mental illness
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The problem with self-diagnosing yourself
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During my psychology course, my professor began the lesson with a cautionary tale of the phenomenon “medical school disease”, when students use the textbook to self-diagnose. Self-diagnosis is partially inevitable; we naturally resonate with that which reflects our personal experiences – but to what extent? We fall for confirmation bias, receiving search results based on…
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The Physical tolls of stress
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Stress is experienced by everyone on a variety of levels due to many different reasons. It is no secret that stress is uncomfortable and triggers many health issues. I argue that it is becoming increasingly worse for students to manage, and the physical tolls of stress are not fully realized by young adults. Ironically, our…
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Depression doesn’t look the same for everyone
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In my social circles I often find others who view depression with these three main points in mind: first, their uncleanliness; second, they’re always walking around moping; and third, they’re someone who is introverted. Of course, there are many more, but I find these to be the most popular assumptions, which is made even more clear when people act so surprised when they find out about my mental health. My favourite comment is, “but you look…
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Graduating with a degree you want
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Many students at one point or another have been told that their field of study is not going to get them jobs after graduation, almost making their undergraduate education worthless, but is this really the case? Having friends in programs ranging from science to drama, I have heard from all ends of the spectrum that…
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Living with OCD is nothing for you to pity
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“Hello, I’m Madeline McInnis, and before I start, I just want you to know that I have obsessive compulsive disorder so that you can judge me now instead of changing your opinion about me later.” True? Yeah. Unnecessary? Absolutely. Then why does the conversation suddenly have to change when we find out that someone does…
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Laurier launches programs in public safety
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Wilfrid Laurier University is officially offering their students new programs in public safety, including a master’s degree program and five graduate diploma programs. The programs are offered at Laurier’s Brantford campus by the faculty of human and social sciences. The programs aim to provide working professionals with the skills and education they need to further…
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The ABC’s of OCD: Addressing the misconceptions
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Obsessive compulsive disorder is often associated with organization and cleanliness. We often see fictional characters with cutesy, obsessive habits and their OCD can be magically cured when they fall in love. The idealized version of the mental illness is far from the reality. “When you hear that someone has OCD, it’s like, “oh they clean…
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Unsigned: Understanding less common mental illnesses
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There’s more to mental illness than the big guys: anxiety and depression. It seems to make a lot of sense. These are the mental illnesses that we see in the media and the more common illnesses in our university setting. Maybe that’s why real representations of other illnesses are so startling. Looking at OCD, the…
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#BellLetsTalk about how it’s okay to not be okay
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Today is Bell Let’s Talk day and I want to talk about something very important: you don’t always have to be positive and grateful. The mentality that we have to find the silver lining can be extremely harmful, especially to those of us with mental illnesses. More often than not, there are fluff articles explaining…
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The importance of having Zayn Malik, a public figure, speaking up about mental illness
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Very recently, Zayn Malik announced that he dealt with an eating disorder during his time with One Direction. This came very shortly after his acknowledgement of his anxiety from consistently being critiqued in the spotlight. I think this is an extremely important representation for our students. Admittedly, I don’t know a lot about eating disorders.…
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