I was wondering what your goal was in your effort to go back for more education?

I noticed you have an interest in Neuroscience and am wondering if you might find it interesting to find something in that field of study and research. I happen to have a lot of interest as well as respect for the individuals who study the brain as my daughter happens to have dyslexia and because that challenge was being studied I was able to have her tested and from that was able to learn her weak areas so I could help her learn according to how she learns "best".

One of the things I was told was how my daughter if given 10 things to remember was only able to remember about 3 or 4 things out of the 10. That explained a lot to me because I have to admit I would give her a list of things to do and sure enough she never did everything on the list and just as they had explained, she would insist I only actually told her what she could remember. This presented me with a challenge in that in helping her learn according to the way she "can" learn I had to break things down while helping her study and learn for school. The other thing was her challenge with reading. I have to say I was actually surprised by that because my daughter was able to say the entire alphabet at age one and she most certainly was very vocal. Also, when I read her her favorite stories, she would see each page and remember each page word for word. The researchers did tell me that my daughter did have a high IQ, she was very smart and capable, it's just that she happens to "learn" differently.

I think the term "depression" is very broad. I think there are different kinds of depression, or perhaps reasons for depression. I think that it's quite possible that a person can be quite intelligent and may need to be doing something that can stimulate their mind in a way that doesn't overwhelm it with too much "clutter". I have noticed this is something that can most definitely contribute to my daughter's periods of feeling "depressed" or anxious, it's the clutter that can cause her to struggle, and if she is doing something that compliments her personal way of mental functioning and cognitive ability, she is much happier and content.

If you are a person that can't focus on the few holes in the leaking dike and ignore all the holes that need to be filled, then you are most likely an individual who will experience anxiety because you happen to get overwhelmed with the clutter that presents in that atmosphere.

What I helped my daughter slowly learn is "breaking the clutter down". To my surprise my daughter has actually learned to function very well with using this kind of breakdown method to "learning and functioning". My daughter likes to ride and compete with horses. She likes to compete with her horses both on the flat but also in jumping competitions. In jumping competitions the rider has to memorize each course sequence they are expected to jump. Often I would watch my daughter memorize a course of eight fences, and I remembered how I was told by the specialists that my daughter would only be able to remember 3 or 4 things out of 10. I had noticed that she NEVER forgets a course even when the course is changed so I asked her how she can remember all those jumps in order. My daughter replied, "oh, it's easy mom, I do it this way, 1,2,3 and 4,5,6, and 7,8, and off. She found a way to remove the "clutter" in her mind where she did not experience anxiety about remembering each course.

So with that in mind, the reason I had asked you if you had a plan/goal in what you want to go back to school for, is to see if you have an idea of what you can learn to do where you can engage in doing something that best suits your mind. This can be helpful in reducing the kind of "clutter" that might contribute to your "anxiety and depression" challenges.[/QUOTE]

So the plan in terms of the intent behind further education starts with the flexible employability that nursing offers, but then expands to the intertwining of medical research and application (I may eventually go for a Master's or PhD) utilized towards the end of advocacy for mental health. I believe the kinds of strategies you are talking about fall under the category of metacognition, and I think that this may be key in addressing some of my academic concerns. I'm certainly left with the impression, that in my own experience, though my depression may maintain a relationship with my focus, attention, and memory, I can still struggle with these areas even when I'm not amidst an acute depressive episodes (though acute depressive episodes exacerbate things). There may be a few considerations here. One, could be that these cognitive issues could be separate from the depression, and require further dissection to determine their cause. Alternatively, being depressed may not just effect cognition during acute episodes, but may have downstream consequences on learning and practicing skills that help to maximize attention, focus, and memory. Currently, meditation is a tactic I'm using to help hone focused attention (as opposed to distributed attention). I'm also trying to make use of goal boards as reminders of purpose. I'm also trying to make greater use of mnemonic acronyms.