[Superheroine]

I recently quit a very stressful job so that I could go back to school and eventually work in a different field. I started an online program less than a month ago and I already withdrew. It felt like I was teaching myself, which is not what I paid for and it was just as stressful as being at work, which was not helping my mental health. Even so, I feel like such a failure. Like I couldn't hack it. I can't regulate my emotions and everything would frustrate me to the extent that it would set me off into a cycle of rage and bouts of crying like a child. It seems so ridiculous. So now I have no job and I'm not in school. I feel like such a loser.

[Talthybius]

Go to an offline school.

Online schools only make sense when you 'attend' them alongside your job.

[K2TOG]

I recently quit my job and it was a great decision. I am so much happier and have not had any anxiety or irritability. I now have the flexibility to look for jobs and go to interviews whenever I want.

I am also in school and can relate to taking online classes and it feels like we are teaching ourselves. I prefer to be on campus and have the social interaction.

It's never to late to start again. Find a school that fits your needs. Good luck!!!

[Perna]

I would see if I could get a job, maybe just part-time, with a local college/university https://www.cccregistry.org/jobs/index.aspx and take just a few courses (often at less cost) in person or online from there. It's hard feeling alone at work or school (or anywhere :-) You might want to join a group you enjoy and at least use that as a social/talk outlet so you have some in-person support with whatever you decide to do.

[Superheroine]

Originally Posted by Talthybius

Go to an offline school.

Online schools only make sense when you 'attend' them alongside your job.

You can't make a generalization like this, because it made perfect sense to go to an online school even if I'm not working. I have a dog with separation anxiety and I'm trying to avoid putting her in daycare, because it costs too much.

It looks like that's what I'm going to have to do, even though I can't afford it. I just hope that whatever program I go to, I can limit the number of days per week that I have to be there.

Sent from my B1-850 using Tapatalk

[Talthybius]

You are going to live an inferior life because dog has separation anxiety? Really?

Apparently, you shouldn't have gotten a dog. You can't fix one bad mistake with another.

This is an extreme example, but you can have the dog put down, then become a vet or vegetarian and save way more animals.

If you make excuses like this, yes then you won't cut it in life. You can only take on so many responsibilities. If you want to be successful, take up as few as possible and be very successful at whatever you do. Get a good vibe from that. Then gradually do more. You have to help yourself first to be able to help others.

Maybe you should also mention the program(s) you are/were investing money and time in.

Also, your comment that you feel better because you quit a stressful job so you can 'enjoy' looking for a new job is silly. Who is to say the new job is going to be better? You might find yourself in a way more stressful position as a result. Why not find a new job first, then quit the old one? Backwards or short term impulsive thinking.
Especially since you get the exact opposite emotions from it as you expected?

[qwerty68]

I know how you feel, I had to withdraw as an undergrad just a few weeks into a term and I felt like a total loser for doing so.

In hindsight, it was the best thing for me, it allowed me time to get myself sorted so I could go back and finish. A withdrawal doesn't mean you are done with school and doesn't mean you are a loser. It just means that you need to get something in order and now you have the time to do so.

Most online courses are like that, it is basically self-teaching with a little prompting. The idea of going to a physical school is not a bad one. It might help your motivation and learning since you get face time with an actual professor, at least once you are done with freshman courses which tend to be large. As you progress class sizes shrink. As a senior, a class with 20 people was huge and as a grad student a large class had 8-10 people in it.

[Superheroine]

Talthybius - I don't know who you are and I don't know who you think you are that you can make such judgments of me and my character. The fact is that you don't know me. You don't know anything about me or my current situation. You don't know anything about the job that I left, why I left it, or why it was imperative that I left when I did. And yet, you feel it is ok to call me silly? I never said that I feel "better" because I quit a stressful job and I certainly never said that I did it to "enjoy" looking for a new job. Do not put words into my mouth. I think that speaks more to your character than it does mine.

To everyone else that responded, thank you for your support. I have several options that I am looking into and I hope that one of them will be a good fit.

[scorpiosis37]

I would definitely recommend going to an on-campus, traditional university. Online degrees and degrees from for-profit universities are simply not as valuable when you go on the job market. you pay an arm and a leg for an inferior education. It's simply not possible to teach yourself as well as a professor can teach you. Its not just about memorizing material; the point of an undergraduate education is to learn critical thinking, to challenge previously held belief systems, learn new schools of thought, etc. The studies that have come out about online education all demonstrate very poor results. Most employers are aware of this and will hire the candidates with a higher quality education. You can pay less to go to a traditional school, provided you have the grades to get in.

[alicetailor]

Superheroine, I would suggest you to opt for an offline program instead where you get individual attention. This can help to learn in a better way.

[chowdercity]

I also withdrew from school back in October and have been going between feeling like I did the absolute right thing and feeling like a complete and total loser/failure. It actually causes me more anxiety than before I even dropped out lol.

Like qwerty said, withdrawing definitely has allowed me time to try and get things sorted. Remember that you cannot achieve your goals if you are not truly taking care of yourself first. I have to constantly remind myself of this, even if at times I do not believe it.

I wish you the best and that you find yourself feeling less like a failure and instead, allow yourself time to breathe.

[Amon]

See,with online courses those require a lot of self-discipline. They work for those who work and/or live far from campus. Most of them also require you to learn straight from the text without having a professor lecture you. You may want to think about hybrid course (Which the work is not done entirely online & requires you to go on campus), or take a class 1 day a week.

It's not too late.

[anxiousAmphibian]

I know how you feel Chowdercity. I recently had to leave my college because it was a scam. I don't know all of the details in your situation but I can understand the frustration. I just hope you're able to reconcile your feelings. In the society we live in, there seems to be a lot of disapproval of people who drop out of school. Just know that sometimes things work in ways we couldn't even expect them too. I certainly never thought I would go down this road but here I am. The important thing is not to let negative comments or thoughts get you down. Your life is just starting and there is no reason you should feel like a failure. You have so much life left to live, there is no reason that dropping out should make you feel like a loser.

This just means that you're going down a new path. Who knows where it could lead you! New hobbies, new people, maybe you can even study abroad and get a whole new perspective of the world!

Learn from your mistake and never let them consume you. You can do this.

[EriElla]

I went to college right out of high school and dropped out due to crippling anxiety and depression. I didn't even tell anyone why I left because at the time it seemed like such a trivial explanation to give.

I spent 3-4 years feeling like the biggest failure around, beating myself up. But then I went to counseling and my therapist helped rekindle my confidence in my academics. I re-enrolled at around age 25 and I finally completed my Bachelor's this February.

I just want to let you know, from someone who has done the exact same thing, there is still hope and plenty of time to further your education. Just make sure to go when you're ready and not when everyone else says you should, or you may not succeed. Or, you may find college isn't for you and that's totally okay too. You have time to find out what works best for you. Best of luck and I'm rooting for you!