Joining at Week 10 Thoughts

Although I joined the first week of in person PPU sessions, due to a medical procedure and recovery I was absent until week 10. As I already have some mental health issues, returning to class triggered my anxiety. I was anxious about several things such as not knowing where to sit, the possibility of not getting on with my teammates and the amount of work I have missed. Due to this I have had many discussions of anxiety reducing methods with my private counsellor. One option would be to go a little bit early and speak to the tutors. Another was to scale my anxiety from 1 to 10, with 1 being no anxiety and being the worst anxiety I have ever had. I used this method and scaled my anxiety as a 4.5 on days surrounding the session and at least a 6 on the Tuesday when the session happens.

This week I took another approach to manage my anxiety for the return to class. I had emailed Monica previously and she got me in touch with student services, who offer in person and virtual drop in session. Today (29/11/22) I attempted to go to a drop in session but I was worried about being late and not getting enough time to talk since I was already running late to uni. Instead my boyfriend walked me and accompanied me to uni so I could have a conversation with Peter and Monica before class. By meeting the tutors again in person I felt a sense of personalised and class specific reassurance.

We spoke about what to include in the essay and how I could angle it to explain my experience with anxiety and how I have moulded the brief to suit my mental health. As well as this they suggested that if no one in the group turns up I could possibly join another group. I also found it reassuring that they said not to worry about the past work and to just focus on what can happen next and even submitting something is a success.

PROFESSIONAL PRACTICES

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