School can be a lot to cope with, especially when you’re trying to squeeze in social life, extracurriculars, and other responsibilities. Sometimes, students can’t handle the pressure and develop symptoms of chronic stress, depression, or anxiety. After you receive the care that you need to get back on track, you may be wondering how you’re going to return to school and finish the academic year more successfully. If this is you, here are a few tips on how to transition back to school after a mental health crisis.
Focus heavily on aftercare and continued psychological support.
When you first seek out support for your mental disorder, you will likely look for a residential treatment center like the Polaris Teen Treatment center. This type of inpatient care is designed specifically to help you recover from trauma or disorders like major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders in a safe setting. Leveraging therapeutic practices like cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness meditation, and recreational therapy, you will learn how to cope with the symptoms of your disorder and move forward more successfully. However, it’s critical to highlight that continued outpatient therapy is essential to maintaining your progress and preventing you from relapsing.
If you’re looking for peer support or even some ideas on how others throughout the United States cope with high school and beyond, you should join an organization like the National Society of High School Scholars (NSHSS). This organization is more than just a collection of those focused on their future: It’s a place where you can find mental health resources, get support tailored for college applicants (financial support, scholarship programs, and beyond), and work toward reaching your college dreams without burning out. In fact, you’ll even be able to interact with other organizations like Scholarship America, which is focused on helping students meet their financial needs for a college education using their generous scholarship fund. No matter what type of support you’re looking for throughout your school career, you can find it here!
Make taking care of yourself a priority.
Education is important, but it shouldn’t come at the cost of your mental health. When you do return to school, create a plan of action to prioritize self-care throughout your day so that you can better manage your stress. For some, this may be as simple as getting up and going on a jog or sitting down and taking some time to plan out your day to make it more manageable. For others, the high stress they experience throughout the day may require them to spend some time soaking in the bath and doing absolutely nothing to completely unwind. Put simply, now’s the time to get more sleep, take care of yourself, and do what it is that you need to in order to deal with your stress and any disorders that may have developed as a result of it.
Learn how to balance all of the items in your schedule.
The biggest issue that high school students and college students alike encounter is having a packed schedule. When you feel like you don’t have time to breathe or you constantly feel behind, it can be very difficult to stay on top of your overall health. Set aside some time to learn some essential time management tips that can help you rearrange your schedule, cut out unnecessary time wasters that don’t contribute positively to your life, and balance school and life. When you create a schedule you can work with, a lot of your stress will fall away.
Taking time away from school for mental health reasons is necessary for those who experience major crises. However, the question of how to best deal with school once you return can be the biggest concern. If you’re worried about dealing with school after you’ve successfully treated your mental disorder, use the guide above to set yourself up for success to reduce your chances of running into the same issues again.
