Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 1021, Mental Disorders.
This is English as a Second Language podcast episode 1021.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
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This episode is about mental disorders, problems that people have psychologically mentally.
Let's get started.
At Berthium College, we take mental health issues very seriously.
That's why we have so many mental health services on campus.
Such as?
Well, for example, there is a meeting tonight of our support group for anorexics and bulimics.
Tomorrow night I'll be speaking to a group of students about depression to make them aware of the warning signs.
Those are very important issues.
Yes, they are.
In this student health center, we see cases ranging from social anxiety disorder to schizophrenia.
In addition to serious mental disorders, college students are at risk of developing many types of antisocial behaviors, resulting from the pressures of college and the stress of being on their own.
I know what you mean.
One of my roommates copes with stress by binge drinking.
My other roommate has become obsessive compulsive.
You should see how clean our apartment is.
And you?
How have you been dealing with the stress?
Are you sure?
You seem to have developed a nervous habit of pulling your hairs out one at a time.
What?
No, I haven't.
Denying you have a problem is often a sign that you have a problem.
That's crazy.
Shh!
We don't use the C word here.
Come with me.
Dr Meow opens our dialogue by saying at Berthiaume College we take mental health issues very seriously.
Mental health issues refers to problems that someone may have due to psychological or emotional issues, things that perhaps relate to how well they react to stress or to difficult situations.
Mental health is a general term referring to one's psychological and emotional wellness or well-being.
Dr. Mia works at a college, Berthiaume College.
She says that's why we have so many mental health services on campus.
Dr. Miao is talking to a student named Dean.
Dean wants to know what kind of mental health issues Dr. Miao is talking about.
Dr. Miao says, well, for example...
There is a meeting tonight of our support group for anorexics and bulimics.
A support group is a group of people who get together, who all have the same problem, either a physical or a mental problem.
One of the most famous support group structures in the US and around the world is Alcoholics Anonymous.
Alcoholics Anonymous is a group of people who get together in their community or their neighborhood to help each other with their problem of alcoholism.
This is a support group for anorexics and bulimics, however.
Anorexic A-N-O-R-E-X-I-C is an adjective used to describe a person who suffers from something called anorexia nervosa, which is a mental illness that causes you to eat very little and to exercise a lot in order to lose weight.
But You do it to an extreme extent, so that you become too thin and in some cases tragically, you may even die from this disorder.
A bulimic B-U-L-I-M-I-C is a person who suffers from something called bulimia, which is when you eat a lot of food and then
You basically vomit it up.
You throw it up in order to maintain or lose weight.
Tomorrow night Dr Miao continues I'll be speaking to a group of students about depression to make them aware of the warning signs.
Depression D E P R E S S I O N is a long period of feeling sad and Often associated with lack of energy and lack of motivation.
A lack, L-A-C-K, of something means you don't have any.
So you don't have any energy or you don't have any motivation, or at least not enough, to do what you need to get done.
Dr. Miao is going to talk to this group of students about the warning signs of depression.
A warning sign is an indication that there is a problem.
So if you start gaining weight suddenly and within a month or two you're 10 or 20 pounds heavier than you should be, that might be a warning sign that there's something wrong with either the way you're eating or perhaps some problem that you are having in your body, some physical issue.
Dean says those are very important issues, the issues that Dr. Miao just mentioned.
Dr. Miao continues.
She says, yes, they are.
In this student health center, we see cases ranging from social anxiety disorder to schizophrenia.
Social anxiety disorder is a condition that causes you to fear being around other people, because you are perhaps afraid of being embarrassed or of not being as good as the people around you.
Schizophrenia, S-C-H-I-Z-O-P-H-R-E-N-I-A is also a mental disorder.
This one is related to making it difficult or impossible for you to know what is real and what is imaginary.
People with schizophrenia often react to other people and situations in strange ways, because they're imagining things that aren't actually real.
Dr. Miao is talking about the student health center at the college.
A student health center would be a place where students go to get medical attention, to get medical help.
This kind of medical help has to do with mental health.
Dr Miao continues.
In addition to serious mental disorders, college students are at risk of developing many types of antisocial behaviors, resulting from the pressures of college and the stress of being on their own.
Well, let's break that down and talk about what that sentence means.
Dr. Miao is saying that college students are at risk of developing certain behaviors.
To be at risk of something means that you might be in danger of getting that thing.
There is a possibility that something bad will happen to you.
The bad thing that will happen to college students is that they will develop antisocial behaviors.
Antisocial, A-N-T-I-S-O-C-I-A-L behavior is a way of acting that doesn't show consideration of the people around you.
It's a way of acting that that may make you mean to or hurt other people around you.
The word antisocial is also used to describe people who don't like being around other people.
I think I'm antisocial, actually.
Anyway, Dr Miao says that college students are at risk of developing these types of antisocial behaviors.
Dean says, I know what you mean, meaning I understand what you are saying.
One of my roommates copes with stress by binge drinking.
A roommate is someone that shares a room or an apartment with you.
To cope C-O-P-E with something means to be able to handle or deal with a difficult and challenging situation.
We use this expression, this phrasal verb, to cope with something, when we are talking about someone who has to deal with a difficult situation.
