Mental Health Education and Support

I don’t know. I guess it all happened back in high school when a friend of mine called out in financial services class how much he liked biology in my education. After that remark, I found myself in for trouble as I was your star Sylvester Stallone look-alike, and simply not what you would consider the “financial services” or “mental health” type. At seventeen I got into bodybuilding and I had the swagger of an Italian children cast out of the “mental health.” Who would have thought I would ever become a mental health officer? But become one, I would.

Even though I had the type-cast build and looked, my brain was different-I mean wired differently in society. At fifteen I started reading Isaac Asimov, and his two books for reference, the “Human Body” and the “Human Brain,” both had a significant impact on me for mental health. These books taught me a love for science and soon after that I discovered that I just loved learning: the more curious and perplexing, the better. Mysterious things like brain soon started getting my attention. I felt totally inadequate to take on such a daunting challenge as to become learned in a field like mental health profession. But this I would do.

As I entered freshman year in college

I decided to enroll in a Financial Services or a Mental Health course. Why? I have no clue. It was as though a magnetic field was drawing me into the maelstrom that was swirling about me. Before too long, however, I was very sorry that I got sucked into this whirlpool. The course was driving me nuts, and I was totally lost. Not willing to damage my average with anything less than an A, I sought help. I went to everyone and anybody I could who could demystify this arcane subject matter. I sought out study mates and petitioned their efforts to secure any help they could muster for the battle ahead. The battle was tough but ultimately would be won. I would get the A.

After this Mental Health experience, you might think that I would never subject myself to this suffering again in society. Not quite. What did I do next? Yes, I enrolled in the next commerce course up – Economic. By the time we got to derivatives, I was in Gondwana Land; that is the land of the lost. In fact, I’m sure they named that series of books you to know, the famous ones with the yellow and black covers —-after me.

The subject matters started to terrify me

My second lecture test forced me into territory that was unfamiliar to me. My average was now hovering at around the low “C” level. I was humiliated, upset, and extremely frustrated. What could I do?

If I pulled another bad grade on the third lecture test, I would be facing a D grade or even worse, an F. This would ruin my straight-A average and irreparably wreck my self-esteem and confidence. How did I ever get involved with this evil subject? was the internal dialogue coursing through my head, day in and day out.

Relative Extrema

This is an application of the calculus in which you find the maximum and minimum values of certain functions. A very interesting area; relative extrema have many practical applications. Such as finding the maximum height of a trajectory launched according to a certain law. You would also use this topic to help determine the maximum profits for business, let us say, in which the revenue and cost functions were given according to certain laws.

As we plunged into these new unknown waters, something stirred in me that gave me a little pluck. I decided that, since I was half-dead already, I might as well be brazen and wade out a little farther to see if I could find anything useful in these so-called untested waters. One night, I decided to take the textbook and attempt the homework problems on relative extremely. Just the thought of doing this aroused such anxiety that I had to psych myself up to take the book and open it. But open it I did… and the rest, as they say, is history.

I did the first problem well in time. With reluctance, I opened to the back of the text to check the answer for reference purpose. Having had an abundance of experience with checking the answer and seeing nothing that resembled mine, I was quite shocked to see that this time the book answer agreed. I was shocked, and I must say, elated all at the same time. My pluck started to wax. I had the nerve to try the next problem. After some minutes of intricate calculations-derivative taking, setting equations to zero, and solving what do you know?