Friday Night Lights

My morning began as usual except for one thing; I was extremely tired although I fell asleep an hour earlier than usual. I find that weird and interesting because I had to force myself out of bed at 8:43 (yes, I actually remember the exact time because I looked at my phone to see what time it was before I pulled myself together and got up). The first thing I did was peak out the window to observe the weather. I was really hoping for it to be sunny and warm and I figured it will probably be warm. Therefore, I threw on the summer clothes I was yearning to wear and met up with "the group" for breakfast.

After breakfast, we scattered to Smitty B. What I find interesting is that we always get there early but the room is always packed. I do not remember the class starting at 9:45. Last time I checked, it started at 10 but even so, we still get there by 9:50. We went to grab out seats and I started copying down the notes on the chalkboard. Our first lecture was about depression. We learned that there are two different types of depression episodes, major depressive episode and manic depression episode.

The symptoms of Major Depressive Episode are as following :
- Depressed mood
- diminished interest and pleasure in usual activities (anhedonia)
- Significant weight loss (more common), weight gain (less common) or change in appetite
- insomnia or hypersomnia
- agitation (fidgeting) or slowed down
- feel tired & lack of energy
- feel worthless or too guilty
- poor concentration
- thoughts of death/suicide

The symptoms of Manic Episode are as following :
- fantastic mood (or can also be irritable)
- inflated self-esteem (grandiosity)
- pressure to keep talking
- flight of ideals/ racing thoughts
- attention is all over the place
- doing many things at once
- excessive involvement in pleasurable activities (buying, seducing, starting crazy business)

I found out that depression tends to run in the family and coincidentally, the percentage of the types of people that are more likely to be diagnosed with depression is strictly similar to those of schizophrenia.

I discovered the difference between being a psychologist and a psychiatrist. In the older days, psychiatrist use to help deal with patients but now, they are in charge of the medication and diagnosis. Psychologists try to understand the patient's disorder and help rehabilitate them. Either way, both career fields are dealing with trying to help the mentally disabled.

I want to note something that Dr.J mentioned about depression. He said something I found really strange. He told us that he tends to worry about the Brown students that feel inclined to get straight A's and now I understand why. While going through my notes, the reasoning to his statement emerged from the strokes on my notebook. The students that are getting straight A's are the ones who are pressured to achieve. They rely so much on the stress to attain their goals that their world starts revolving around education and becoming "perfect." Then when they realize that they can never be perfect, they start feeling depressed and feel like they need to fail at something to know that they had hit rock bottom and cannot go any lower. This hypothesis totally changed my perspective on education and striving for the top. Of course it would be awesome to be on top but I want to feel free too. I do not want to spend my whole life trying to be "perfect" and please other people. Now, whenever I get a lower score on my tests that I expected, I will not feel like a complete failure. It is somewhat eccentric of me to say it but knowing that always trying to reach "perfection" and becoming an over achiever can be a bad thing because it can lead to depression.

Now, I will go to bed and wake up early for the trip to Boston. Rest assure that I will be taking numerous pictures to post up on the blog tomorrow. Until then, anticipate the coming of Meuy's photography.