In Which I Make a Transition
After spending a little more time than I thought, I found a Borders coupon for 33% off one item. I had kind of been saving it for something special. With recent pay day, school money coming in, and in general being less broke due to everything paying all at once, I decided that today was the day. At $120 - 33% I was able to purchase a long awaited book.
I am now the proud owner of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, version IV, text revised, commonly known as the DSM-IV-TR.
Now you're all like "why should that matter", but it means something very important. This book marks me as a mental health practitioner, as one who can read symptoms, diagnose, code, and bill your medical insurer. How well I learn the contents of this book will make or break my career. It's required reading in this semester's Advanced Therapy class, which looks like it is gearing up to try and kick my ass. Thank the Gods my other classes (human development and human sexual development--yay!) are really straightforward and don't require major reading or research papers.
As I went to purchase this 500+ page tome, I had to pause and congratulate myself for making it this far, and investing my hard earned cash into this book. While just purchasing the book doesn't guarantee that I'll learn everything, it means it is at my disposal, and that through preparation in my classes, I am now ready to read it.
Please be advised that I might totally be trying to diagnose you--I need the practice, so please don't take it personally. I might look up your diagnostic code or your mental health symptoms and try to find one for you. I've heard that after people read this book, they see symptoms of disease everywhere. I'm trying hard not to do that.
Because all my classes are online, I don't have any peers to compete against and emulate. I don't have much more than computer ones and zeroes with which to measure my progress. Yet it seems to me that this book somehow marks a transition, a commitment to the field and to my studies. And now that I'm seeking a site to do my practicum and internship, it is starting to be real.
And when I carry the book around, I feel like the main character in "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown", where he's dragging War and Peace around everywhere and saying "I'm only on page 5 of my book". It's seriously heavy, both metaphorically and physically.
I am now the proud owner of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, version IV, text revised, commonly known as the DSM-IV-TR.
Now you're all like "why should that matter", but it means something very important. This book marks me as a mental health practitioner, as one who can read symptoms, diagnose, code, and bill your medical insurer. How well I learn the contents of this book will make or break my career. It's required reading in this semester's Advanced Therapy class, which looks like it is gearing up to try and kick my ass. Thank the Gods my other classes (human development and human sexual development--yay!) are really straightforward and don't require major reading or research papers.
As I went to purchase this 500+ page tome, I had to pause and congratulate myself for making it this far, and investing my hard earned cash into this book. While just purchasing the book doesn't guarantee that I'll learn everything, it means it is at my disposal, and that through preparation in my classes, I am now ready to read it.
Please be advised that I might totally be trying to diagnose you--I need the practice, so please don't take it personally. I might look up your diagnostic code or your mental health symptoms and try to find one for you. I've heard that after people read this book, they see symptoms of disease everywhere. I'm trying hard not to do that.
Because all my classes are online, I don't have any peers to compete against and emulate. I don't have much more than computer ones and zeroes with which to measure my progress. Yet it seems to me that this book somehow marks a transition, a commitment to the field and to my studies. And now that I'm seeking a site to do my practicum and internship, it is starting to be real.
And when I carry the book around, I feel like the main character in "Happy New Year, Charlie Brown", where he's dragging War and Peace around everywhere and saying "I'm only on page 5 of my book". It's seriously heavy, both metaphorically and physically.