Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean (Studies),
The Request:
I am writing this letter to request an appeal to waive the 21-day appeal deadline.
Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances:
In winter 2011, I was diagnosed with depression. It was very severe from winter 2011 to winter 2012. I also had a lot of troubles coping with anxiety, which only made my depression worse. During this time period, I tried several medications (cipralex, pristiq) but nothing seemed to make me feel better. The only people who knew about my troubles were my counselor (Dr. Arunima Khanna) and doctor. I felt a lot of shame associated with it and could not talk to my friends or family about it, which only made me feel worse because I did not have much support. When I finally did tell my parents I was on anti-depressants, they were really against me taking drugs and convinced me to go off of them. I spent most of my time in my room on my bed, hardly ate, and often times lost track of time/dates. I managed to pass a couple of courses in Winter 2011 semester. From Fall 2011 to Winter 2012, I hardly went to class, or hand in assignments and even missed final exams.
During the summer of 2012, since I was still not getting better, my counselor referred me to a psychiatrist (Dr. Kenny) at LaSalle. I was seeing both a counselor and psychiatrist. I was trying really hard and was getting to most of my classes, doing assignments, and going to tests. However, around late September-early October, I started to relapse and I had an incident where I attempted to overdose on my medication. I tried several different medications after and the side effects to some of the drugs really affected me. I did eventually find a drug that helped with my mood and anxiety (remeron), however, as a side effect I gained a lot of weight. The weight gain really affected my self-esteem and I could not handle it so I stopped the medication. I began to get severely depressed again around end of fall to beginning of winter 2013.
For the next year, I tried really, really to regain some control and order back into my life. I think I was mostly successful except for a couple of relapses. Near the end of Winter 2014 semester, unknown to me at the time, I was dealing with an undiagnosed medical condition where my body does not produce enough thyroid hormone. I was experiencing many of the symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle aches, and hair loss, which caused me a great deal of stress and embarrassment (especially the hair loss). I recently started the medication, synthroid, to treat this imbalance.
One of the main reasons I never filed an appeal before was because I did not think it would matter because I did not see my life going anywhere. I was doing so poorly and I was so tired all the time due to mood, sleep and nutritional deficiencies that I did not care what was on my transcript. My counselor suggested several times that I should appeal to drop my Fs but I did not have the energy or motivation to do so. I met up with an academic adviser several times in the past to discuss potentially filing an appeal but I never got past that stage: either due to relapse or just utter shame of the feeling that I wasted away my life for so long. Often times in the past, I had suicidal thoughts and actions and I would think that I would even survive past my undergrad. When I did slowly get better, it was healthiest to just move forward and concentrate on living in the moment and to take things one step at a time because I was scared that thinking too much and about the past and reliving all my failures and writing about it would cause me to relapse. I felt well, but I was always in constant fear of relapsing because it happened often in the past.
Future Plan:
It has been a hard journey and I never thought I would actually make it this far in life and be so close to graduating with a degree. I no longer live in constant fear of relapsing and I have learned how to fight through and cope in distressing situations. I think I have made great improvements throughout the last couple of years. I am in a program I love (Statistics) and see myself working in that field in the future. I am even considering the possibility of further education.
I am still continuing to see my counselor and psychiatrist who have both been a huge factor in me getting well. I would not be where I am today without them.
Thank you for taking your time to review my appeal.
Sincerely,
Diana (Jiechao) Ma
Student ID: 06035970
The Request:
I am writing this letter to request an appeal to waive the 21-day appeal deadline.
Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances:
In winter 2011, I was diagnosed with depression. It was very severe from winter 2011 to winter 2012. I also had a lot of troubles coping with anxiety, which only made my depression worse. During this time period, I tried several medications (cipralex, pristiq) but nothing seemed to make me feel better. The only people who knew about my troubles were my counselor (Dr. Arunima Khanna) and doctor. I felt a lot of shame associated with it and could not talk to my friends or family about it, which only made me feel worse because I did not have much support. When I finally did tell my parents I was on anti-depressants, they were really against me taking drugs and convinced me to go off of them. I spent most of my time in my room on my bed, hardly ate, and often times lost track of time/dates. I managed to pass a couple of courses in Winter 2011 semester. From Fall 2011 to Winter 2012, I hardly went to class, or hand in assignments and even missed final exams.
During the summer of 2012, since I was still not getting better, my counselor referred me to a psychiatrist (Dr. Kenny) at LaSalle. I was seeing both a counselor and psychiatrist. I was trying really hard and was getting to most of my classes, doing assignments, and going to tests. However, around late September-early October, I started to relapse and I had an incident where I attempted to overdose on my medication. I tried several different medications after and the side effects to some of the drugs really affected me. I did eventually find a drug that helped with my mood and anxiety (remeron), however, as a side effect I gained a lot of weight. The weight gain really affected my self-esteem and I could not handle it so I stopped the medication. I began to get severely depressed again around end of fall to beginning of winter 2013.
For the next year, I tried really, really to regain some control and order back into my life. I think I was mostly successful except for a couple of relapses. Near the end of Winter 2014 semester, unknown to me at the time, I was dealing with an undiagnosed medical condition where my body does not produce enough thyroid hormone. I was experiencing many of the symptoms, such as fatigue, muscle aches, and hair loss, which caused me a great deal of stress and embarrassment (especially the hair loss). I recently started the medication, synthroid, to treat this imbalance.
One of the main reasons I never filed an appeal before was because I did not think it would matter because I did not see my life going anywhere. I was doing so poorly and I was so tired all the time due to mood, sleep and nutritional deficiencies that I did not care what was on my transcript. My counselor suggested several times that I should appeal to drop my Fs but I did not have the energy or motivation to do so. I met up with an academic adviser several times in the past to discuss potentially filing an appeal but I never got past that stage: either due to relapse or just utter shame of the feeling that I wasted away my life for so long. Often times in the past, I had suicidal thoughts and actions and I would think that I would even survive past my undergrad. When I did slowly get better, it was healthiest to just move forward and concentrate on living in the moment and to take things one step at a time because I was scared that thinking too much and about the past and reliving all my failures and writing about it would cause me to relapse. I felt well, but I was always in constant fear of relapsing because it happened often in the past.
Future Plan:
It has been a hard journey and I never thought I would actually make it this far in life and be so close to graduating with a degree. I no longer live in constant fear of relapsing and I have learned how to fight through and cope in distressing situations. I think I have made great improvements throughout the last couple of years. I am in a program I love (Statistics) and see myself working in that field in the future. I am even considering the possibility of further education.
I am still continuing to see my counselor and psychiatrist who have both been a huge factor in me getting well. I would not be where I am today without them.
Thank you for taking your time to review my appeal.
Sincerely,
Diana (Jiechao) Ma
Student ID: 06035970