Graduating with a Bachelor’s in Perseverance: The Challenges of Completing a College Degree with Bipolar Disorder

As we approach mid-May many fourth-year college students are preparing for graduation. Their sustained efforts over the last four years have paid off and they'll soon have a degree in hand. They've endured a lot over the last four years ... complex choices about major and careers, sustained academic stress, social stress, financial stress, experimentation with drugs and alcohol, the highs and lows of love relationships as well as the challenges of gradually increasing independence and autonomy. College is not just about academics. It's a weigh station in between adolescence and early adulthood where students also learn about life.

Now what if you're a student with bipolar disorder that began college enrollment four years ago? But due to recurring episodes of mood instability, you've had to drop a few courses, take some incompletes, perhaps do a medical withdrawal or even remain out for a semester or longer. Essentially, the episodic intensity of your symptoms may have derailed your progression towards a degree and now you're only midway through your third year while many of your friends are about to walk and receive their diploma. It's a frustrating and humbling reality to confront.

On the other hand, it's a reality which is not at all uncommon amongst college students with bipolar disorder. I currently lead a university support group for bipolar students. There are nine students who regularly attend the weekly group. All but three of them (two being graduate students) have encountered intermittent academic delays as a result of their bipolar symptoms.

The painful part of this picture is that those who do need extra time for their progression towards a degree frequently feel guilty and ashamed as a function of their delay. They struggle with a sense of inadequacy. It's as if there's something wrong with them; they're flawed.

Now if this were totally off base, it would be easy enough to counter the distorted perception. But it's not entirely inaccurate. What's true is that sometimes the depression or elevated mood that comes with bipolar disorder does indeed interfere with academic productivity. When depressed it can feel like you've lost 20 IQ points; when hypomanic (mild mania) or worse, it can be extremely difficult to sustain productivity because of instability associated with elevated mood, impulsivity, accelerated thought and sleep deprivation. Despite one's best intentions, the symptoms of bipolar disorder can definitely derail academic progress.

Often, the individual with bipolar disorder may not have much control over the onset of depression or elevated mood cycles. That doesn't mean if you're bipolar you're without any responsibility. Maintaining a balanced lifestyle, getting good sleep, staying away from alcohol and drug use and remaining compliant with mental health treatment recommendations are all things you can do to help maintain stability. But the frustrating piece is that even with full compliance, there is no such thing as insurance against instability. Sometimes things do turn upside down despite your best efforts. And when such occurs, is it your fault? Are you truly an inadequate student? Or do the symptoms of bipolar disorder sometimes get in your way?

The answer is fairly self-evident; but arriving at that answer isn't so easy for the bipolar student trying to get through college.

You're left with the task of separating "you" from "your disorder" and at the same time developing compassion and acceptance for those times that your disorder gets in the way. I can assure you that by age 43 you won't be looking back and lamenting the fact that it took you one or two years longer than expected to complete your college education. In fact, at some point the extra time truly becomes irrelevant. It's all just part of this nonlinear journey we call life.

So if you are about to graduate and it is your fifth, sixth or even seventh year of enrollment, congratulations! You did do it. You weren't derailed to the extent that you relinquished your goal. You kept on, even though it was a long haul. In the long run, your determination and perseverance will serve you just as well as anything else that your neurotypical peers may be able to boast about!

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Russ Federman is co-author of Facing Bipolar: The Young Adult's Guide to Dealing with Bipolar (New Harbinger Publications), see www.BipolarYoungAdult.com