I have so many different thoughts in my head right now. I have suffered from depression and anxiety since I was a teenager. I am now 47. The depression has been better lately and I am dealing with the anxiety better. I think I am ready to do something with my life. I have been on disability for the last year or so and am afraid of going from doing nothing to full time school. I have visited one of my school choices and have set up a time to sit in on classes for a day.

The bottom line is my head is coming up with reasons for me not to try this. Depression ruined my last year of high school and my initial attempt at college. I presently feel better than I have in a long time and have a lot of support. The school I may attend is not a regular college. It is a private, for profit technical school. I looked at reviews of this school online and they were not pretty. Did I forget to mention that I also have OCD. I can't stop thinking about those reviews.

I don't know what I am asking for help with. If anyone has any experience with anything I have written here, I would appreciate your input.
Thank you in advance.

[jelly-bean]

If the reviews are so bad then maybe you should look at other schools . Having options is a good idea. Also, if full time school is causing anxiety for you maybe you can start out part time and see how it goes.. I think it's wonderful that you are feeling good enough to give it a try so go for it. Good Luck!

[CosmicRose]

You're 47 but I'm 22 and feeling the exact same way, so I hope this provides some comfort to you that no matter what age you are, you're not alone. I'm also wanting to go back to college but my anxiety is preventing me from doing so. I'm working from home right now part time so I basically feel like I'm doing nothing as well...and going to school again is scary.
You have so much life experience at 47. The fact that you even want to go back to school shows great strength. Most people at 47 would have totally given up the idea of going back to school, but you're actually contemplating it. That shows a lot of inner perseverance and potential.
The best advice I can give you is advice I've also been telling myself - go back to school because its something fun, not for any other reason. Do not put any pressure on yourself to succeed or to get to the end of that marathon, just take it in baby steps and do it only for the fun of it, only for the experience of it. No pressure at all. If you work on keeping this mindset about it, you won't get overwhelmed so easily because you won't put so much pressure on yourself.
Be very weary about technical schools only because I also went to a technical school, and I ended up spending a lot of money and didn't get a job in the field. So just make sure you really do your research on it and make sure its a lucrative field and that there are actually jobs available and its not a saturated field.

[hvert]

I would take the reviews seriously. For-profit schools sometimes look out more for their bottom line than their students. Maybe see if you can get the names of some grads to talk with about job placement afterwards?

Sitting in on the classes sounds like a great idea. Before I went back to grad school, I did a certification course. It was much shorter than a degree program and helped me get into the swing of things. Maybe there is a 30 hour certificate related to your program that you could try to test the waters? Is going part-time an option?

Found another similar school in the area. They have bad reviews as well. They also got sued and lost. Promising things to students and not delivering.