We have briefly touched on the effects of anxiety on learning and testing in both Diversity and Literacy, and Reading and Writing groups. Some of you have indicated an interest in discussing this issue further, along with other socio-emotional factors affecting the extent to which many of our adult learners are able to function in productive environments.
The presentation below will certainly touch you in many ways. I hope that you will benefit from it and be led to comment further on the issues raised by Solomon's talk.
"In a talk equal parts eloquent and devastating, writer Andrew Solomon takes you to the darkest corners of his mind during the years he battled depression. That led him to an eye-opening journey across the world to interview others with depression — only to discover that, to his surprise, the more he talked, the more people wanted to tell their own stories."
http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_solomon_depression_the_secret_we_share?language=en#t-1439 - "Depression, a secret we share:" a TED video by Andrew Solomon, writer on politics, culture and psychology
"The opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality, and it was vitality that seemed to seep away from me in that moment..."
"I was struck by the fact that depression is broadly perceived to be a modern, Western, middle-class thing, and I went to look at how it operated in a variety of other contexts, and one of the things I was most interested in was depression among the indigent. And so I went out to try to look at what was being done for poor people with depression. And what I discovered is that poor people are mostly not being treated for depression."
Let's talk more about this issue. You are invited to contribute your thoughts. Thanks. Leecy