# Update



## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

Sorry I haven't been around lately. My mental health has declined greatly and all I usually do is lay around and watch movies or do voice calls with my online friends to distract myself from my misery. 

Last night during dinner my parents brought up how fast our older dog's health was going down. (He's 15 now and a labrador with bad hips) He can hardly keep himself up and slips around a lot. We are concerned with winter coming that he will slip on some ice and lay there for awhile in a extreme pain and we won't be there to help. I knew for awhile we'd have to put him down within the next year but that year has turned into within the next couple weeks if not days. Sparky, (The dog) was my only friend for maybe 6 years since I have lots of trouble making friends in real life and I will be so lost without him there. 

Now to the rat related topic, 
As anyone who's read my posts may know, if i got 4 a's and b's before the quarter ended I'd be able to get Jojo companions, well that didn't go too well. After 10 days of working non stop I managed to fail 2 of my classes one being Spanish. The only reason I failed spanish is because APPARENTLY 90% of the things I had done don't even COUNT towards my grade. I had to do 9 units worth of stuff. 8 of those units having 50+ things in it and only 5 of those counting towards my grade. Unit 9 was midterms. So I did around 360 things within 10 days that didn't even matter... I am so overly sleep deprived and I completely ruined my sleep schedule for things that _didn't even matter _I am trying to get the companions for christmas but I don't know how that's going to work out. There are so few breeders here and so few people own rats so there's no accidental litters I can adopt from. My best case is just re-homing Jojo to a rat owner who already has a few who'd accept him. 
I really don't want to re-home him... I have had so much progress with him. He has gone from a rat who was too terrified to even eat and lunges at my finger first chance he gets to a rat that greets me at the front of the cage and allows me to give him scritches and he doesn't try to bite.


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## Rustychase (Nov 2, 2014)

Just hang in there


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## Kelseyrawr (Jun 12, 2014)

Hedgian, I know a lot of the feelings you have right now. Just a few months ago we had to have my dog of 15 years (he was 20) PTS. He was old and arthritic and his quality of life was practically non existent. It was terribly hard to deal with and I am still not over it. For 15 years he was my best friend, companion, and snuggle buddy, even though Im pretty sure he preferred my mom over me... hehe. But the fact of the matter is, is that when its time for your dog to go, you may not understand and you may be lost in the world for a while, but you will still know that it was his time and he lived the best life he could have lived with you. I know that probably wont help much but keep your head up. You had so many great years with Sparky, keep your head up and keep him as happy and healthy as possible until its time.....

As for kicking butt doing hard work for hours on end and not getting where you wanted, it wont help you out much, but I was in the same boat a few years ago when I first started college. I worked my tail off and still failed several classes. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place. I had a meeting with and adviser at school who really put things into perspective for me... He yelled at me a little, but ultimately told me I was the only one who could change me and that if I wanted to succeed and do better then I was going to have to calm down and begin making changes such as: 1. making a list of things to do every single day and doing them. 2. changing my study habits and tailoring them to the instructor. 3. Taking a breath and seeing that even though I messed up, I had the power to get myself back on track. Now I am doing much better in school and feel much better about my life, even though in the past year and half my health has declined greatly..

Now on to your rat topics... If I were you I would not rehome JoJo. I would keep making progress with him and get him little companions as soon as the moment becomes available. If he is in good health and at a happy home with you, I think he will be okay until you can get him a friend. I would rehome as an absolute last resort. That is my opinion/ what I would do. Please PM me if you need to talk about anything and I hope everything works out for you.


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

I really hope everything works out too. I really want to get companions for Jojo because I can't give him the companionship that he needs at the moment. It's hard for me to get him out of the cage since he absolutely despises being picked up. Most of the time I just every now again open the cage door and give him scritches which he is fine with for the most part. He always acts like he wants out of the cage but the moment i take him out he does everything he can to get back in...


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## rudecrudetattooedfatgirl (Aug 30, 2014)

I don't really know how to ask this so please forgive if I offend. Just bear with me...I have a point. Are you smart? Like until now school came easy for you or at least certain classes did? I was in the "smart" classes all my life and thus never really had to learn good study habits. Everything came easy to me (except math...f**k math). When I got to college I really struggled because I didn't have the habits and skills necessary to succeed. And then I started down my mental illness path and just completely shattered. So maybe you need to seek out help learning how average and below average students go about passing classes.


