On some days you need to ‘rub and shine’

How to deal with depression during school sessions

Written by Oluwagbemisola Ogunleye

It is the first week of 2025 and you\’re reading this, you most likely have a class/test/assignment that you should be getting ready to attend/study for but you have either been procrastinating terribly or you just don\’t feel like doing anything.

If you belong to the first category, we have no words for a chronic deadline-chaser like you. This is for the second category of people. For the people that are finding it very hard to stand up and take a shower.

Depression is not a respecter of time. It does not care if you\’re writing professional exams or if you\’re in the middle of the school session. It will arrive in the middle of an economic recession to come and share Ankara.

In this system, deadlines, tests and exams do not understand depression.

What do you do when you\’re feeling under the weather but you have to show up?

1. Talk to your community: You see that one girl who caught her friend trying to commit suicide and beat the living hell out of her? Sometimes that\’s what community is about. Sometimes ehn, a problem shared half is a problem half solved – share the problem half and half. You take half and let your friend take half. Trust your friends to know what you need sometimes, they know best when it\’s time to give you a hug, drag you out, leave you alone or give you a good beating. Energy is infectious. Doing things as a group is more likely to make you feel more motivated. Have them read with you or wait for you to get ready for class. Good manners fit corrupt bad communication if it tries hard enough.

1. Make a priority list: Opportunity cost is not useful only for shopping lists. Sometimes you need to disappoint your appointers. It\’s not every time that you will show up. When you don\’t feel like doing life anymore, you need to conserve your energy and direct it at things that take utmost priority. If even affliction can arise more than once, opportunity comes in duplicates sometimes. Let things that are not of absolute importance go. When you feel better, you can go in search of other opportunities. To be fair, there\’s a 50% chance that you will mess up if you decide to power through by force.
   

1. Break up tasks into bits: Tasks begin to look impossible because you\’re looking at it like one big thing. Rather than think ‘I have to class’, try breaking that one action into several bits. Tell yourself that the first task is to stand up from your bed and the second is to shower. Then the third is to get dressed. Do one first before you think of the other. Before you know it, you\’re out the door and on your way to class. Or you can give up halfway and go back to bed (don\’t shoot the messenger).

1. Rest!: Ruth, even God rested on the seventh day. Sometimes depression or burnout is a reminder from your brain that you are working too hard. Only you; class scholar, president of five clubs, business owner and choir mistress. Even computers overheat. Think of yourself as a computer that has overheated. Take a short break and touch grass. Secure your sanity before securing the bag. Two hours is not too much to take for yourself.

1. Talk to a professional: If you can afford to, you can try talking to a therapist or any other specialist trained specifically to handle mental health issues.

In all, take care of yourself. Na who dey alive dey write exam 🧡

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