DSA UPDATE

DSA UPDATE

This isn't going to be a long post but more of a follow-up on my previous post about DSA (which I recommend you read here first so that everything here makes sense). 

I wanted to let everyone know that I'VE BEEN APPROVED!!!

 I'm now going to list off everything that I have been approved for and how it is going to help me. However, everyone (including myself) has to bear in mind that I'm not going to have this from the offset of university as I actually have to be attending classes before I can get all this with is understandable. I mean, they don't want to pay for everything and give it to me if I end up not even doing the course. 

 Now that that disclaimer is out of the way, let's get to the list:

  • Text -to-speech software with a wireless headset- very often I am sitting and looking over notes so much that I won't even get up to eat in fear that if I don't read over them enough I will never understand them. I also sometimes don't even look at notes if my depression is bad as all my motivation leaves my body and I stay in bed all day long. However, by having my notes computer and having them read out to me I will be able to listen to my notes while making myself food so I'll be killing two birds with one stone and if I am having a depressive episode and I cannot get out of bed I can just lie and listen to my notes so I'm at least doing something production. 
  • Extended library loans- if I'm having a bad bought of depression or my anxiety is sky high, I'm not able to concentrate on my work so I end up falling behind a little in my work. With being able to have library books for longer, if this should happen then at least I will have the resources for longer to allow me to catch up.
  • A specialist mentor- someone for me to talk to for an hour a week who is trained in mental health problems who will talk with me about how my mental health problems may be affecting my education that week and help with coming up with a plan on how to overcome it. 
  • Mind-mapping software- having anxiety for me means that a lot of the time my mind is thinking about multiple things at once. With mind-mapping software even if I do have a lot on my mind and lots of ideas for an essay, I can see what I need to put down and where in the essay it goes so that I don't go into too much detail (something I'm always doing) and use my time wisely.
  • Dictation software- if I need to get everything in my mind down (trust me, there is always a lot going on in my mind) then my hands are never able to keep up with my brain, I end up writing stuff down too fast so I make loads of mistakes and then I have to go back and correct it all and sometimes it won't even make sense. By having dictation software, I can just speak what I'm thinking into a wireless headset with a microphone and then everything in my head will be typed up onto the computer screen and I'll have a lot less to worry about. 
  • Note taking software and microphone- if I'm having a bad mental health day, either my depression is making me very down and taking my motivation of my anxiety is sky high and I cannot concentrate on anything as I have so much going on in my head, I will still make the effort to make it into class but even though I may be there physically, mentally I'm still at home in bed. So with this note taking software and microphone, if I'm not mentally present in class, I will be able to record my lectures and listen back to them at another time so I still get the information.
  • Alternative presentation option- once when I had to give a presentation in college I got so anxious that I was crying and shaking and in the end it took what was meant to be a 5-minute presentation into 25 minutes as I had to keep stopping and starting to calm down and be able to talk again. With this alternative option, I now had the chance to be able to record me doing the presentation in a room either by myself or with just my lecturer to then be shown to the class at a later date, so I won't freeze up and panic.
  • Separate room for exams- I had this at college anyway but now I'll have it university. I will basically do all of my exams away from everyone else in a different room as that the little noises around me of people writing and tapping feet don't increase my anxiety, panic me and cause me to not finish my exam or finish but put a load of rubbish. 

 And that's everything I get. If you are thinking of applying for DSA then please check if you are entitled and go for it, I never thought I'd have this much help avaliable but now that I know I'll have it I'm so much more confident that I'll do well in university.

 But for now...
Stay happy, stay healthy, from Abbie xx

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The things no one tells you about depression and anxiety

Image
The things no one tells you about depression and anxiety  The things you don't get told about depression and anxiety, written from the perspective of someone with both. So as many of you reading this will already know, I have been suffering from mental health problems for most of my life, but I myself was only diagnosed in February 2015. Everything before that was my parent's mental health problems influencing my life.  Both of my parents have got mental health problems, which my mum having depression and anxiety (the exact same as me) and my dad having both of them as well but many more problems along with them. He hasn't been in work for nearly 4 years due to a complete mental breakdown at his last job (something which we still, as a family, find hard to talk about). Much like 33.1% of those with mental health problems*.  Since then, he has been a mere shell of a man that he used to be. Don't get me wrong, he still has his great days where he seem
Read more

When you feel like you're wearing a mask...

Image
When you feel like you're wearing a mask... First things first: depression sucks. Like really, really sucks. It can strike at any moment, it doesn't care what you need to do or what your social plans are. It's selfish and only cares about making its presence known.  The trouble is that while some employers/education centres/friends/family are starting to become more understanding when it comes to mental health problems, the majority of them still aren't and you somehow find yourself forcing yourself going through your everyday life as if nothing is wrong when on the inside you have no emotion whatsoever.  And that's when you have to choose which mask you're going to wear that day.  Are you going to wear your sad mask, you know, the one that people think depression really is? This might make your depression seem more believable to those around you so they finally believe that there is something rather than it just being a case of needing
Read more

So I've been put on bed rest by my doctor...

So I've been put on bed rest by my doctor... And you may be wondering why. Well, the short version of this story is that I currently have something called costochondritis which means that the cartilage connecting my ribs to my breastbone is inflamed and very painful. The longer version of the story starts back on Thursday 5th October where at 11am while at university I started to get some very back chest pains. Now, these chest pains didn't get better (in fact they were getting worse) throughout the day so in the evening we (my parents and I) made the decision to go up to A&E because you know, better to be safe than sorry. We got to the hospital and I only had to wait around 10 minutes before being seen and hooked up to an ECG to make sure it wasn't my heart. I'm very happy to say that it wasn't anything to do with my heart so was then sent to the urgent care centre, a part of the hospital where there are GP's available through the night. The only dow
Read more