abnormal week 9 and 10

Well week nine was spring break and that was quite nice and good to take a bit of a break, be away from school and choosing to think about it very little. Well Happy to return though week 10 started out good. Of course larry had interesting things to talk about from his vacation in Hawaii, he does seem to really involve himself in the world and capture some amazing things. He began to talk about the fact that students are bored and what can we do about this? I sort of began to agree with him as well, but viewing boredom as the vessel for behavior not as the motive. My thought was that cultural/ societal expectations play into this heavily because we are all born and immediatley told how to behave if we want to be respected by the ones around us, then we must comply with them, in the beginning, because that is survival. But when we get older it seems that people still are completely invested in this following expectations of family or peers or better yet money. So people remove themselves of their desires and seek what is pointed to as being important, often removing their own importance. So in class they are not there because they want to be, a select few are, but because they are told this is the means to hapiness and this what they must do. I'd say that's partly true for me but also I enjoy learning immensely. I connect further with myself by taking classes that inspire me to ask questions of why and why not. I have enjoyed looking for the creation of things beyond people's beliefs and into the heart of foundation for those beliefs. I am generally a selfish person I do whats best for me rarely moving beyond that unless it somehow benefits me. What I enjoy most though is acting on my behaviors and feeling with love.
-nate

Abnormal week 8

Another fun week with larry. This week we talked about anxiety disorders and panic attack. Both of these I find particularly interesting because I have not ever chosen to experience either. Even the very idea of them seems very foreign to me because I place a lot of power in my power to think and deconstruct my feelings and I believe that anxiety disorders and panic attacks often come from ones inablity to trust themselves and their feelings. I know that I can organize and express my feelings mostly consciously and that I don't choose attacks or disorders to do this. It seems strange to me that panic attacks would suddenly happpen with no previous signs, because they seem so scripted, the symptoms are so standardized. I bring this up because I feel like one has to learn how to have a panic attack because they are such an elaborate process. Also another thing about a diagnosis is it gives the person permission to have the symptom it becomes an acceptable release. In the beginning it is questioned and maybe even medications are prescribed but the end result is that when they happen regularly they are dealt with and accepted as being "panic attacks", which are seemingly out of the persons control, rather than treated as unconscious emotion and anxieties expressing temselves. This is mostly the issue I take with any kind of diagnosis because they pigeon hole people into categories of feeling and their whole being begins to get structured around this disorder or attacks that they experience.

Abnormal week 7

well we had our exam this week and a discussion on monday. I am glad to have taken the first exam a good place to get started from. I am focusing up a little more in class and getting involved. I like to ask questions, I also like to joke with larry. I really enjoy our classroom environment. It is quite peaceful and friendly and we basically chat and listen, while larry acts like himself. I find it funny that larry finds our class to be very quite, and seemingly disinvolved. I don't know what to say about that but I think its funny. That'll do it for now, I'm on my way.
-nate

Abnormal week 6

What I found most interesting this week was a lot of our dicussions about smoking. We talked about ways to quit and how to quit. I found it very interesting that there was all these different methods, diagnosis, and treatments available some of which work better than others. I guess like anything we have created a bunch of solutions to a really simple problem. I certainly view the addictive powers of anything as serious, but I think the real issue lies in the desire's of the individual. For anyone to be succesful at anything I think it takes full allignment and 100% desire, if they do not have that then I think there stopping will not be effective. In retrospect though its also interesting to know that lottery type style treatment have been the most succesful for smokers quitting. This is where they are rewarded money for stopping. This style of quitting may prevoke people to quit, but I would be interested to know the lasting success rate, how many people quit for good. SO with that I take my desire and go about my day
-nate