By Lauren Maio
As students roam the halls on campus, feedback on the topic of psychology is constantly heard. Many think is it a difficult subject and seek immediate help, but students do not always know where to find it. On Wednesday, March 4, Professors Michael Benhar and Julie Hanauer held a club meeting to help any student on campus.
This meeting was located in room 234 in the Southhampton building. Many students showed up and a movie was presented on the overhead. The movie was an HBO documentary called “Addiction,” which was played to help the students learn more about the brain and its reaction to drugs.
“This club will help students in the basic psychology class and also help them become aware with different systems,”Hanauer said. The movie had adolescent to middle aged people in America interviewed about their addiction and why it is hard for them to get off certain drugs. Several educated psychologists from select universities were shown throughout the movie as well.
“Last time we even had a guest speaker talk about suicide,” says Hanauer, who arranged for the speaker to come in. Both professors who advise the clug and organize these meetings are trying to take more than just tests and reading to teach the subject. They are thinking that visual aids like the movie and people coming in to talk to the students will help students learn from a different perspective.
At this specific meeting, the psychologists talk a great amount about how the brain works and what triggers cravings. Prior to the movie showing, both professors mentioned how informative this movie was going to be and how it would help on future tests. For all of you students having trouble on your psych tests and have Benhar or Hanauer as your professors, extra credit is offered to those who show up to the club meetings.
“Addiction” had information such as how psychologist’s study the brain and even presented brain images. The brain images showed how your brain looks off of certain drugs and how it looks when it’s on drugs too. Many of the illegal drug users in the documentary were shocked and appauled by how their body was being affected by their usage of coke, marijuana and even heroin. The film also showed that the psychologists would put patients who abused drugs on other types of drugs to help them terminate cravings, like morphine.
At the end of the meeting, Hanauer had some closing statements on the film. She said several times that “Addicts not only need medication to help them get well again, but also need therapy often”. Also, she reminded students that if they had any questions, they could come up and discuss them with her.
The next time you’re having trouble in your psychology class, you can always try the club’s meetings which are held twice a month.
