[ronwheezyrox]

I'm 18, going to community college, and working part-time and I'm certain I have DSPS. I've spent the last few hours looking up everything about it that I could (as it seems many of you have done). From the information I've read, I believe I've had it as long as I can remember, the severity increasing as I got older. I've been to numerous doctors and counselors that all say that I need to just try a regular sleep schedule, but even if I wake up at a "normal" time, I'm still up past midnight, at least. In high school I learned to deal with relatively few hours of sleep. I got increasingly less active each year of high school and went through varying degrees of depression I've had to use numerous alarm clocks since my mom stopped waking me up for school because I can't wake up to just one. Since college my schedule starts a bit later, but still I struggle to get to class on time because now I recieve no help from my mom to get to school on time. I have to force myself out of bed after resetting my alarm at least 5 times, deciding I can wait to take a shower till I get home (my hair can barely make a day without needing to be washed again), not getting the breakfast I had thought about the night before, nor preparing the lunch I should bring to save money.
My dependancy on caffeine has shot up this year, but it definitely helps me function better when I need to be on everyone else's schedule. I also work in a cafe, so I'm surrounded by it. My work shifts are almost always at night, and if I didn't have school that would be fine. Right now I'm off school for the next month, only working so I can pretty much stick to my sleep schedule if my parents don't interfere.
I'm going to talk to my doctor about this as soon as I can, and my parents. I want to know if I'm right. The treatment plans seem to take too long and it's too easy to relapse, so I think I'm just going to have to live with being on a "normal" schedule until all I have is a job, because with school and a job there are only so many hours in everyone else's day. I'm just happy to know that someday in the future I'll be able to be active during the hours I function best and that it's not all in my head.