Let me tell you about my relationship with the school desk. From my first day at Penny Camp Elementary School in 1982, it was terrible. This is how it went down: five seconds into class, the foot start bouncing;10 seconds in, both feet; 15 seconds, I burst out the drums! After a few minutes, it’s all over. I’m trying to put my leg behind my neck. No, that desk and I didn’t get along.

Sitting still was hard enough, but I also struggled with reading. Reading out loud in class was a special kind of hell(地狱). By the third grade I had progressed from being one of “those kids” to being the “special kid”. I was found to have multiple language-based learning disabilities and attention deficit disorder (A.D.D) (注意力缺陷障碍症). I was turned into a “patient” who needed treatment rather than a human being with differences. I struggled with severe anxiety and depression at age 10.

I survived this time in my life because of my mom. She knew in her heart that her child wasn’t broken and didn’t need to be fixed.My mom was right. When I think back on my school experience, I realize it wasn’t the A.D.D. that disabled me. What disabled me were limitations not in myself but in the environment. I’ve come to believe that I did not have a disability, as it is common to say, but experienced disability in environments that could not accommodate and accept my differences.

In the fall of 1977, after two years at Loyola Marymount University, where my learning differences were fully accommodated, I transferred to(转学) Brown University, where I graduated with an honors degree in English literature. I still can’t spell or sit still, but I now use support and technology to relieve my weakness and build a life on my strengths. I don’t feel stupid anymore and I know that I—and others like me—can live good lives despite these challenges.

A new wave of psychological research is pioneering Virtual Reality (VR) to treat medical conditions from social anxiety to Alzheimer's disease.

Riding a wave of interest in mental health tech, companies creating VR content for treatment are receiving a flood of attention and funding. And, while VR has been used successfully to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since the 1990s, these new programs address a much broader range of conditions. The library of Palo Alto-based Limbix, for instance, includes VR content designed to treat issues including alcohol addiction and teenage depression. Barcelona-based Psious offers treatments for eating disorders.

Today's VR content is primarily designed to aid exposure treatment, a treatment for anxiety disorders in which patients are exposed to the “threats” they're worried about in a safe, controlled environment, eventually learning that the “threats” are not actually very dangerous. For example, someone who fears heights might visit taller and taller buildings under the guidance of their doctor, while someone with PTSD might revisit painful memories.

VR allows doctors to create a safe and controlled environment inside a VR headset. It's a far safer, quicker and less expensive option. Using VR also gives doctors much more control over the intensity(强度)of their patients' experiences, which can lead to better treatment outcomes, said Stephane Bouchard, a professor at the University of Quebec. VR treatment patients can also do things they couldn't do in the real world. “In one of our studies, we asked patients who are afraid of heights to actually jump from a cliff,” Bouchard said.

However, not all VR treatment content is created equal. “Some companies show videos of VR environments that are incomplete, untested and definitely haven't been tried out by psychologists,” Bouchard said. Clearer rules and standards will make it easier for patients and doctors to identify products that work.

Most people look forward to retirement as a time when they can finally take up activities that they never had the time or energy to pursue before.But some recent studies on people in their golden years are disturbing: they suggest that retirees are more likely to suffer from depression and possibly higher rates of other diseases such as heart disease and high blood pressure.That’s why a new study of French workers is welcome news.

Led by Hugo Westland, a professor of psychology at Stockholm University, the study of more than 14,000 workers found lower rates of depression andfatigue(疲劳) in people after they got tired while they were still employed.

The scientists followed the employees of the French national gas and electric company for 14 years.They found in the year immediately after retirement, the volunteers reported 40% fewer depressive symptoms than they had in the year before their retirement.The researchers also found an 81% drop in reports of both mental and physical fatigue over the same time period.

Clearly, said Westerlund, much of these decrease in physical and mental fatigue can be traced back to relief from the stresses of work.The decline in depressive symptoms suggests that retirement may be having a positive mental effect, too, which may have a lot to do with the generouspensions(养老金) that French workers enjoy.Most retirees in that country still benefit from about 80% of their yearly salaries.

“The economic or financial situation in retirement is very important,” Westerlund says.“We don’t know if the decrease in fatigue and depressive symptoms is because of the removal of something bad while in work or the addition of something good while in retirement.But no matter the reason, if life in retirement is not comfortable, then we won’t see the improvements we did.”

However, in European nations like France, governments are considering changes to pension plans, which may affect retirees’ health after they leave their jobs－with less of a financial safety net, workers may no longer seem so mentally and physically happy to be out of work.

(Note: Answer the questions or complete the statements in NO MORE THAN EIGHT WORDS.)