UBC Mental Health Awareness Club

When you think about acquired brain injury cases, you might, like me, think of a person being hit in the head by a baseball bat, and is unable to remember anything since that day onward. While it is not an uncommon case (the amnesia, not the baseball bat), the cognitive difficulties are usually shot-lived. In cases where the person’s inability to form new memory (a.k.a. anterograde amnesia) is caused by physical trauma to the head, such as in a car accident, the person most likely will recover after a few weeks or months, depending on the severity of the incidence. Rarely but true, however, there are also people who never recover.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to not be able to form new memory? Personally, I can’t remember what I had for breakfast or what I did last night before bed, but overall, I have a sense of what I’ve been doing for the past bit (such as going to school, making friends, and remembering who these friends are), and what I might want to do in the future (such as getting a job, maintaining friendship). A person with profound anterograde amnesia, on the other hand, may not have all these information. They may remember everything up to a certain point, and despite continuing to make friends and do things, unable to form new memory. They may not even be able to retain any of these information at all, such as the case of Clive Wearing.

When he was 47 years old, Clive Wearing, an accomplished British musician, was diagnosed of Herpesviral encephalitis. The virus attacked his central nervous system, leaving him with profound retrograde and anterograde amnesia. His memory is about 7-30 seconds long, and he is unable to recall anything from the past as well. He is unable to recognize his own children or his own house. As far as Clive is concerned, he has been stuck in the darkness for years, alone, until the sudden awakening of consciousness. He also fell in and out of depression after his illness because of this belief. The only person he recognizes is his wife.

Watch a 7-minute-documentary of Clive and Deborah Wearing:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmzU47i2xgw&feature=related[/youtube]

I don’t know what your thoughts on this are, but to me, there is a strange sense of happiness in him. Although he feels alone from time to time (no pun intended), and is unable to plan for the future, the way he embraces the present with such a joy is remarkable.

Buddhist monks sometimes try to train themselves, through meditation, to “enjoy the moment”. It has also been shown to be an effective way to improve overall life satisfaction. As much as I love my memory (despite it’s occasional failure), it might worth it sometimes to forget about what has just happened a moment ago and enjoy everything anew.

A couple of days ago, I was at a volunteer training session, where we would go around and come up with one adjective that best describes ourselves at the moment. We do this at the beginning of every training session as a warm-up exercise. And while the vast majority of our adjectives fell between “tired” and “exhausted”, I realized – it’s “that” time of the year.

Yes, you guessed it, it’s midterm season. It’s the time of the year where Vancouver starts to get gloomy, where it starts raining, where everyone around you suddenly decides to fell ill at the same time, and where midterm exams strike back-to-back.

If you are currently a university student, chances are you are fairly familiar with the exam process. You know what to do during an exam and what to expect. But still, you are worried. What if you fail? What if you spend hours studying the wrong material? What if you jot down the wrong exam date or place?…

For the most part, it is normal to feel anxious before an exam. In fact, an optimal level of anxiety can motivate your study and improve your performance. But every so often, some of us can get so anxious our minds stop working. If your mind is not working, obviously, you are not going to do well on an exam; not to mention it’s also an unpleasant feeling to have to endure.

Fortunately, test anxiety is common enough for it to be studied quite extensively by psychologists and other researchers in the field of education. There are a ton of self-help techniques, both on the internet and elsewhere, that can help you deal with different levels of test anxiety. If it gets too intense, counseling is always another option. Just remember: you are not alone on this, and there are things you can do about it.

Here is an (over)simplified list of things you could do:

• Try to think positively about your exam, and try to stop any negative thoughts before they develop into full-blown panic attacks. Distract yourself when you notice irrational thinking.
• Develop a list of things to do that can calm you, such as taking deep breath, or doing yoga. Drink your normal amount of coffee before an exam if you are a regular coffee drinker.
• Be extra-prepared to ease your anxiety (that includes study well, getting things ready the night before exam, and arriving early)
• Stay healthy (it’s bad enough to take an exam with a test anxiety; it’s a disaster if you have to take it with a flu)

More self-help tips:

http://www.anxietybc.com/sites/default/files/Test_Anxiety_Booklet.pdf

http://www.how-to-study.com/study-skills/en/47.asp

UBC resources:

Counseling service http://www.students.ubc.ca/livewelllearnwell/counselling-services/

Healthy minds http://blogs.ubc.ca/healthyminds/