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I thought that I was an auditory learner, but it turned out that I am not. I am a tactile learner, meaning that I can learn better by touching and doing. I often talk with my hands(make gestures) and have difficulty sitting still.

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Auditory

If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones. You often learn by reading out loud because you have to hear it or speak it in order to know it.

As an auditory learner, you probably hum or talk to yourself or others if you become bored. People may think you are not paying attention, even though you may be hearing and understanding everything being said.

Here are some things that auditory learners like you can do to learn better.

Sit where you can hear.

Have your hearing checked on a regular basis.

Use flashcards to learn new words; read them out loud.

Read stories, assignments, or directions out loud.

Record yourself spelling words and then listen to the recording.

Have test questions read to you out loud.

Study new material by reading it out loud.

Remember that you need to hear things, not just see things, in order to learn well.

Visual

If you are a visual learner, you learn by reading or seeing pictures. You understand and remember things by sight. You can picture what you are learning in your head, and you learn best by using methods that are primarily visual. You like to see what you are learning.

As a visual learner, you are usually neat and clean. You often close your eyes to visualize or remember something, and you will find something to watch if you become bored. You may have difficulty with spoken directions and may be easily distracted by sounds. You are attracted to color and to spoken language (like stories) that is rich in imagery.

Here are some things that visual learners like you can do to learn better:

Sit near the front of the classroom. (It won't mean you're the teacher's pet!)

Have your eyesight checked on a regular basis.

Use flashcards to learn new words.

Try to visualize things that you hear or things that are read to you.

Write down key words, ideas, or instructions.

Draw pictures to help explain new concepts and then explain the pictures.

Color code things.

Avoid distractions during study times.

Remember that you need to see things, not just hear things, to learn well.

Tactile

If you are a tactile learner, you learn by touching and doing. You understand and remember things through physical movement. You are a "hands-on" learner who prefers to touch, move, build, or draw what you learn, and you tend to learn better when some type of physical activity is involved. You need to be active and take frequent breaks, you often speak with your hands and with gestures, and you may have difficulty sitting still.

As a tactile learner, you like to take things apart and put things together, and you tend to find reasons to tinker or move around when you become bored. You may be very well coordinated and have good athletic ability. You can easily remember things that were done but may have difficulty remembering what you saw or heard in the process. You often communicate by touching, and you appreciate physically expressed forms of encouragement, such as a pat on the back.

Here are some things that tactile learners like you can do to learn better:

Participate in activities that involve touching, building, moving, or drawing.

Do lots of hands-on activities like completing art projects, taking walks, or acting out stories.

It's OK to chew gum, walk around, or rock in a chair while reading or studying.

Use flashcards and arrange them in groups to show relationships between ideas.

Trace words with your finger to learn spelling (finger spelling).

Take frequent breaks during reading or studying periods (frequent, but not long).

It's OK to tap a pencil, shake your foot, or hold on to something while learning.

Use a computer to reinforce learning through the sense of touch.

Remember that you learn best by doing, not just by reading, seeing, or hearing.

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What's Your Learning Style? 20 Questions

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Auditory If you are an auditory learner, you learn by hearing and listening. You understand and remember things you have heard. You store information by the way it sounds, and you have an easier time understanding spoken instructions than written ones.

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My goal for this year is pass all my classes. In the future I would like to attend Arcadia University or Yale School of Drama. I am fascinated with psychology and acting. Acting is one of my favorite things to do. I also enjoy cooking so I was thinking about attending Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

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Madison Huang - Project Manager and Development at Cheval Blanc

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Le Cordon Bleu - A Worldwide Leader in Gastronomy, Hospitality and Management

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I have traveled to Las Vegas, Nevada and learned that that California weather is nothing compared to Nevada. One place I would like to travel to would be

Malmö, Sweden because I have a friend that lives in Sweden and I really want to visit him. He is planning to move to California in 6 years, when he finishes school, and I can't wait.

