Hey there! My name is Ricky Munoz, doing my legally required introduction for this class. I’m a senior history major from Centreville, Virginia, cleaning up a few classes to graduate this semester (is the plan, at least). As many of us alluded to on Tuesday, I’m taking this class not only because it fit well into my schedule, if not on the early side, but also because the history of mental health is a unique and intriguing topic, and one that for many (myself included) hits close to home.
Without getting too much into things, and not oversharing or trauma dumping on a class blog post of all places, I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD, which is probably one of the most well known mental health conditions of recent years, and thus occupies a unique spot in the history of mental health broadly, and of of my mental health in particular. I hope that we spend some time discussing neurodivergence as we get into the modern era, along with the more commonly discussed issues of depression, anxiety, etc, not only for my own sake, but that I’ve rarely heard such things discussed in a scholarly historical context.
As to the more fun stuff, I like to spend my free time cooking, gaming, smelling various candles, and thinking about putting things on my calendar. I also am a part time member of UMW’s one and only improv team, The Undeniably Adjacent, so if you loudly exhaled through your nose at any point while reading this, you may like our improvised comedy stylings. Come check us out, we have shows periodically throughout the semester, so go find our social medias if you’re interested.
In all seriousness, I’m very much looking forward to this class, and diving into these topics that have quite a bit of scholarly depth to them, and learning more about how we have built our relationship with our own minds across history.
