psblyaspie wrote:
I think it would be good if Universities spent at least one day in these orientation classes focused on mental health, and make sure they talk about Asperger's for 5 minutes (if not more), especially in the "aspie rich" fields like engineering.
Does anyone agree with me on this?
I think it's really important to educate students about mental health issues. I had undiagnosed depression when I started university and it got much worse as the term went on. I think it would have helped me a lot if I'd known the signs of depression then, and been told where to ask for help.
And when I started uni for the second time, at a different university, most of the introductory talks were about doing loads of extracurricular activities for your CV, which is something I couldn't do because of my disabilities, and most of it felt totally irrelevant to me.
I think it's also important to educate people about Asperger's/autism so undiagnosed aspies and auties can have the option of seeking a diagnosis or finding sites like this. When I learned about Asperger's it helped me a lot because I stopped blaming myself for my difficulties and I found a place where I fit in (this site). But I'd like to point out that Asperger's isn't a mental health condition - I'd include it in a class or section of a talk on 'invisible disabilities' or something like that.