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Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

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My favorite subject in school is science. I enjoy doing labs and doing projects for that class. I am extremely into psychology and zoology. What fascinates me about zoology is all the animals you get to work with. You get to study their behavior, how it changes depending on the season. Psychology fascinates me because you get to understand the human mind and how it works. The multiple mental disorders that are sometimes misunderstood by others.

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Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety. -Plato

According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, anxiety disorders as a group are the most common mental disorders among Americans, affecting 18 percent of people in any given year. Over 20 percent of those affected by anxiety disorders are considered to have high severity problems, representing more than 4 percent of the U.S. population. This means, that on average, out of every 100 people you pass on the street, 4 of them likely have a "severe" anxiety disorder.

There are multiple risk factors for anxiety disorders, including having been shy as a child, being female, financial limitations, being divorced or widowed, a history of stressful life events, having close biological relatives with anxiety disorders, and parents with mental illnesses. And, according to a widely publicized 2017 study in Psychological Services (Weissman et al., 2017), mental illnesses, including anxiety disorders, are on the rise while care is lacking for many-even though effective treatment is theoretically available. Understanding what keeps people from getting treatment is essential to figure out how to more effectively fight mental illness.

Over the course of a lifetime, it is estimated that 12 percent of people will develop Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD), and 6 percent of people will develop Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). People with Social Anxiety Disorder have persistent concerns that others view them negatively, to the point of causing serious difficulty participating in social activities and performance situations, such as work presentations. Generalized Anxiety Disorder is a chronic condition characterized by ongoing worry, indecision, nervousness, muscle tension and other physical signs, leading to problems in daily function as a result of wasted time and inability to move forward toward goals.

As such, these conditions wreak havoc on quality of life, causing significant distress and dysfunction, with increased risk for addiction, suicide, health issues, poor social function, and suicidality. To make matters worse, according to study authors, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication revealed that an enormous fraction of those with SAD or GAD, 75 percent of the nearly 10,000 people surveyed had not received treatment in the year leading up to the study (Wang et al., 2005).
Looking more deeply
New research from a team of scientists at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Temple University (Goetter et al, 2018) identifies the reasons that people suffering with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and Social Anxiety Disorder don't receive adequate care. While prior research suggests that the most common reported reason people with SAD or GAD haven't gotten care is out of fear of what others will say or think, showing how powerful stigma really is, other common reasons include lack of financial resources and not knowing where to go for care.

To dig deeper into understanding why those with SAD and GAD don't get care, researchers recruited 226 participants with only SAD and/or GAD (and not additional conditions such as depression or substance use) between the ages of 18 and 65 to participate in a detailed clinical assessment and survey about barriers to care. Of those 226 participants, 121 were previously diagnosed with SAD and 105 with GAD. A self-selected group of 171 (those who were interested in entering a more detailed phase of the study) as well as 55 more with additional diagnoses went on to complete a variety of assessments.
Measures
Researchers administered the Structured Clinical Interview for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (the SCID), indicating whether they had SAD, GAD (or both); the Leibowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), looking at social and performance anxiety; the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A); the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Scale (MADRS); and the Range of Impaired Functioning Tool.

They also rated participants using the Clinical Global Impression Scale-Severity (CGI-S), a common estimate of overall burden of illness. Finally, participants completed self-report measures including demographics and, critically, the Barriers to Treatment Questionnaire (BTQ) , which gauges how much each of the following reportedly gets in the way of care for participants with GAD and SAD: how they perceived clinical interventions, how well they thought treatment might work, and related factors; problems with money, or insurance, and logistical issues including time or physical access to care; and experiences of stigma and shame around illness and treatment.
Why don't people with social and generalized anxiety get treatment?
First of all, researchers found that participants with GAD and SAD had moderate illness severity, on average across both groups. Similarly, scores on the BTQ were in the same range, regardless of diagnosis. Greater barriers to care were associated with being younger in age, being from an ethnic minority group, and being impoverished. Barriers to care did not track with gender or educational level. Notably, the more severe the anxiety, the higher the BTQ. This means that those with a greater symptom burden had more difficulty getting treatment. This is exactly the opposite of what we'd want to see.

