Alice in Wonderland Syndrome

In my neuropsych class I will need to present a unique neuropsychological disorder not covered in class at the end the semester.

Unlike many people I love giving presentations... this might be due to the fact that I love to talk and be the center of attention, but I digress. I think it's really centered around that fact that I love to share new and revealing knowledge with others.

For example Alice in Wonderland Syndrome. I had never heard of this before and my proff offered it as an example for a creative presentation project. So I over course being the "investigative bulldog" I am (Thanks Mary, haha) I looked into it.

Alice and Wonderland Syndrome is a perception disorder often onset by severe migraines, drugs, and sometimes high fever. It's not a hallucinogenic problem, it deals with perception of size. Those suffering will experience themselves being significantly larger or smaller then there surrounding. For example looking at a skyscraper and feeling as though you are larger then it, or small enough to fit in a pocket.

The name is then an amusing classification of a serious perception disorder akin to Alice's shifting size in the eating of "Wonderland Food".

I am hoping to find a neuropsych topic just as unique and interesting this semester, so I imagine I will be traveling down some rabbit holes of my own. haha sorry for the pun, I couldn't help it.

Week One: I will survive... hey hey!

It's official! I am a grad student. -sigh- Thank goodness!

After the completion of my first week I have to say I am so thankful the pall of the unknown is broken. Of course none of my fears came true but the truth was beyond my happiest expectations.

This week began with orientation on Monday, where I met my "Cohort". If you aren't in on the social science lingo a cohort is simply a group of people who share a specific time period and experiences. My cohort totals twelve grad students and since we take 90% of the same courses I'm sure we're going to grow quite close. This week alone I have already begun to befriend many of them.

This semester I will be taking 5 classes: Adult Neuropsychology, Advanced Psychopathology, Foundations of Psychotherapy, Diversity and Therapy, and Research Topics. This including a TA job, and my preexisting job at Spokane Psych and Neuro, is quite a handful. But I am confident that I can make time for all those things as long as I keep on top of everything.

I am really looking forward to getting to know everyone in my program better and will try and provide updates here on my blog once a week if possible. I'll make sure to include interesting things that I learn in my classes and updates about life in general.

Pre-Graduate School Thoughts

I begin graduate school on Monday.

I, Hayden Sanders, begin the 17th year of my education at Eastern Washington University as a 1st year graduate student in clinical psychology on Monday. I have thus spent if one includes preschool years around 80% of my life in school. This seems sort of a strange thing, as I know upon the end of my life it will only count for around 20% of it.

So as I enter what might be the terminus of my formal education I try and keep perspective.

When I was seven years old, being told I could not attend a birthday party because of saucily back talking to my parents, no surprise, it was the end of the world. Of course because at that time that was my entire world.

I try then, to remind myself that while now my world is school, concerns over finances, working two jobs, and current personal problems whatever they may be are fleeting.

This task of eliminating irrational stress is of course far more easily said than done. And I try to remind myself by saying such things "I really am very young". Many people my own age might say such things as "Carpe Diem!" But I must say I am an old soul, and to "Seize the Day!" is a young thought. When I will most likely live at least into my eighties and possibly nineties it seems silly not to see things in the scheme of my whole life and not just the now.

We shall see how this serves me in the two years to come. For I, like most, am nervous about the unknown. It is so easy to be captivated by excitement and stress of the now.