No More Shame
I found the fall Quarterly both relevant and engaging, and especially appreciated “My Struggle with Panic Disorder,” by Kara C. Baskin ’00. I, too, lived a life crippled by panic disorder starting from a very early age.
For me, the breaking point came on Christmas night 1999 when I found myself pregnant, and trapped in a too-small house with too many family members and a feeling of total and complete helplessness. I had nowhere to go, nowhere to hide, and no way to talk myself out of accepting the disease that I had spent years shrugging off.
After four of the longest and most sleepless days and nights of my life— when the very effort of living seemed more than I could bear—I sought the help of a psychiatric professional. And after many, many sessions of therapy, and the blessed introduction of Zoloft, I learned to live with my anxiety.
Was it easy? No. Was it worth it? Yes. Am I ashamed to admit that I need a chemical to survive? Never. I would be more ashamed if I continued to let my disease affect the people I love and who love me.
In fact, less than a year after I began my own therapy, I found myself bringing our then five-year-old son to his own behavioral therapy, something I might not have realized was so important had I not finally addressed my own issues. After three years of therapy for obsessive-compulsive/ anxiety disorder, we felt comfortable adding Zoloft to his mix of therapies. Now, at age thirteen, he is an incredibly wonderful and happy young man.
It is never too late, too early, or too shameful to seek the therapy, and yes, perhaps, the medication, that you need to live a life free of fear and anxiety.
Mary Nelligan Robbins ’87
Northborough, Massachusetts
Be a Government Watchdog
I was encouraged to learn that incoming students read a book on climate change, Elizabeth Kolbert’s Field Notes from a Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change. This is an important topic about which everyone should be educated.
It is important to learn the science behind climate change, including its causes and effects. However, I wanted to remind [people] that it is also important to follow what the government is doing to remedy the problem. Environmental issues are largely affected by government funding, and without money to fund research (for alternate sources of energy, for example) or legislators to write laws to modify the way things are currently done, it is much less likely that we can alter the course that scientists are predicting.
Please write to your senators and representatives to support climate change issues.
Sharon Sigethy Coughlin ’90
Boonton Township, New Jersey
Safety of Nanomaterials
We are proud that MHC women are leading the way in nanotechnology research, but we share concern with environmental health advocates that nanoparticles may pose substantial risk. Currently the commercial use of nanomaterials far outpaces research on their potential dangers. In 2006, only 4 percent of the approximately $1 billion federal budget for nanotechnology research was allocated to examine their health and environmental effects.
Scientific studies show that the small size of nanoparticles permits greater access to body tissues and organs where they could cause harm. Studies in animals indicate that some inhaled nanomaterials pass easily from the nose to the brain and from lungs into the bloodstream. Alarmingly, these particles are already found in many everyday consumer products like cosmetics and food storage containers, but their safety is still in question.
Unfortunately, the U.S. government has a poor history of regulating potentially harmful technologies and allows many toxic materials—including asbestos—to be used in consumer products. This new generation of nanotechnology requires a precautionary regulatory framework instead of outdated laws that allow harm to our health. New regulations on consumer products containing silver nanoparticles, passed in 2006, are a good first step, but we should not stop there.
We are proud that MHC women are leading the way, but we will be more proud to hear that they are assessing the safety of this new technology before celebrating it. We agree that nanotechnology has exciting implications for medical and scientific advances, but believe that the risks of this new technology must be investigated.
Let the scholars and faculty at MHC take the lead on researching the safety of nanomaterials and making sure that we learn from the tragic history of asbestos, rather than repeating it.
Leise Jones ’01
Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts
Margaret Byrne ’04
Northampton, Massachusetts
Danielle Connor FP’06
Danvers, Massachusetts
The authors are current and former staff members of Clean Water Action, an environmental organization working to protect people from harm caused by toxic chemicals.
Don’t Tell, Don’t Talk?
I thought I’d share a (possibly) unanticipated reaction to the “Bulletin Board” story [fall] on the Jolene Fund for students whose lesbian orientation becomes known to their parents, who as a result cut them off. The following appeared on my husband’s Internet site www.thebirdman.org: “… Maybe the Jolenes would have found it cheaper to provide students with some tips on keeping their mouths shut. But then they wouldn’t want to encourage unnatural behavior, now would they?—Birdman”
My own reaction: If a young woman knows her parents won’t be able to handle the news after sounding them out on similar issues, then she can either remain quiet about it (after all, she might change her orientation later, even though it doesn’t feel like that at the time) or make a big deal of it. To make a big deal of it in that case makes it almost certain her funds will be cut off. (It is possible that her parents will want to provide her with an alternative education somewhere else, where she will be less “under the influence.” Maybe it would be only fair to give them a chance. And maybe a young woman who has reached this point is asking for help by the act of telling them.)
In any case, if things end up “exploding,” she is relying on the college (or rather, its benefactors) to bail her out. She is putting the college in the position of advocating freedom of sexual expression. There are some who would say that if the college is going to do that they should make sure the student knows “both sides” (much like the Darwin vs. creationist controversy). Maybe there should be a kind of “family values” curriculum depicting the various (real) dilemmas we encounter out here in the world, and the difference it makes which paths we take.
Lenora Castles Bryant ’64
South Pasadena, Florida
Corrections
In “Doing Well by Doing Good” in the fall Quarterly, Sheila Lirio Marcelo ’93 was incorrectly identified. She was entrepreneur-in-residence at Matrix Partners, a venture capital firm, when she developed Care.com and from which she secured funding. Before that, she was vice president and general manager at TheLadders. com.
Due to a typographical error, an incorrect date was given for the MHC tenure of Marjorie Kaufman. She was an English professor here from 1954 to the 1987–88 academic year.