What were the greatest barriers to care? At the top were logistical issues and stigma or shame, reported by a majority of participants for different specific reasons (see graph below for a detailed breakdown). Those with GAD most commonly referenced wanting to deal with issues on their own, feeling embarrassed, not knowing where to get treatment, and anxiety about how to pay for care. Those with SAD most commonly referenced wanting to handle problems on one's own, embarrassment, and not knowing where to get care.

Shockingly, or perhaps not so shocking, over half of the participants said they didn't know where to go to get treatment. On one hand, this is pretty incredible, as this study was conducted in a big city with good public education and a plethora of world-renowned hospitals. On the other hand, people are too good at ignoring things which are right in front of us, especially when they trigger unpleasant feelings of shame and stigma, leading to avoidance and social withdrawal.

Even with the constant flow of media attention and a growing number of high-profile individuals coming out of hiding about mental health and substance-related struggles, people with SAD and GAD aren't getting the help they need. And the more severe the symptoms, the greater the perceived barriers to care, a troubling finding. In addition to improving public health efforts, the study authors suggest that making treatment more available and easier to access could help, including more use of approaches like "bibliotherapy" (e.g. the use of directed self-help materials), computer-based treatments including online and virtual therapies, telemedicine, and stepped-care models which start with recognition and care by general providers, and move through stages of more intensive care for those who do not respond to more basic treatment.

Reducing societal stigma and raising awareness, along with corporate wellness-based initiatives, might also allow people to build time for treatment into their work schedules, without fear of reprisal. For ethnic minorities, not only may actual barriers to care be higher than for whites, but efforts to reduce shame and stigma may be less effective for these groups. Regardless, the study authors wisely recommend that clinicians not only properly screen for and diagnose mental illnesses such as SAD and GAD, but that they also discuss the various barriers with patients. Using the BTQ as a tool to both inform the dialogue with patients, as well as to identify individual obstacles to overcome, could help people access available treatments.
Upon reflection
Standard public health approaches don't seem to be doing the trick. Suicide is on the rise, anxiety is on the rise, depression is under-treated, and geopolitical uncertainty just adds fuel to the fire. As with other fields, novel approaches based on technology and a better understanding of human psychology are required to enable people to recognize they need help, and work out how to get it. People close to those with problems such as anxiety disorders can find ways to enable loved ones to get care without adding to the burden of stigma and shame, possibly averting tragedy. Parity legislation, which dictates that insurers pay for behavioral health the same as physical health, must be better implemented.

As it is, between lack of insurance or other means to pay for treatment, poorer coverage for behavioral health, outsourcing of mental health to second-party providers, and frequent denial of arguably valid claims, getting treatment for mental health issues remains far more difficult than it ought to be. And we all pay the price. There's enough difficulty because of how people feel about having anxiety disorders (and other mental health challenges) without placing additional obstacles in the way. If you believe you or someone you love may have an issue, remember that there are effective and accessible avenues for relief available, and no one should feel ashamed of or deterred from seeking appropriate help.

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Why 75 Percent of Anxiety Sufferers Fail to Get Proper Care

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Nothing in the affairs of men is worthy of great anxiety. -Plato According to the National Institutes of Mental Health, anxiety disorders as a group are the most common mental disorders among Americans, affecting 18 percent of people in any given year.

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I am proud of going up a rank in Kung Fu. I was able to achieve this by working hard and practicing after class. The day of the belt test was a success and I got an "A." I had to quit Kung Fu because my schedule was getting to stressful.

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Na's Kung-Fu Academy - Kung Fu School in Anaheim, California.

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My favorite type of music is classic rock. I also enjoy listening to rock, grunge, punk rock, alternative, and funk. One of my favorite bands are the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
I don't really play sports, but I play basketball with friends sometimes. I enjoy watching sci-fi movies, I am a huge Marvel fan. I also watch The Simpsons and Family Guy. My favorite book is, "Ready Player One," and like to read comic-books and sci-fi books.

