academics or caring about my future felt like far too much. In turn, despite caring a great deal about school, I didn’t have the energy to do schoolwork and or care enough about myself or the future to make the proper decision to drop my classes. Depression makes it feel like nothing matters and there no point to anything, and unfortunately that greatly affected the 2024 Winter term. I am now requesting a late drop for this unusually bad term as I am great making efforts to be better and do better. I am now on a higher medication dosage, am back to seeing my therapist, and have a better support system with my parents who now check in on me more often and help me out with certain things when needed. In my current term I have a collective average of 86 across all my courses and am working very hard to correct that term that I do not feel is representative of who I am as a student or person.
During a depressive episode, I have a very hard time with motivation, energy, and caring about my own well-being. This makes it very hard to find the effort to go to class, complete assignments, study for tests, sleep and eat properly, and maintain focus when I am able to get to class. Furthermore, this particular episode was bad enough that I did not have the energy to go to therapy or even get to the pharmacy to refill my anti-depressants prescription when I ran out. This resulted in me being in a very bad place mentally where dealing with my academics or caring about my future felt like far too much. In turn, despite caring a great deal about school, I didn’t have the energy to do schoolwork and or care enough about myself or the future to make the proper decision to drop my classes. Depression makes it feel like nothing matters and there no point to anything, and unfortunately that greatly affected the 2024 Winter term. I am now requesting a late drop for this unusually bad term as I am great making efforts to be better and do better. I am now on a higher medication dosage, am back to seeing my therapist, and have a better support system with my parents who now check in on me more often and help me out with certain things when needed. In my current term I have a collective average of 86 across all my courses and am working very hard to correct that term that I do not feel is representative of who I am as a student or person.