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## Kelseyrawr (Jun 12, 2014)

rudecrudetattooedfatgirl said:


> I don't really know how to ask this so please forgive if I offend. Just bear with me...I have a point. Are you smart? Like until now school came easy for you or at least certain classes did? I was in the "smart" classes all my life and thus never really had to learn good study habits. Everything came easy to me (except math...f**k math). When I got to college I really struggled because I didn't have the habits and skills necessary to succeed. And then I started down my mental illness path and just completely shattered. So maybe you need to seek out help learning how average and below average students go about passing classes.


I was the same way!! In high school I never had to study or really do anything and I got mostly A's. My first year of college hit me like a train. I had no idea how to study or what to do. I felt like I was working my butt off and failing because I was stupid. The adviser I mentioned in my first reply really helped me understand that many students who do well in high school are unprepared for college and how to study and complete work correctly and such. So I would say that setting up a meeting with an adviser is a really good idea to get motivated and on track. They will have wonderful tools and ideas to help you out no matter what!


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

rudecrudetattooedfatgirl said:


> I don't really know how to ask this so please forgive if I offend. Just bear with me...I have a point. Are you smart? Like until now school came easy for you or at least certain classes did? I was in the "smart" classes all my life and thus never really had to learn good study habits. Everything came easy to me (except math...f**k math). When I got to college I really struggled because I didn't have the habits and skills necessary to succeed. And then I started down my mental illness path and just completely shattered. So maybe you need to seek out help learning how average and below average students go about passing classes.


I don't know tbh. Testing says I am but then I do so horribly on my school work because a) I cant focus b) I procrastinate. 
Some stuff I understand but for some reason I just can't do it. I don't know its odd I just am unable to get it done properly. I guess before 5th grade I think it was school was easy enough for me. I didn't fail my classes or anything but in 5th everything just went down hill and I started failing just about every class.


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## webspinnr (Jul 27, 2014)

Have you been tested for anything like ADHD? If you're so distractable it's interferring with school, maybe that's something you could look into?


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

webspinnr said:


> Have you been tested for anything like ADHD? If you're so distractable it's interferring with school, maybe that's something you could look into?


My mom and brother have it and we have gone to get me tested but they couldn't confirm it because... well this is something along the lines of what they said "you're depressions is messing with the results" they put me on adhd med and anti-depressants and after trying numerous different doses and such of both nothing really changed in fact I felt 100% better after I was taken off of both (this was during 8th grade which had to of been one of my happiest years in a long time) 7th grade which was when I was going through every kind of medication was the most miserable year of my life. I lost so many friends and was just ready to give up. 8th grade made things better than freshman year kind of ruined everything. Now I am in sophmore year and things aren't much better than freshman. (But they are slightly better since I now do online school)


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## rudecrudetattooedfatgirl (Aug 30, 2014)

Ok. So I have type 1 bipolar disorder. I've been on mess for about 15 years and I have to say keep looking for one that works. They're constantly creating new ones and realizing off label uses of stuff. And make sure you have a doctor you trust and feel listens to and understands you. I am still learning how to be a responsible adult and I'm 29 this month. Since it sounds like you're home a lot with your rat and probably keep that baby with you all the time I wouldn't worry too much about the lack of a cage mate.


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## Camelle (Feb 11, 2013)

Hedgian said:


> My mom and brother have it and we have gone to get me tested but they couldn't confirm it because... well this is something along the lines of what they said "you're depressions is messing with the results" they put me on adhd med and anti-depressants and after trying numerous different doses and such of both nothing really changed in fact I felt 100% better after I was taken off of both (this was during 8th grade which had to of been one of my happiest years in a long time) 7th grade which was when I was going through every kind of medication was the most miserable year of my life. I lost so many friends and was just ready to give up. 8th grade made things better than freshman year kind of ruined everything. Now I am in sophmore year and things aren't much better than freshman. (But they are slightly better since I now do online school)


Have you been tested for ADD? Because I have ADD and my brother has ADHD. I'm not sure if the meds would be different or not but maybe you could ask and see? I've got ADD and depression so I totally understand what you're going through. We just had to out our family dog down a few months ago and it was really hard for all of us but I was the one that picked him out as a puppy and named him so it was pretty hard and now my very firstrat and the best one i'll ever have is getting close to dying. If you ever need anything you're welcome to pm me


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