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One thing I value in my life are my family and friends. I value them because, when I'm in a bad mood, they try to cheer me up. I value them because they care about me.

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One of the most important and yet least understood areas of psychology concerns the role of friends in our lives. In my own writing on adult development and aging, I have constantly felt frustrated about the relative lack of research on this topic under the category of close relationships in middle and later life. Most of the research on friendship concerns children and adolescents, and only rarely do researchers seriously address friendships over the latter (and majority) of the lifespan. Fortunately, author Carlin Flora's new book, Friendfluence, addresses this much-needed gap. She pulls together the available and wide-ranging academic literature on friendship with personal insights and interviews, exploring all aspects of friendship in a thoughtful and engaging way.

If you ever had any doubts that friends are one of the most important, if least understood, aspects of life, Flora will convince you. When it comes to happiness, your friends are the key.

I've tried to distill Friendfluence into what I believe are its most important lessons. Of course, if you want to get the full friendfluence effect, I recommend that you read it in its entirety. For now, though, here are 15 reasons to appreciate your friends:

1. Friendfluence affects you in more ways than you realize. Flora made up the word "friendfluence" to capture the effect that friends have on our lives: "Friendfluence is the powerful and often unappreciated role that friends-past and present-play in determining our sense of self and the direction of our lives" (p. 6). Whether you realize it or not, your friends have shaped who you are today. You are even the product of the friends who are no longer your friends.

2. Friends can give you vital life skills. Friendfluence gives you vital life skills; "the very abilities one generally needs to be successful in life" (p. 6). There are many perks of friendship include sharpening your mind, making you generally happier, knowing yourself better, becoming inspired to reach your goals, advancing your career, helping you meet romantic partners, and living a longer and healthier life.

3. Childhood friendships start your learning process. Early friendships play a vital role because they occur while key developmental changes are taking place. They help teach us some of those important life skills but also shape our life "narrative." Flora advocates for parents and teachers to give kids unstructured time to work out their own social relationships rather than to over-program them into restrictive activities.

4. Teen friendships shape your later romantic bonds. Though parents spend much of their time worrying about who their teenage kids are with, these relationships are a training ground for the later long-term bonds that will evolve through adulthood. Flora advises parents to recognize that peers will "trump" them every time, and so instead of fighting with your kids about spending too much time with their friends, or who their friends are, you can help your children more by inviting their friends over to your home.

5. Friends can help you define your priorities. People tend to pick friends who are similar to them. This fact falls under the general proximity rule of close relationships, in that like tends to attract like. Because we fall prey so easily into this similarity trap, it is important to try to stretch yourself to learn from some of those opposites. Flora points out the many ways in which "Birds, feather, flock." Knowing this can help you grow by expanding your range of friends and trying out some new points of view.

6. Having friends can help you get more friends. People tend to like others who have a reputation for being nice and helpful, and they like people who like them. If you want to be the type of person who attracts new friends, these qualities will help get you on your way toward building your social group. Once you have more friends, you'll be able to enjoy some of those perks of friendship.

7. Close friends support you through thick and thin. To take the most advantage of friendfluence, put effort into your closest friendships. Although being friendly can get you more friends, you don't need hundreds to help you through life. You may have to prune your friendship tree as you get older to be sure that you give enough attention to the ones who will really matter for your well-being.

8. Friends can make you miserable too. There is a dark side to friendship. The people who know you the best are also the ones who have the most power to betray you, should the relationship sour. Friends can also get you into trouble. If your friends are doing something bad or harmful, you tend to be more likely to do so as well, a fact to which many drinking buddies can certainly attest. Friends can also cause you stress when they get in the way of other important goals or relationships. Be ready to say no to friends who disappoint, betray, or stress you and you'll be more likely to get the full friendfluence effect.

