MuffinMaddy

I've just spent a whole month in Italy teaching English for three weeks and then I went to a wedding. I'm in a great place mentally, and it really throws me how life can go from awful to amazing so rapidly - I am moving away for my second degree (lectures start on October 2nd) and I feel like it'll be really weird not being in a lab, or learning about complex scientific theories... but I'm ready for the next adventure

In 12 hours I will be walking around in a special hat a special gown.... It's my graduation day. Four years of university studies have led to this day and I feel so proud of myself for making it through them without resitting any of my exams, coursework or asking for help from any lecturers during the course (except for understanding of my recent bereavement etc)

Shocked af - got 78% for my final year project on prostate cancer and loads of pretty awesome results in general. I have a new job so relocating for that - I mean, considering my dad passed away and I got strangled and this year has been riddled with drug abuse (which i'm pretty much all clean from) and mental health strain (which is alleviated significantly), I CAN'T BELIEVE I MADE IT - thanks guys for your well wishes and generally letting me vent here, graduation is in two weeks' time

I have a first class degree in Biochemistry

It's results day and I'm pretty sure I'm about to shit myself I've had overwhelmingly good reports from my friends who have their results that it's scaring me

I guess the anticipation is finally getting to me ... in just about 5 days, I will be receiving my final undergraduate degree classification. I'm pretty sure I've achieved one of the highest grades, and I felt comfortable with all of my exams but sometimes it gets a bit eerie being too calm. All of my friends from other universities have their results, and results days are different depending on department at my university so I've seen some of my friends get their results and I'm super proud of them. I've bought my dress for graduation, my tickets and gown too so I'm pretty excited - just got to find out what grade I have finally. I'm feeling the pressure as it's 4 years of hard work and even though I'm pretty much almost definitely going to do my masters (Their grade requirement was lower than any grades I've gotten before) - it would be really nice to have a comfortably nice undergraduate degree that I can just look back on and smile thinking of all the challenges I went through to get it

Father's Day - my first one without a living father. I'm surprised with how positive I've been today

Feeling pretty positive - was my last week of University last week. I finished all of my exams and enjoyed my last few days with friends. I still have to do my job for a few more weeks and after that I will go back home.

I'm one exam away from my undergraduate degree. I've been so lucky with exams (everything I've revised in strong detail has come up as an essay question) I'm technically an unofficial graduate as we speak (you can fail a maximum of 30 credits) and I've only got 15 credits left to sit and I haven't failed anything else so.... But it's been quite the rollercoaster, at times I've felt like dropping out so it's been pretty monumental to actually reach the end. I don't feel bittersweet at all, I cant wait to get out of here, it's been like a mental prison that I've fought with all my heart to withstand, and it's finally about to pay off. I'm moving to the opposite side of the country, and I feel so happily disconnected from life here that I'm ready to make this transition.

All my life I've never been confident in anything, but I can finally confirm that I actually am intelligent to some extent. I was granted an academic scholarship for my master's degree which means I get £3000 deducted from my tuition fees. It'll make a significant difference - I am over the moon.

Finished and professionally bound my dissertation!

They just wrote me a short message to say no further action is being taken due to "insufficient evidence". So basically there wasn't enough evidence to prove he did it apparently, apparently voice recordings aren't enough. I didn't have witnesses, it was him saying two friends were present (and they weren't) but he also claimed to not remember anything. Having said this, it took two months between me sending the report and his first interview. In my opinion this is plenty of time to make up some sort of excuse or prepare "witnesses" (one of which is his current girlfriend). Honestly in any other period of my life I would fight tooth and nail for justice, but I am physically and mentally exhausted by his entire ordeal (my dad died in January as well) so it's been a tug of war on what to focus on. This case has taken precedence and even though it isn't a good conclusion because he and I BOTH know what happened, I will take it because it's still a conclusion. All I have now is therapy to help me mentally move on from what happened to me. Frankly, I have learnt that when the first sign of abuse shows I need to get out of that situation with immediate effect. No second chances, no hoping things will go better in the future - I need to leave before it gets worse. That's what happened here. I might be mentally scarred, I might be living with anxiety and depression, I might have thoughts of suicide, but it's still 10x better than being glued to somebody who is constantly making me feel bad about myself. I just finished writing my dissertation, and I want to start studying for exams I'll be taking in two months' time - at the end of the day, I don't want any of the unfortunate circumstances that have happened to impede my overall degree classification - that would be a shame, as this is four years of hard work coming to an end very soon. I'm moving away pretty soon and have a place for a masters' degree at a completely different University so there's a lot to live for, it's just hard at this particular moment.

