Hi. Looking back over a lifetime of depression and anxiety, which started at age 4, I regret that I didn't do enough as a teenager to get the care I needed. I had a psych eval as part of a learning disability assessment, and I "failed" it. My mother said that the report was wrong and my dad said, "no child of mine is gonna see a shrink." I wish I had taken a stand to get the help that I needed then.

Does your counselor support your decision to take a year off? Is this a school counselor (helps navigate academics and post graduation plans) or a mental health counselor? What will you do during the year? If you take time off, it would be best if you had some structured mental health care. Does the hospital where you got the second opinion offer any partial hospitalization program or intensive therapy?

If my teen came to me saying they wanted to take a year off because of mental illness I would want to know what the plan for support and recovery was. I would be very nervous if my teen said they just wanted to take a year off and get better by themselves.