9. You're less lonely when you have friends. The worst kind of friendfluence, according to Flora, is a complete lack of friends. Loneliness is painful, especially when you are living with loneliness for a prolonged period of time. This is yet another reason to put time, energy, and attention into finding and cultivating a close circle of friends.

10. Your online friends can steer your thoughts and behaviors. Although online friends are qualitatively different than your in-person friends, they shape you nevertheless. They can also be your source of life support. Flora shows us how Toni Bernhard, author of How to be Sick, and confined to her home, has maintained a lifeline to the outside world through her closest online friends. Of course, your online friends can also make you miserable too, especially if you get caught in the "friendship paradox" (the fact that most people on Facebook have fewer friends than the average number). If you can avoid having Facebook envy dominate your life, you'll have more rewarding connections with your extended friendship community.

11. Friends matter to you, regardless of gender. Although much is made of the difference between male friends, female friends, and male-female friend pairs, all share the qualities of having the potential to influence your life. If you restrict yourself to one certain type of friendship, you may be missing out on bonds that transcend gender boundaries.

12. Couple friendships can help your own relationship. People experiencing similar life events can often provide the most valuable support to each other. Unfortunately, some couples withdraw from their friendships when their relationship turns serious. You can benefit both from maintaining your separate friendships, but also from sharing with the couples who are experiencing transitions such as becoming parents, raising teenagers, and helping older family members. Friends can also help you alleviate your work-related stress. Even though you may be stretched to the limit time-wise, the investment you make in these friendships will be worth the psychological benefits.

13. Friends can give you a reality check. Who but your closest friends will tell you that your new outfit is ridiculously garish? What person you meet on the street will let you know that your latest romantic interest is going to bring you heartbreak? Because friends know us so well, they are able to see things that we can't, and aren't afraid to share their dose of reality with you. Of course, as we saw earlier, friends can also make you miserable. However, the ones who care about you have a perspective on your behavior that no one else can completely see. As Flora points out: "friends are better at describing our behavioral traits than we are" (p. 132). Incidentally, this is one reason why personality researchers ask for "other" reports to compare to the self-ratings that participants themselves provide. These "other" reports can come closer to the mark, especially for individuals whose personalities ironically make it hard for them to see themselves in a realistic light.

14. Banding together with friends can help you effect social change. It's difficult, if not impossible, to fight for a cause, raise money for charity, or even just make a few small improvements in your community on your own. Friends are the first step, Flora points out, to building successful social movements. Facebook provides one way to enlist the support of thousands of people. At a less grandiose level, people are more likely to engage in helping and altruistic behavior at the urging of their close friends.

15. Being a friend helps your friends. Friendfluence works in two directions. Not only do you benefit from its many perks, but by being a good friend you are helping those closest to you. "Being a friend is a great honor and responsibility, so treat your friends carefully" (p. 235). If you are aware of how you're affecting your friends, you'll work harder to stay close to them which, in turn, will benefit you as well. Being a good friend also includes asking them for help when you need it. Giving someone the gift of being influential can be one of the greatest joys you pass on to your friends.

The upshot is, you need friends and they need you. It doesn't take much skill to cultivate this close and fascinating type of human bond, but it does take some effort. As Flora shows us, that effort will clearly pay off in helping you lead a more fulfilling life.
Follow me on Twitter Copyright Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Ph.D. 2013 @swhitbo for daily updates on psychology, health, and aging. Feel free to join my Facebook group, "Fulfillment at Any Age," to discuss today's blog, or to ask further questions about this posting.

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Your friends influence and shape your life and your sense of identity in untold ways. In "Friendfluence," Carlin Flora takes us through the high points and low points of the power that friends have both to help and hurt us.

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Something you should know about me is that I'm a huge Sci-Fi fan. I can go days on end baffling on about Sci-Fi movies, so embrace yourself. Something that will help my classmates get to know me better is by attempting to talk to me. I say "attempting" because I am shy and anti-social and the conversation will probably not last long unless I see that you are actually making an effort to talk to me. Something that will my teacher get to know me is by talking to me. I don't usually talk, but when I do, I show a lot of personality.