[littleyellowspider]

I am wondering if anyone here is/was homeschooled and how they think it affects them. Does it contribute to or help with your mental illness? I was homeschooled for a number of years and really feel like it contributed to a lot of my problems. I was wondering if anyone else has experience with this.

[spiritual_emergency]

I've known families who homeschooled. It was my observation that in some cases one of the motivating factors was a means of restricting the child's exposure to the larger world. This seemed to be more prevalent among families who also identified religious beliefs as playing a crucial role in their decision to educate their children at home. It stands to reason that a restrictive, controlling, or possibly punitive environment could contribute to mental health difficulties although this may have more to do with parental attitudes than the medium itself.

I've known of other families who home-schooled as a means of expanding their child's involvement with the world. Different concerns informed their decision such as respect for child-led learning or a desire to travel and interact with the larger world outside of the traditional classroom setting.

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[Beholden]

littleyellowspider,

How do you think it effected you? My daughter and her husband homeschool and are a very loving family. There are some parts of their way of thinking about homeschool that bother me, and I've wondered at times if they are being too restrictive with their children learning how the 'real world' thinks.

Are you in public school now? Do you feel like it helps you more to be in public school? Or did you like being homeschooled.

Do you have a pdoc and a psychologist who you can talk to about this.

My grandchildren, the oldest a girl 16, is growing up very compassionate and giving. She is thinking of doing missionary work when she is an adult because of the views she has been surrounded with from about age 5-6. Her parents are "born-again" ultra conservative Christians, who walk and talk that way of believing.

So my guess is, homeschooling is only as good as the parents involved in teaching and their views on mental illness. My thoughts about what my daughter thinks : "I don't believe my daughter and her husband believe in using drugs nor do they believe in mental illness as being something more than not having enough faith in Jesus to heal with prayer." Though she did say to me (about my own diagnosis of depression) was, If you need medicine, use it, but don't use it as an excuss to not read your Bible. You read all kinds of other books..."

I believe in homeschool as long as it is working for everyone.

PM me if you want to talk about it with me. I'm a good listener.

[Rmdctc]

I think it made it worse for me. I have really bad social anxiety and agoraphobia. I think homeschooling can be a good idea, but it needs to be done the right way with different social interactions everyday and with great educational materal.

[AAAAA]

Hello spider,

It is my belief that homeschooling can be positive or negative based upon how the parents approach it. Homeschooling is particularly easy in my state and it’s quite common. I have identical twins that attended a “normal” school until their 7th grade year. I homeschooled them for Jr. High, I did not feel confident in my ability to teach them math beyond Algebra.

One of my twins decided to return to our local high school and my other chose a virtual high school. The virtual high school is the best of both worlds as far as I’m concerned. My son’s class choices are infinite, he has highly trained dedicated teachers that are available to him virtually 24/7, and he can follow his own schedule. He still has all of the resources available to him that a traditional school offers (counselors etc.). He has issues with depression and OCD. This arrangement gives him the structure that I think is important, yet is flexible enough to accommodate him.

How do you feel that being homeschooled has contributed to your mental illness?

I have homeschooled my kids since the 1st grade. They are 13 and 14 now and are great kids. Everyone has issues and sometimes public schools will help it or worsen it, it is the same with homeschooling.
But the most important thing is what are YOU going to do to help with your issues. No school is perfect, so it is up to you to do what you need to do to help yourself.

[littleyellowspider]

I think it made things worse for me but honestly it could have happened in a regular school too. I went to a private school as well and preferred that.
I am a big perfectionist and over achiever and am really hard on myself when I don't do well. My entire family is made up of perfectionists and my parents especially are really in to doing well in school and being smart (a prime example of this is that this past semester I made the Dean's list at my college, I was the first of my sisters to do this and instead of saying good job my parents just asked why I hadn't made the list the semester before) I think being taught by my parents was just really hard because I always had to achieve what they wanted, and being in class with just my siblings added to the pressure because if they could do something my parents saw no reason why I couldn't do it. It definitely took a tole on my self esteem. Also being homeschooled I just always felt like I didn't fit in with the rest of the world, I was involved in a lot of activities and knew a lot of people but I always felt like I didn't fit in with them because they all went to school together and did all these school things I never did. In the area I lived in all the homeschoolers were very religious and conservative and my family was not like that so I never felt like I belonged with the homeschoolers either. I was always trying to fit in somewhere and I think this was the beginning of my eating disorder.

I agree though that it works really well for some people, My oldest sister was homeschooled all 12 years and enjoyed it and turned out fine. My brother went in to school in the 9th grade and it has been the best thing for him. My younger sister has made the decision to go in to school this year for the first time and we'll see how that goes. She has always enjoyed homeschooling though. I have talked to people who feel the way i do (including my twin sister) and I have talked to people who say they wouldn't change one thing about being homeschooled. So it does all depend. Thanks everyone for your replies!

[rainydaygirl420]

I was homeschooled for a year, but it was because of depression and not being able to focus. I dont think it made it worse, but I was bored.