So I'm about to start my third year of college and I just got offered an internship, unpaid, and I'm not sure if taking it is a good idea or not. I'm a computer science major and my school's coursework is time consuming and my internship would be 20-25 hours a week. And as many of you know I've been dealing with depression and anxiety for quite awhile. My depression is starting to come back and I've been having lots of trouble concentrating lately, plus I'm sleeping way too much I'm sure and I just feel really drained all the time. I'm trying to find a new therapist, didn't like my last one, though so far no luck connecting with one. I really don't want to commit to something that I would have to quit because of school/mental health problems. But I know I need to have an internship for the work experience and I'm feeling the pressure from my parents and also my boyfriend, his friend is the one offering it to me, to take the position. I want to take it, but I'm afraid of taking on too much and having a mental breakdown.
You obviously have to do whatever is going to be the best decision for you at this moment. There's no point in adding a internship to your plate if its going to be detrimental to more important things such as you actual course load and, of course, your mental health. A 20-25 hour a week internship might be a breeze for you next year, but if you have this much doubt it now it probably wouldn't be the best decision for the incoming one. I would just take this semester to pull myself together and get back into the scheme of things. Find a good therapist if that's what you feel will help. Not having an extra internship during this year isn't going to put that severe of a dent in your career, failing multiple classes and having a horrid mental breakdown mid-year will.
I'm so far removed from the modern college world that my advice is worthless. Not that my advice is ever worth much, we'll save that discussion for some other time... That said, I think this internship could cause more problems than it's worth. Yes, it might be good experience. It might help with networking. Etc, etc, etc. But if you end up having a total nervous breakdown, you could have a huge mess to deal with. A big enough breakdown and you could possibly lose the whole semester.
If you are afraid that you may have a mental breakdown, then chances are you will.The logical move here is to postpone it till whenever you feel comfortable and just tell your family and your bf that you are not ready. I was in a similar situation and I ended up messing everything up because it was so stressful and I was depressed. Can you do the internship (or another one) in the summer (or whenever you don't have to attend school)?
