Author Archives: mbf5138

My Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in College

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Throughout my life, I have always been known to be the friend that felt things especially harder than others. I would cry during movies, I would be upset by people’s cruel words, and I would stay in bed for days after a death of a loved one. These things seemed quite normal to me, because that is just how some people are, but when my emotions started affecting the way I felt about life itself, that is when I realized there was something up. I took psychology in high school and learned all about anxiety and stress and depression, but I never thought that I would fall in any of those categories.

As I entered my freshman year at college, I began to realize what people meant when they said that college was nothing like high school. Yeah, the friendships were great, and the social life even better, but there’s a dark part of school that no one ever really warns you about. As a science major, I was taking 2 chemistry classes at once, a bio class, and lab, as well as all of my other classes such as English, science seminar, freshman seminar, and a math course. Studying for these classes all at once took a lot out of me, and when I would get my grades back I was not pleased. I was far from, I was stressing out that I was not sleeping, and that I was not getting good enough grades. I was working hard and I did not have anything to show for it. Many of my friends were going through the same type of struggles that I was and it was impacting us socially and mentally.

I would not leave my room for days at a time unless to go to class, I would sit in my bed alone and just try to understand why my grades were so horrible compared to high school. I have never felt stupid before until I came to college and realized I wasn’t as smart as I thought I was. I was physically depressed and the anxiety of taking another test was taking it’s toll on me. Finally after 4 panic attacks, essential therapy sessions with my friends, multiple phone calls to my parents in tears, and necessary visits to my adviser I finally got myself together and found ways to not get so stressed or depressed. After first semester ended and I went home for 2 months for break, when I came back to school I felt like a brand new person. Every once in a while I will still get in a funk, but I know that I can/need to pull myself out of it to survive in this school. Luckily our school has a great place to go and get help for these types of situations or just go to talk to someone. Just because you are depressed and anxious, does not mean you’re crazy, it means you need help to get better.

Mirror Neurons

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During class, we talked about a specific type of Neuron called Mirror Neurons. These Neurons are different from the others because it is as active when we perform a task, as it is when we watch someone else perform tasks. Because of this, when we watch something happen it could feel as if it is happening to you. This is very interesting because it could make people see things from another’s perspective and feel for them. That is where the concept of empathy arises from. If we see something bad happen to someone, we feel as if it is happening to us. That is why when someone is crying, some people might cry too when they watch them cry.

I find this concept very interesting and I never really realize how much I feel for other people until after that class, when I started noticing it. As I was walking to class yesterday, I was walking past the visual arts building on Curtin Road. While I was walking I couldn’t help but notice the kid riding a long on a mini skateboard. I had never seen a board that small so I watched him roll down the road avoiding cars. He then attempted to jump the curb and get onto the skateboard, but unfortunately he failed miserably. Instead of sticking the landing, he was flung onto the sidewalk. As I watched this all happen, not only did I feel fear watching him, I felt empathy. My arm started to tingle and I saw him hold his arm tight, in pain. I winced at his fall and hoped he was ok. This is just one quick example of how mirror neurons and their function came to my attention during normal every day life. I hope to learn more about mirror neurons in the future.

Infantile Amnesia

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By: Michelle Fox

Has anyone ever really tried to think back to their first memory? How far back could you go, age 5? Maybe 4 if you try really hard to remember? Obviously you were alive during the first 4 years of your life, but why is it basically impossible for you to recall it? It isn’t because you weren’t conscious for it, although you might have been napping for most of it because you were a baby. Our brains endure something called ‘Infantile Amnesia’ which is where the parts of our brain that are responsible for memory (the Limbic System) are not fully developed. Until about the age of 4, the brain does not stop developing the Limbic system which has the Hippocampus and the Amygdala making memories developed during that time seem as if they did not happen. Children can remember those times, but as we age, we begin to not be able to recall those times.

The earliest Memory I can think of was from when I was 4 years old. I was in the backseat of my father’s car, and we were driving to my Grandparents’ house in Wayne NJ, for Christmas Eve. On the way we stopped at Starbucks to get coffee. I had just seen the movie Austin Powers The Spy Who Shagged Me. My mother offered me a sip of her coffee, and after seeing the movie I figured it would be funny to quote one of my favorite lines from the movie. I took a sip of my mother’s coffee and said in my 4 year old voice “this coffee, tastes like shit!” My father nearly spit the coffee in his mouth out all over the windshield. I thought it was so funny, until I saw the anger in my father’s eyes. My parents began yelling at each other and back at me and back at each other and my brother and I just sat there staring at them. Finally my parents came to the conclusion that it was their own fault for my colorful language because they allowed me to watch the movie with such profanity in it. They told me to never say that word again and we continued to my grandmother’s home. It was quite the experience and I will never forget it.

 

An MRI Saved My Life, twice.

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By: Michelle Fox

Sitting in class and learning about the MRI and what it can do and how helpful it has been for medicine and psychology really brought back some intense memories.

An MRI, Magnetic Resonance Imaging machine, by definition is a technique where images are taken of the body and used to detect internal problems, that can be over looked by the naked eye or by other machines. The machine uses magnetic forces and radio waves to create visible images, that are used throughout the world by doctors and radiologists.

What is different about an MRI than other imaging techniques used by doctors, is that MRI’s can see soft tissue rather than just hard tissue such as bone for X-Rays, or shadows of organs for sonograms. Also, MRI’s can show detect brain action and patterns. It shows oxygen in the Brain and the activity going on in the brain. Typically on medical imaging machines you wouldn’t be able to see such things, but with the very advanced technology of an MRI you can.

Now all of these things sound wonderful and very informative and helpful, but to a 10 year old it was all very intimidating and scary. Now you are probably wondering why a 10 year old needed an MRI. For 2 weeks, I had been complaining to my mother about the severe stomach pains I was getting. The school nurse said it was gas, the blood cell tests came out normal, and my sonograms came out negative for anything. My doctors were dumbfounded. No one could figure out what was wrong with me, so the next step was an MRI.

As I sat in the waiting room and at the radiologist’s office, I could hear how loud it was through the big thick wooden doors. Walking in, and following the instructions I laid down in the tunnel with big headphones on. The doctor asked me what music I wanted to hear, I told him backstreet boys– hey, I was ten. But what I heard was not ‘I want it that way’, or ‘Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely’, instead it was a serious of loud bangs and horrible sounds that continued on for what felt like an eternity. After getting the test done, the doctors looked at my results and informed my mother to rush me to the E.R. and that they would be there ready and waiting to prep me for surgery. They did not even tell me what was wrong with me.

After 15 hours of intense surgery, I woke up to the doctors informing me that they had just performed an emergency appendectomy on me. I no longer had an appendix. If I hadn’t gotten that first MRI I would never have known my appendix was leaking.

4 years later, after my appendix surgery, I was back in an MRI. I was having severe stomach pains–yet again. After getting my second MRI done, we discovered I had two problems now, I had adhesions from my former surgery tearing inside my abdomen causing slight internal bleeding. Also we discovered I had poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. After going through yet another surgery, all my problems were solved.

MRI’s are so much more advanced and helpful when it comes to things such as these when compared to other imaging techniques. Thanks to MRI, I am still here today.