Binge, B-I-N-G-E, drinking is when you drink a lot of alcohol in a very short amount of time.
My other roommate, Dean continues, has become obsessive-compulsive.
To be obsessive.
O-B-S-E-S-S-I-V-E, compulsive C-O-M-P-U-L-S-I-V-E is to be concerned, often about very small things.
When you are obsessive about something, you're constantly thinking about it.
Normally, when we talk about someone being obsessive compulsive, we're talking about someone who perhaps repeats certain behaviors over and over again.
They may wash their hands a hundred times in order to make sure they are clean.
That would perhaps be an example of an obsessive compulsive behavior.
Dean says that his roommate has become obsessive compulsive.
He says, you should see how clean our apartment is.
That expression, you should see, means this is a very good example.
I am giving you a good example.
And if you actually went to my apartment and saw it, you would understand what I'm talking about.
We'll often use that expression.
You should see When we are giving an example similar to what the other person said and perhaps even a better case of whatever the phenomenon you're talking about is than the person gave you.
So someone may say, well, my brother is really lazy.
And you may say to that person, you should see my brother.
He doesn't even get up in the morning.
You're giving that person an example of that situation or that phenomenon.
That is perhaps even a better example of what you are talking about than what the other person gave.
So Dr Miao is giving examples of conditions, mental disorders, and Dean is saying he understands what Dr Meow is talking about and then gives her some examples from his own personal experience.
Dr. Meow then asks Dean, and you, how have you been dealing with the stress?
Dean says, me?
I think I'm the only well-adjusted one in the group.
To be well-adjusted means is to be normal, to be adapted to some situation and to behave in a way that is appropriate and acceptable.
Dr. Miao says, are you sure?
You seem to have developed a nervous habit of pulling your hairs out one at a time.
Dr. Miao is saying that Dean has a nervous habit.
A habit is something you do over and over again.
You may have a habit of brushing your teeth every morning.
That's a good habit.
A nervous habit is something you do, perhaps even without realizing it, because you are nervous, because you are perhaps under stress.
I have a nervous habit.
I tap my feet.
I take my foot and I pound it against the ground.
My wife absolutely hates my nervous habit.
She's always telling me to stop tapping my feet.
To tap, T-A-P, is to move your foot up and down so that it hits the floor or the ground.
Anyway, enough about my mental problems.
Back to our dialogue.
Dr Meow is telling Dean that he has this nervous habit of pulling out his hairs one at a time, taking the hair I'm guessing I'm hoping on his head and pulling it out.
Dean says, what?
No, I haven't.
Meaning he has not developed this nervous habit.
Dr. Miao says denying you have a problem is often a sign that you have a problem.
To deny D-E-N-Y something is to say that something is not true, to say that it doesn't exist.
Dr Miao is saying that Dean is denying that he has a problem and that when you say you don't have a problem, This is a sign that you have have a problem.
Of course, the other possibility is that a person who denies he has a problem doesn't have the problem.
But we live in a world now affected by psychological theory and this is one that, at least, is popular among a lot of people that denying a problem means perhaps that you actually have that problem.
And I'm sure that happens as well.
Dean says, that's crazy.
Dr. Meow says, shh, we don't use the C word here.
Come with me.
Dean is reacting to Dr. Meow's statement, saying that she's crazy.
She's out of her head.
She's nuts.
Crazy is a very negative way to describe someone who may have a mental disorder.
So Dr. Miao says we don't use the C word here.
The C word here means crazy.
When there's a word or a term that you don't want to say out loud, you can use an expression or a phrase like this
By just using the first letter of the word.
It's usually a word that is a bad word or that you don't want to talk about or say out loud.
Perhaps because it is rude or unacceptable.
So someone might say, I got in trouble by saying the F word in school.
The F word refers to a word that begins with F and in this case, is considered a very bad word to say in English.
It's a four-letter word that ends with K. You probably have heard it.
So that phrase has become popular now when people want to mention a word without actually saying the word.
And that's what Dr. Miao is doing here.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
At Berthium College, we take mental health issues very seriously.
That's why we have so many mental health services on campus.
Such as?
Well, for example, there's a meeting tonight of our support group for anorexics and bulimics.
Tomorrow night I'll be speaking to a group of students about depression to make them aware of the warning signs.
Those are very important issues.
Yes, they are.
In this student health center, we see cases ranging from social anxiety disorder to schizophrenia.
In addition to serious mental disorders, college students are at risk of developing many types of antisocial behaviors, resulting from the pressures of college and the stress of being on their own.
I know what you mean.
One of my roommates copes with stress by binge drinking.
My other roommate has become obsessive-compulsive.
You should see how clean our apartment is.
And you?
How have you been dealing with the stress?
Me?
I think I'm the only well-adjusted one in the group.
Are you sure?
You seem to have developed a nervous habit of pulling your hairs out one at a time.
What?
No, I haven't.
Denying you have a problem is often a sign that you have a problem.
That's crazy.
Shh!
We don't use the C word here.
Come with me.
Our scriptwriter is definitely the most well-adjusted person here at the Center for Educational Development.
Her name is Dr. Lucy Say.
Thank you, Lucy.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us again right here on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language Podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2014 by the Center for Educational Development.
