Quote:
Originally Posted by dragonfly2
At this point, you may actually want to tell her about the bipolar. I'm assuming you're in the US, correct? Bipolar disorder is a covered disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If she does tell you tough s***, you can report her. I'm not sure what is within her power to do, as far as giving you extensions on your assignments and such, but she can't just ignore it. She may just direct you to the school's disability office, so you may want to start with them. Not sure how your school's system works. But this is one case where having a diagnosed bipolar disorder is actually to your advantage and allows you some Federal protection.
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Dragonfly's got good advice here. I'd note that most universities work to inform the faculty about mental health services, and they are all aware of the disability services and accommodations requirements. In most cases, instructors are not permitted to give you any accommodations without first getting official word from disability services. Otherwise every other student would be complaining of MI to get an extension on their assignments...
If you haven't gone to the office of disability services, do that first - but I wouldn't wait long on telling your advisor either. She needs to know that something is up in order to help you. If you haven't done disability services yet, however, there might not be not much they can do for you for this term; do try, as soon as you can, but don't be surprised if you are not given many options for this semester because it's getting so late in the game. Fortunately you already have a dx so they can work with you more quickly than if you didn't! You might be able to get some extensions, etc, but it's unfair to expect instructors to retrospectively retool things for you if you need a bigger adjustment than that.
The sooner you reach out and ask for help, the sooner you'll get it.