Who Let The Crazies In???

I entered my MSW program with the assumption/expectation that I was going to be surrounded by mature, emotionally stable and developed people. The biggest lesson that I learned during the first week of classes was that this was not necessarily true. There is great diversity of emotional and social development among students and faculty alike.

In a small discussion with some people in my "Social Work Practice Lab" (which is basically an intro to clinical class), I divulged that I was, and have been in therapy. It was pertinent to the conversation and it's not something I'm ashamed of, nor did I divulge WHY I'm in therapy. One of my classmates took my openness as an invitation to deluge all her issues to me. Initially, I was just thinking "woah, this woman has boundary issues", but then later she accosted me about my weight - wanting me to commiserate with her on weight loss, and her very Americanized weight management views (which I'm simply not willing to do). When I refused very politely but firmly to engage in that conversation, she told me I was in denial about my weight, and nastily retorted "I hope you have a nice weekend" and stormed off.

My professor for History of Social Welfare class is another person who will force me to maintain my center. In addition to teaching, she is heavily involved with Shapedown - a program for overweight kids and their families at The Children's Hospital. As a former client of Shapdown, I have unbelievably strong oppositional feelings towards the program. I developed bulimia during that program, and it would not surprise me to hear that I was not the only kid who developed an eating disorder during that program. It was apparent to me that my professor has, at the very least, disordered restrictive eating.

Its an interesting revelation that observation of other people's psychological states allowed me to more clearly understand where I am in my own process. The more I understand about myself and where I am, the better I think I'm going to be able to listen with compassion and empathy, and work with people through their own processes.