Trying to find a career path

I'm happy with the job I've had the last few months, but it's not my dream career. It's the kind of job where most of the employees are high schoolers or college students wanting work experience and a paycheck, while I have a college degree and need a living income. I've always been an academic kind of person (English, Literature, and History were my strengths in college),so I'd like to go back to school for a higher degree and get a job in a professional field. My degree would probably best qualify me for teaching, but I'm not sure I would enjoy that.

I've looked at going into law school, but I'm worried that with my past issues with self-harm and suicidal behavior, and my ongoing issues with depression and an eating disorder, would lead to problems passing the bar exam. There's a section where they evaluate if someone is morally and mentally suitable to perform as a lawyer, and they can actually request medical records.

I've also thought about psychology. I've always enjoyed documentaries about how the brain works and such, so I can see that being an interesting field, and if I went into therapy, it would also give me the chance to help people who have gone through some of the same issues as me. The problem with that is to get a master's or PhD in psychology, I'd have to hold a Bachelor's in that field, so I'd have to backtrack and go through undergrad again.

Does anyone with experience in either of those fields have any insight to offer? Or can anyone think of another career path I might want to consider?

you dont have to be a phd to help someone who has been through similar to you. that is a lot of years. sounds like you have a bachelors. i believe you can get a masters in either MFT or social work without having a undergrad in either of those fields. check it out.

Law can be a really expensive degree to do in the US even though job prospects are well down on what they used to be and most people who 'make it' to big law hate all the obnoxious assholes they're forced to work such long hours with... Medicine, dentistry, law, highest suicide rates. Any concern over mental health would be concern over that.

I'm honestly not sure that I'd find teaching any better. I'd imagine it could be wonderful working in a higher decile (richer) region school... Private... Small class sizes etc... But I don't know how fierce competition is for those sorts of teaching jobs... Struggling with kids who haven't had breakfast and who can't afford books and who can't sit still for 5 minutes even if they had books doesn't sound like much fun to me...

Psychology sounds fun... You might be able to short-cut some kind of graduate diploma to get you the equivalent of a psychology major without needing to do a whole degree since you have one already. Having a bachelors in psychology (or equivalent) isn't really enough... You need to do some kind of graduate program to get to work in the field, properly, but it would be a start...

I think everything is hard to get into these days. And you need to accept that you could get stuck in crappy jobs that you hate on your way to something that hopefully you find to be good...

I've been in school since... Forever. I'm not entirely sure I can do anything outside of it. Mostly... I think I can't. I simply don't get the head space of a lot of people outside academia (especially if I don't have the power to get them to back off such that I can do my thing)....

So... My advice ain't really worth anything...

It may vary from state to state, but if you have the wherewithal to make it through law school and pass the exam, I think there is very, very little chance that you wouldn't get a license because of past medical issues.