[amikaligula]

As someone who is in the middle of their college career and in the midst of experiencing psychological problems, I would really caution against going on to school, until you can at least downgrade your problems to “manageable”. Because it gets really really hard sometimes. And the first year is its own special kind of tough. Because even if the classes aren’t tough (I find that varies semester to semester, anyway) the first year of college will be stressful.

And seriously, taking a year off to get better isn’t losing momentum. Hopefully (and I do hope this), you will come out of that year better off psychologically and with better coping mechanisms for stress than you would if you went off to school before you had your problems manageable.

“Losing” a year really isn’t a big deal at all, lots of people take more than four years to graduate these days. And I put “losing” in quotes because it’s more like an assurance that when you do enroll in a college, you will get more out of it than if you hadn’t taken the year to get better.

EDIT: Also, I might add, (and to reiterate the point of my post) not being productive in college is the best way to totally trash your gpa, which messes with your transcripts if you ever need to transfer... and besides, I would imagine that labeling yourself as a "dropout" if things don't work out would not improve one's condition. First year is hard to manage and improving your mental disposition should be your first priority in assuring you academic success.