{ midterms }

Three weeks down, three to go! My Co-Occurring Disorders class has been anything but boring as of yet. Just finished studying for the midterm and am ready to start work on a case study paper (the only other ‘project’ we have in the class before the final on July 22).

Some highlights/lowlights from the past few weeks:

·         Finding out I’m not an alcoholic. My class took the MAST (Michigan Alcohol Screen Test), and I scored a whopping zero, putting me clearly in the safe zone. The guy next to me got a 22. Anything above a 6 means “signs of abuse.”
·         Finding out I’m also not a fan of role playing. However, it’s my professor’s favorite thing to have us do. Sadly. One of us plays the client (addict) and the other is the counselor. I’ve now had the joy of trying out both roles. Oddly enough, I waaaaaay preferred channeling my ‘inner addict’ and playing the client. The 65-year-old retired lawyer that ‘counseled’ me said even he had a hard time getting through. HA!
·         Finding out that relapse is part of recovery. I still don’t totally understand this statement, and to be honest, I really don’t like it. But I keep hearing it emphasized in class and in some of the readings. And half-way through out little 6-week ‘semester’ already the class numbers dropped from 35 to 25, right before the midterm…just like my professor predicted. L
·         Mouse Party. I know addiction is not funny, cute or amusing…but this website and these animated mice depicting the main classes of drug types definitely are. We spent maybe a little bit too much time on this in class.