Spin-Off: Mentally Unstable People with Advanced Degrees

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by AGDee

I wouldn't be surprised if the book is by Temple Grandin, but I'll let carnation answer. When I was an OT, I went to several Sensory Integration training courses where she spoke and I know she's done a lot of public awareness stuff.

I had the same thought -- she does have a new book out. Carnation??

[agzg]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

But just think - if you get a really big engagement ring, then you win at life!

OMG KSUViolet's gonna have a heart attack when she reads this thread.

It wasn't me this time!

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

Graduate schools don't ask questions about mental stability.

When I was applying for my Master's, one application had a full page asking about my mental health history (e.g., Where you ever under a mental health professional's care? For what? Where you taking medications?) Trust me, there are people out there asking, whether it's ethical/legal or not.

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I've worked with lots of psychologists, and I always said that people go into that field for one of two reasons: A sincere desire to help others or to figure out what's wrong with themselves.

There's always D. All of the Above.

[carnation]

I'll go to the library tonight and see if there's a record of what I've checked out--this was maybe 3 months ago. That book was great and it helped me understand the many students I have who have Asperger's.

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by christiangirl

When I was applying for my Master's, one application had a full page asking about my mental health history (e.g., Where you ever under a mental health professional's care? For what? Where you taking medications?) Trust me, there are people out there asking, whether it's ethical/legal or not.

That's relatively rare. Perhaps that is more common with certain psychology and medical progams (e.g. a degree specialization in mental health may receive questions about the applicants mental health and overall medical history).

I'd be interested to know more about the context in terms of the particular graduate program, the year that you applied, and the detailed questions asked. One issue with those types of questions is in what the institution will do with the information.

[KSUViolet06]

Originally Posted by SWTXBelle

But just think - if you get a really big engagement ring, then you win at life!

Originally Posted by alphagamzetagam

OMG KSUViolet's gonna have a heart attack when she reads this thread.

It wasn't me this time!

LOL.

[Kappamd]

Originally Posted by epchick

When I was a sophomore in college, the professor I had for Calculus 2 was CA-RAZY! He taught at my high school & had left a year before I took HS Calculus. He always wanted us to write "in complete sentences." How you do that with math, I have no idea---and he didn't ever tell us.

He was always talking about clouds. When he would get frustrated with us, he's stare out the window mumbling to himself, then he'd walk to the chalkboard and put his head on it (while still mumbling). He would do this all the time!

He refused to actually teach us the material because he told us that we should already know the information. One test we took, was a take-home test and he allowed us to work in groups. But when we got the test back, everyone in my group had a different grade (although our tests looked identical), and then bitched at everyone for working together.

I love math, i'm good at math, and I passed with a 70. I was one of the lucky ones.

My boyfriend is a math major, and teaches calc as a grad assistant. He thought this was funny, and said it described most of the profs he's ever had, lol.

[carnation]

Looking back at my library record, I think it was called Pretending to Be Normal. The author not only has Asperger's but has twin daughters, one of whom has it too.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I had the same thought -- she does have a new book out. Carnation??

I learned more from her 2 hour talk during a Sensory Integration training than I learned during my whole college career. She really helped me understand just what an autistic child experiences. She made quite an impression on me.

[MysticCat]

Originally Posted by carnation

Looking back at my library record, I think it was called Pretending to Be Normal. The author not only has Asperger's but has twin daughters, one of whom has it too.

Was this it? Pretending to Be Normal: Living With Asperger's Syndrome , by Liane Holliday Willey


It's on my list now.

[epchick]

Originally Posted by Kappamd

My boyfriend is a math major, and teaches calc as a grad assistant. He thought this was funny, and said it described most of the profs he's ever had, lol.

That's scary! I was thinking of becoming a math teacher, but not if i'm gonna end up like that! lol.

[christiangirl]

Originally Posted by DrPhil

I'd be interested to know more about the context in terms of the particular graduate program, the year that you applied, and the detailed questions asked. One issue with those types of questions is in what the institution will do with the information.

I can PM that to you if you like. I just looked at the app again and they've scaled it back a LOT. There's only two questions that seem out of the ordinary now:

Have you ever received counseling or been under the care of a psychiatrist? (If yes, please provide details on a separate sheet.)

Do you have a substance abuse problem that will impair your abilities as a graduate student or mental health practitioner? (If yes, please explain on a separate sheet, indicating the nature and extent of the problem and to what degree your participation in graduate school or professional practice may be affected. If recovering, please provide dates of continuous recovery.)

[LightBulb]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Ahhh PruneTacos.

I am honestly surprised that more people didn't seem to be disturbed by his story.

Whoa! I remembered Prunetacos because of the weird screename, and I remember the anthrax case, but I didn't know that was him. (I guess I wasn't too active when the story broke.)

Scary!

[AGDee]

When I was working on my Masters in Clinical Psychology, we were strongly encouraged to attend counseling ourselves to 1) better understand our own motivations for going into Psychology and 2) be able to understand and work through transference issues with patients (ie. the patient that reminds you of your abusive ex-husband, etc). That was from '91-'93 (I didn't finish because I got pregnant with my daughter and I'm not superhuman like some people.. I was working full time, going to grad school part time-evenings and couldn't do that and deal with first time motherhood too). The majority of my co-workers throughout my career were quite stable and it was THE MOST supportive work environment I ever had. We worked so strongly as a team in every single work place and those work relationships were stronger than any I've experienced since because of it. When you work on psych units in hospitals, you have to have total trust in your co-workers, know that they are alert and have your back, and communicate constantly, not only about the status of patients, but about your personal status because your job is very dependent on your own personal emotional state being steady. After an extreme situation on a unit was resolved, the team would get together to make sure all the staff were ok, not just physically, but emotionally and then to process how it was handled, if anything could have been done differently, if there were signs ahead of time that something was awry, etc. When I was working at one adolescent psych hospital, the communication was not as good. We took a group of patients to the circus for an out trip (used to test how they were going to interact with the real world environment before being discharged) and two of them escaped (we used the term eloped, but most people consider that running away to get married..lol). When we got back, one of the social workers told us that one of those girls had just been told that on discharge she was going to a locked residential unit instead of home. She never should have told this girl that right before an out trip. AND, after she did tell the girl, she should have alerted the team because that kind of news almost always makes a kid an elopement risk. We would not have taken that girl with us. The two girls ended up being found and hauled back to the hospital, but those kinds of things shouldn't happen.

The only time I was ever injured was when a staff member decided it was better for her to take her break on time, leaving me alone with 12 girls in an off-unit activity room, than to wait until another staff member got there to relieve her. Two girls got into a physical fight within seconds of her leaving the room. Being the only staff member present, I had to physically get between them to protect them and one of their punches landed on my jaw and my jaw was dislocated. Thankfully, some staff walking by the room heard a commotion and came in to see if everything was ok and rescued me from that situation while I was physically holding one girl back and moving her around the room to keep away from the other one, who was still trying to attack her.

Both of those incidents were at the same hospital and involved the same patient! I left that hospital shortly after that because I didn't trust the STAFF there.

[ThetaDancer]

Bumping because everything about the Amy Bishop shooting incident has reminded me of this thread. The more I read/watch about her, the more she seems to fit the profile of someone who is highly educated but extremely mentally unstable and socially inept.