mental Health Year in Review: 08

In John M. Grohol's article "Mental Health Year in Review: 2008," he explaids how drugs' bad or ineffective side, specifically anti-depressants, are not shown to the public. He states many facts regarding the ineffectiveness of antidepressants such as the failure of antidepressant Pristiq to treat adolescents with depression, and also its side effect of not being able to discontinue the drug (which he commented he recieved the most replies from people reading the article saying that they could not quit the drug). He does prove a point about many things of our society, such as what we expect from medical reseachers as well as how it is shown to the public. I believe that it is our expectations from medicine that cause people and organizations such as the FDA to tell the public what they want to hear. Consequently, what needs to change is not how they give information to the public, but rather what the people want and need. Since Mr. Grohol has specified antidepressants, I will give my opinion on that topic. First of all, depression is not feeling sad about failing a test or losing a small amount of money (although it may be). To me, depression is a more serious condition that plagues your whole body, all of the time. It is feeling sadness or loneliness in everything you do and everywhere you go, no matter who you talk to or what happens. It can be triggered by a failing test score or loss of money, but it is something deeper than that, such as having that cause the failure of a year or drop out of highschool, or losing money when you need to pay a due, and then not being able to participate in something you love. Anyways, what I am trying to say it, depression is a very serious condition that has affected many people in the past. Unfortunately, I believe that no drug or medicine can cure depression of any sort. Changing hormones in the body or any type of internal change can't change truth or reality. I think that people should not rely on antidepressants to counter their feelings. Often times, antidepressants can have a negative effect on people, causing them to feel more depressed than before. Instead, depression should be countered with friends, love, support, religon, and other things that are real in this world.

Personality

Jung typology test:
slightly expressed extravert
slightly expressed intuitive personality
slightly expressed feeling personality
moderately expressed judging personality

personality labs – life goals

- slightly less central value on financial success than the typical study participant.
- value social recognition about as centrally as the typical study participant.
- less central value on attractiveness than the typical study participant.
- slightly more central value on affiliation than the typical study participant
- more central value on community involvement than the typical study participant.
- value self-acceptance about as centrally as the typical study participant.
- prioritize intrinsic goals over extrinsic goals more than the typical study participant.

Online attraction test
Rebellious – less than average
Seductiveness – average
Cheerfulnees – average
Intelligence – average
Trendy – more than average
2.06 average rating

EQ test:
Very high emotional intelligence 45 out of (45-54) for very high.

Religion:
Religion – 5.67 out of 7 - To what extent is it part of my life.

Personality disorder

Dear Lily,
This is responding to your post (so read lily's post people - second period). If you think its hard in A&M, imagine what it's like not getting accepted to college at all. As soon as we broke up in highschool, things went out of control and unorganized for me. I was so used to being attatched to you and having you influence almost all of my decisions, that when you left, I didn't know who to turn to. Noone was there to help me, and I think that most colleges denied me because of a horrible essay and inadequate application. Things just became so hard that I couldn't even concentrate on college apps, and I had noone to ask for help, so I think that they were a bit lacking. Life at home whomps. I can't make even the simplest decisions about what to eat, wear, what song to listen to, or anything, and it leads to my frustration. Yesterday I spent 3 hours at the grocery store to buy milk, eggs, cereal, candy, and cookies. I didn't know which cookies to get, which type of milk to get, how many eggs. I feel like aufahfhdhf;ahfd;ha. I ended up calling my mom and she told me what to get so it's all good. Anyways, now I feel like I do things for everyone else and not myself. I'm always seeking approval from others because they are the only people that can help me reach a decision. Also, my work ethic has dramatically dropped since my senior year in high school. I can't get myself to do any work or projects because I don't think that I can do them right. I hate being alone and now my parents pretty much rule my life. I have to ask my mom for everything, and I always do what she says, especially because she takes care of me. I'm not sure what to do with my life right now. My parents want me to apply to another college like UH or HCC. I just don't know what the right thing is though. When you were here, I had a plan and goal of being a pediatrician. I don't think that will ever happen anymore. All my friends turn on me because I bug them too much, especially since they're in college. Anyways, I hope your roommate grows up soon. Don't worry so much about her, and maybe in the future you can live by yourself. I hope you're getting taken care of up there. Don't miss me anymore because I've changed in a way you don't like. I hope you're happy. Love, Nick Dumlao.

Case Sutdy 7

Case Study 7: A 35-year-old clothing salesman was showing a particularly fussy customer a suit 2 months ago and suddenly began to sweat profusely. His heart started to pound, he felt dizzy, and became fearful that he was about to die. The customer didn’t notice his condition and continued to question him about the suit in minute detail. The patient, feeling faint, abruptly left the customer and went to lie down in the back of the store. The customer became insulted, complained to the manager, and left. When the manager found the patient he was slumped in a chair in the back room trembling. Approximately 10 minutes later the patient’s symptoms began to subside. He saw his physician the next day who found no evidence of any medical problems. Two weeks later, he had another similar unexpected attack. Since that time he has worried continuously about having another attack. His friends and colleagues have noticed that he is no longer as spontaneous and outgoing as he had been in the past.

This patient has a condition of social phobia, which is unreasonable fear of exposure to social situations, such as having contact with strangers. This fear may affect the person's normal routine.

For therapy for this patient, he needs to be able to conquer his fear for turning others mad or frustrated. In order to do so, he should start with helping customers that have the same questions as the fussy man, but that are more calm. Once he is able to be able to answer correctly and help these people, it is only a matter of changing the types of people he attends to. He should gradually start helping more aggitated people, even if it is manipulated, in order to get rid of his social anxiety.

I colclude that this man is suffering from social anxiety for many reasons. First of all, he has an anxiety attack because of contact with a person and a situation rather than an object. Second of all, supporting evidence shows that this may alter his normal routine, which his friends said have changed since he has had these attacks. The customer he was attending to was very fussy, and didn't recognize the mans problems, which shows that he only cares about his suit. He persists to ask very minute and specific questions that a salesperson might have a hard time answering. Out of his fear of not satisfying the customer, the salesperson became anxious and thus is suffering from social anxiety.

Famous Psychological Problem

Vincent Van Gogh is one of the world's best painters. He was a post-impressionist painter, who didn't really take up the career of painting until around 1880, when he was 27 years old. He created 2000 pieces of artwork in the last ten years of his life, but his most well-known paintings came from the last two years of his life, which were plagued by depression and many psychological problemsfollowin the breakdown of his friendship. One of his most famous paintings is The Starry Night.

Scientist were are still unaware of what psychological disorder he suffered from, proposing that is was schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, syphillis, and many other disorders. These proposed disorders actually affected his works a great deal. Scientis proposed that his love and use of the color yellow is a result of an alcohol problem, which caused his brain to see objects in yellow. Another proposal is the use of lead based paints which caused his retina wo widen, causing the halo-effects we see in his paintings. Whatever the cause of his problems and the problem itself, they influenced Van Gogh's artwork greatly.

Not knowing the exact disorder of Van Gogh, it is hard for me to give my opinion on how I feel about it. However, I can say that whatever the disorder was, I believe it was key to his artistic publicity. He was a phenominal artist, but only his works that were done during his period of psychological illness' were what made him famous. I think that the disorder's should have had more recognition back then, since we cannot even identify what it was today. His suicide proves that his disorders were not paid attention to, but I feel that the disorders are gaining much more recognition today.

Link

Link 2 - Wikipedia