I'm so drained by the whole process, it's taken so long for anything to happen I've been slowly losing my mind - right now I'm three months away from graduation, that's the one thing that's getting me through it. I can hide in my room until then. I did have a lot of fight in me to begin with, but the more it went on, the worse my anxiety and depression became and now I have no hope, and clearly no protection so I guess it will probably be better for me academically to stay away from everything and study in my room until my exams.

If I didn't have anxiety in the past I sure as hell have anxiety now. After putting a bit of pressure on the disciplinary board to actually do something about the guy who asaulted me, they essentially took his side (even though he told several lies that could have easily been disproven) and released him with no further punishment because there's "insufficient evidence" although, I provided a 5 minute voice clip of him admitting the incident happened, even with him saying "you annoyed me, so I grabbed you by the neck" aside from attaching cameras in the room I don't know what else I could have provided. The decision, though disappointing I have accepted - what is distressing me is the fact that they removed the no-contact order that they put in place only two weeks ago. The no-contact order requires myself and him to stay away from each other - I had no problem with this as I am happy never to have contact with him. This order was only put in place because he was harrassing and stalking me, so I haven't even been protected by it for that long, and even though I've blocked him on all social media and his number etc, he used to approach my friends. The no-contact order was the only reason I felt some sense of protection, these past two weeks. The disciplinary board is saying that they did not find him guilty so there is no need for a no-contact order. I honestly feel like my sense of safety is totally being disregarded - a no contact order would not harm either of us, but it would prevent him from harrassing me like he did throughout the entirety of the disciplinary process which took 3 months (although I have no idea why it took so long if there was insfficient evidence from the jump) He claimed that there were two witnesses when there weren't, and that could have easily been checked (CCTV in accommodation would have been able to verify that the people he was saying were there were not in fact present) The main thing I am concerned about is that he can see that the disciplinary board have done nothing to protect me, so I do fear further harrassment because maybe he thinks he has the power now - I am very likely being paranoid about this, as I have anxiety disorders independently of this situation - but it's made it a hell of a lot worse. I went away every weekend to take myself out of the environment and it worked wonders, but I need to save a bit of money now and I have my dissertation due in two weeks. I feel like I'm crumbling a little bit, because someone assaulted me, and continues to live his life without punishment even after his own admission. What a joke. So some might tell me "you did the right thing by reporting him" but what does the right thing actually mean? I haven't protected anybody by doing this, he can go on to assault people without consequence in the future, and I will continue to live in my anxiety and depression - it was entirely fruitless, and if someone that is a victim of a crime chooses not to report the incident, I can't ever blame anybody in that situation.

I've been through every emotion in the book. I received the news that the colleague who strangled me has been reinstated to his position working alongside me to support students..... And I think it's an absolute joke I've been upset angry disappointed shocked you name it. I'm now pretty numb. The head of the university is basically saying it's taking a long time to decide because there's differences in what I'm saying with what he's saying. I'd agree that it would be challenging if not for the voice recording of him telling me straight up that he "grabbed me by the neck" and essentially verifying that he thinks strangling people is a necessary course of action with someone who throws cold water on you. By reinstating him with literally no punishment whatsoever it's just affirming that it's okay to assault people here and it makes me sick thinking about it. I'm at a genuine loss for what time do. I run around campus supporting students from panic attacks to thoughts of suicide and I get assaulted and use the system to bring my assailant to justice and he's in fact given back his job even with evidence that a one-sided act if violence occurred.

