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Old Aug 15, 2012, 08:09 AM
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VickiesPath VickiesPath is offline
Magnate
 
Member Since: Jul 2009
Location: Phoenix, AZ, USA
Posts: 2,779
I will be 60 years old in December and I returned to school to get a Master's in Counseling after 35 years out of school. I am also bipolar II and have been fairly stable on medication for 8 years. I decided to take online courses and looked very carefully at the different schools. I ended up choosing one here in my city that seemed to have the best programs for me. In online coursework, I work on only one class at a time (at the graduate level) for eight weeks at a time. The only drawback is that it is year round except for 10 days at Christmas. Therefore, you have to be willing to work essentially every day each week and in order for the teachers to know that you understand the material, there is a lot of essay writing and written discussion questions.

My bipolar hasn't caused a problem, not as much as simply being older. True, the meds do slow down the cognitive processes but it's hard to say which is more influencial, the meds or the age factor! All in all, I'm enjoying the experience and at times, it's frightening to me with worrying about keeping my GPA up, etc. But I would recommend it to anyone, as long as you are stable on your meds and they don't impair you cognitively.

I was taking Topamax as a mood stabilizer, along with Depakote but we dropped the Topamax, which has helped with concentration quite a bit.

Best of luck to you. I hope this has helped. Hugs
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Vickie