Back in 1984, I knew one girl who took the ACT because the college she wanted to go to didn't accept the SAT. She spent the same Saturday the rest of us who took the usual in a room by herself.

Score yak... I took the PSAT and got 65 verbal, 57 math (score was 20-70 scale for those unfamiliar with it). On the SAT, I got 700 verbal, 570 math. Some of the other geeks wanted to know how I managed to do so well on the verbal section. I wished I had their math scores.

delurking to say:

Cindy-- what kind of stores give you anxiety attacks? I find that store that smmll (perfume, candles) and/or stores that are very hot are just something that need to be avoided. Or in the case of HOT stores, I do not wear my coat into them. Otherwise-- meltdown city.

Sophia, those are definite triggers sometimes (scent, particularly). Target isn't a great place for me generally, and before Christmas, it happened in Brooks (like CVS--pharmacy chain), but someone took a bath in some cologne, and I got past it quickly enough. But lately it's even happening at Dunkin Donuts and 7-11, and where 7-11 is concerned, I maybe went there a couple of times a week for the last 8 years (for milk, or bread). I feel like I never relax, even when I am doing nothing. I don't know. I just feel like a big, old mess, lately.

I'm trying to imagine the Roman Catholic church selling, say, Chartres.

Also, WRT to SAT scores-- does anyone know when the scoring changed. I know that my score (which I am absurdly proud of (740 verbal, 650 Math) were before the change (I took them around 1990). I was just trying to explain to a college student, you know, that mine were better than hers and she didn't believe me about the change in scale.

Of course, SAT scares mean about jack crap, as I am now a secretary, but still...

They're selling off parish churches here, to pay the legal bills.

Not exactly out of a charitable impulse, though.

Not at all.

Also (((Cindy))). When I was really, really anxious, I tried doing this technique called "meta meditation." Basically, it is making a meditation phrase so ingrained in you that you are doing it on your breath, all the time. I have to say that it seems really stupid to me, but it really worked. I said, over and over again, on an in breath "I choose to be happy" and on an out breath " I choose to be peaceful" The theory is you do this so much that it becomes inconsious and you do it all the time. It did really work for me at that time. Then I went on anti-depressents, and most of my problems seem to now stem from not being anxious enough!

I have to say that it seems really stupid to me, but it really worked. I said, over and over again, on an in breath "I choose to be happy" and on an out breath " I choose to be peaceful" The theory is you do this so much that it becomes inconsious and you do it all the time. It did really work for me at that time.

This makes a lot of sense, Sophia. I will try that.

Then I went on anti-depressents, and most of my problems seem to now stem from not being anxious enough!

I'd like to avoid the a-ds/meds if I can.

Also, WRT to SAT scores-- does anyone know when the scoring changed.

I'm pretty sure it was sometime between when my sister took them and when I did, so between 1994 and 1998, approximately. When I took them, the new scores were reported as "760R" or whatever.

Cindy, the axiety was not what prompted the AD's. My AD of choice just also happens to have anti-axiety properties. The AD's were from he times I would not be able to work because I I would cry so much in the shower that I would just sit down in the tub and bawl, and then not go to work, daily. I am what my doctor calls a "lifer"-- the minute I go off, I am like this again. I am on a REALLY llow dose, and I am normal. I have abig old family history, too.

My point being, if you can control it, I don't think my experience with drugs needs to be youurs. I am just happy to be a part of the first fully functional generation of my family, without, you know, trips to have electro-sonvulsive therapy.