Mood swings suck

Just came back from a weekend away in the countryside. It was actually quite nice not getting ridiculously drunk or drinking alcohol at all. I had a lot of fun walking through museums and a cathedral. I met up with a friend I met on some forums six years ago. I am so fortunate that I have a job that I've been able to spend money on these trips away from this toxic environment - I was physically stalked by the guy who strangled me on Tuesday evening and I filed a complaint so I've been granted a restraining order and it's elevated my mood because now he can't harrass me without consequence anymore. His girlfriend called me delusional and followed me home, and I honestly don't care because I'm just happy I'm not in that situation anymore.

Can't do anything fam. Not found Edit: I did it, I would be skeptical over the effect sizes from the studies you are drawing conclusions and some of your questions are very limited. Oh I totally agree there's hella limitations to this but I don't really know what they expected from us lol since this module is in its first year. Still think we're all gonna get firsts by default which is win win for me.

More related to the thread : my mental health has actually been decent recently. I don't cry that much anymore and I've been so happy without the toxicity of the guy who assaulted me in my life. I can't believe I spent every day for like two months with him. I nearly drunk texted him last week and I managed to stop myself. It was lovely to wake up with no regrets. I've smoked three times in three days too which has helped me chill out but I need to stop to avoid relying on it, otherwise though I'm really pleased with the improvement in my emotional stability

For the purposes of the experiment we're just going to pretend you are, but indeed having advertised it on social media, I've had some Canadians do it (friends from year abroad etc.) and the other people in my group will have international friends answering the questions - a response is a response, I don't think we're looking that deeply into it, it's just simply what questions were answered correctly more frequently vs what ones weren't. But the first feedback point you gave is something I've written down as it's good criticism

For which questions? Do you mean "I don't know?" For a simple experimental design we just want a true/false even if you're guessing it's totally fine - we're just looking at what myths are more convincing (The myths we used have been scientifically researched extensively to verify this) and the truths that are less likely to be believed. The data is interesting so far but we need 300 participants and I've done most of the legwork - I think all the participants so far have been recruited by myself or by my friends sharing my post. But yeah what you've said is totally valid and I'll put it in my project report as feedback. It's the first time my university's done anything like this - having Biological sciences team up with psychology to devise an experiment lol so it's just easy marks because we're guinea pigs. thanks for doing it, Saq it helps a lot Leading on from Saq : If you do it please tell me the good or bad things you think of it because that'll help me in my critical review due in April !

https://essex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d6J685JC9C1mgi9 should work now

Oh rip maybe it's UK responses only in which case come on Boris

hi frens i'm doing a project on cancer bio and we need 300 responses lol so if you have 5 minutes spare i'd super appreciate you completing this quiz testing 20 myths and truths about cancer https://essex.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_d6J685JC9C1mgi9

Man, this is why people don't report abuse. It's been nearly 2 months since the incident and the perpetrator STILL lives directly opposite me, in all my classes, is befriending my ex deliberately and hasn't been reprimanded in any way. 2 weeks ago I developed extreme anxiety with reference to the situation, throwing up, bowel problems, low blood pressure and poor circulation and then I got better. I realised I didn't want him to have that level of control over me to the point where I'm not functioning. I made a conscious determined decision to be positive and happy. To ignore my problems as best as I can while they're not being dealt with, but while it's not causing me anxiety at the moment, it's genuinely a bit frustrating that nothing is being done. By the time something's done, we won't even be at University anymore and I'll have had to deal with all of this in vain. I went to a talk on domestic violence yesterday, and the sister of a woman who was strangled to death came to speak to us. It was obviously devastating, and my heart honestly broke. I don't know why we rank abuse - loads of people stay in verbally abusive situations because I guess (in my case) I thought "Well, he didn't hit me, right?" But that naivety led to me staying in a situation where he did worse than hit me, and I don't want to hate myself about it but it's still so anger-inducing knowing that sometimes there just is no such thing as justice in cases like this.