Hello you younger POISers,
You are going to be helped in the next months and years, in a way us older lemon POISers unfortunately weren't.
If I can help your thought process around education at all, in parallel with some of the excellent advice given by the guys on this post already, it is this. Please know that learning beyond 2nd level schools, high schools and 3rd level colleges is changing.
What do I mean? I failed every exam from teenage years, after onset of POIS, until in the last 10 years, when adult 3rd level learning started becoming available, not just via examinations, but more about projects, assignments, practical theses, ongoing assessment and validated studies to be submitted etc.
I got honors in everything always until circa 13/14 yrs old. I then went on to get a NO GRADE In pass Mathematics at 18. I believed I was a total failure, as I didn't know what was wrong with me. I couldn't study or cognitively understand complex subjects or remember things for examinations, my motivation went, and mainly because of POIS symptoms & fallout.
Two years back, I gained honors in a masters, 1 level below doctorate, in my chosen area, from the best and toughest university in my country. This is because it was based on assignments and being able to work through things over a period of time - tough assignments, but I didn't have to remember for an exam 2 hours, which I can't. I am passionate about music, but can't remember song's lyrics.
I am NOT blowing my own trumpet here, as I think academic learning is way overvalued as against more applicable learning like "people skills". I just want you to realize, even though POIS is f*ing awful, you can still focus on finding subjects to learn, that will hold your motivation in spite of your symptoms, you can find opportunities to learn and develop and do well. We will together get to the source of the illness and cure it / or seriously reduce its impacts.
As others have said, we can't let it define who we are or limit us totally.
No intention to deny anyone's belief or thinking here, but if we are so focused on our symptoms that we have time to try 25 different cures at one time or measure the length of an ejaculation (a perhaps highly valid post elsewhere and absolutely no disrespect meant), but maybe we need to realize we are trying too many things at once, or else letting this syndrome control us our minds too much. There may well be a connection between the aforementioned length and what's going on during POIS, but we have to get on with our lives, which includes finding ways to perceive and use school/college in a way that works for us and where it is not seen as "hellish". Know it is tough, but we need to develop our own strategies to do the best for ourselves.
Yes, I like many here, have learned to say F**k it, but now "what will help me to feel better tomorrow", and then do that - a run or whatever.
Believe me, I have been there with your teenage pain and 20's pain and feeling very down about it all, and in hindsight, I would not have let it control me the way it used to. MIND OVER MATTER !
