My Age of Anxiety

I have finished reading the books I wrote on my personal statement.

Better late than never, I guess. :)

They were really good books.

I cannot really lie and say that I didn't have to read them - not reading them would jeopardize my up coming Oxford interview.

However, they were really seriously amazing books.

I did not really feel I was reading them because I had to, but more because I was interested.

In my Age of Anxiety, it discussed classifying mental illnesses. Especially anxiety.

It is weird really. A disease that before being classified, not many people had it. But after being defined, it is quite uncommon not to know someone with it. Does this reflect that before defining anxiety that there was a large hidden figure or that after defining anxiety, people fitted themselves into categories? Or perhaps this just suggests that the prevalence has increased. Even then, that is questionable. How many people with mental illnesses, who have them are unaware? How many people who have mental illnesses go unreported? Then again. how many shy people have been catergorized as anxious? How many people who just aren't expressive with emotions have been described as depressed?  The book illustrates really well that trying to assess trends of anxiety and mental illnesses over time and trying to draw an accurate conclusion onto who has the illness can be ambiguous.