A few years into his studies, Mr. Morales, a chronic procrastinator, said he began to miss project deadlines. He regarded the work he did complete as uninspired dross. He lost interest in school, a fog enveloped his brain and he became mired in ennui. Yet he did not question his radical shift in behavior, accepting his muted emotions as elements of a journey he was resigned to let play out.

“It isn’t something that just flips over time,” he said of his mental illness. “Minor things slowly become major things.”

That included the perception of his college campus as a place of danger.

“I didn’t feel I was safe in that environment,” Mr. Morales said. “People started looking at me a certain way. I felt people weren’t as open to me anymore.”

In 2012, just 12 credits shy of earning his bachelor’s degree, Mr. Morales dropped out of college.

He spent the next two years in Amherst volunteering at a local public radio station and working as a cashier at a CVS store. In 2014, he returned to New York City, moving into his mother’s apartment on the Lower East Side.