My Complicated Expulsion

[mrtumus]

Well here it goes. I was assaulted on campus and so was diagnosed with PTSD. Never really got any treatment for it nor support from family for what happened to me. Then whe the anniversary of the assault approached I had a nightmare and thought my boy friend at the time was the guy who assaulted me. He called the police hoping I would be hospitalized BUT instead I was arrested. womp.
Charges were dismissed on grounds of psychological distress BUT the school decided to expell me, said I was causing too many issues. Plus I was also suicidal at the time and did try to kill myself on campus so they really wanted me gone.

Now I am much better in terms of mental health and want t get back into pursuing PA as a career. I know that I could boost my grades up because I began doing poorly after the assault. I also decided to take a CNA course for HCE since I have been out of the game because I did take a year off after all of this.
Is there anything else I can do to make up for this expulsion on my record. Please don't say I lost my chance as PA because I won't take no for answer. I am ready to fight and do anything.

Thank you

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[Promethean]

Well here it goes. I was assaulted on campus and so was diagnosed with PTSD. Never really got any treatment for it nor support from family for what happened to me. Then whe the anniversary of the assault approached I had a nightmare and thought my boy friend at the time was the guy who assaulted me. He called the police hoping I would be hospitalized BUT instead I was arrested. womp.
Charges were dismissed on grounds of psychological distress BUT the school decided to expell me, said I was causing too many issues. Plus I was also suicidal at the time and did try to kill myself on campus so they really wanted me gone.

Now I am much better in terms of mental health and want t get back into pursuing PA as a career. I know that I could boost my grades up because I began doing poorly after the assault. I also decided to take a CNA course for HCE since I have been out of the game because I did take a year off after all of this.
Is there anything else I can do to make up for this expulsion on my record. Please don't say I lost my chance as PA because I won't take no for answer. I am ready to fight and do anything.

Thank you

It isn't fair that psychological and physical sequelae of an assault are treated so differently. If you had been expelled for physical injuries that had persisted, there would be outrage. Because it was a mental health issue, you are expected to heal yourself and punished if you don't. Not cool. But the world we find ourselves in isn't fair, and you do have to make your way through it despite that. Certainly, no one else will do it for you. I'm sorry that all this happened to you. Now it is up to you to make good come out of it anyhow.

I think that you are on the right track by thinking ahead to what you want to accomplish next and making reasonable plans to get some clinical experience. I don't think that your expulsion is absolutely a deal-breaker, if you do demonstrate academic excellence and personal stability as evidenced by strong extracurricular / volunteer / clinical experiences for probably a couple of years at minimum.

In pre-allo, someone mentioned the idea of reinvention. That you hadn't heard the term before makes me conclude that you are still pretty young. That is to your advantage, since it gives you a lot more time to work these things out and the ability to talk about how maturing and developing as a person have allowed you to overcome your difficulties. An expulsion when you are in undergrad is different than if the same thing happened further along in your academic career. People will cut you a little more slack.

Cut yourself enough slack. Make sure that you really are ready to get back to serious study and don't be afraid to take more time if you need it. Taking time to take care of yourself isn't failure or giving up... it is the preparation you need to succeed. Building a strong support system for yourself is part of the "anything" that you need to do in order to achieve your dreams. Get the psychological support that you need to really heal. With the oversight of a counselor, consider volunteering with groups where you can help other people who might have been through similar traumas... I know that some might argue that seeing other people go through things that you have faced can be triggering, but as you discovered, every day life is also triggering. I have always found that helping other people helps me more than anything else I could do, and I see it as an opportunity to desensitize myself to triggers so that I don't feel inclined to retreat from real life in order to avoid them.