Ihionu: All in Your Head
It is 7:45 on an overcast Monday morning. I know this only because my alarm is blaring, reminding me that I have the misfortune of having to once again wake up and drag myself out of bed — though it only seems unfortunate if your thought processes, like mine, are dominated by mental illnesses, namely depression and generalized anxiety disorder. What is fortunate, however, is that I received both diagnoses before coming to the College. Despite this, I was still unprepared for the amount of effort it would take to get out of bed some days. Maintaining focus while being engaged in academic work is a bit like trying to grasp a wet bar of soap. I could lock myself in the sixth level stacks — no human contact, no phone, no internet — and still manage to waste hours being unproductive — and I definitely did not expect the Hanover winters to take my depressive episodes to new lows.