Este cuento esta sobre una chica quien aprendió la diferencia entre fantasía y realidad cuando le miró una película sobre un monstruo. 

 A person's condition is diagnosed based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). "The DSM lists specific and concrete criteria for diagnosing nearly 400 disorders in children, adolescents, and adults" (Ellen Pastorino & Susann Doyle-Portillo).

What causes psychological disorders?

This has been the question facing medical practitioners, theologians and psychologists for years.  Since then, they have grown to understand these disorders through a cohesion of multiple theories.  Diagnoses have been known to fall under more than one theory.

Theories, according to "What is Psychology? - Second Addition":

• Biological: Abnormal behavior is due to biological, genetic, and physical processes such as an imbalance in hormones neurotransmitters.
• Sociocultural: Abnormal Behavior is a result of social and cultural influences.
• Psychological:
  • Psychoanalytic Perspective: Abnormal behavior is due to unresolved unconscious conflicts.
  • Social Learning Perspective: Abnormal behavior is due to learning processes like classical and operant conditioning.  It happens in response to environment.  
  • Cognitive Perspective: Abnormal behavior is due to thoughts, expectations, assumptions, and other mental processes.
  • Humanistic Perspective: Abnormal behavior results from distorted perceptions of the self and reality. 
    

Sources:

Pastorino, Ellen, and Susann Doyle-Portillo. What is
Psychology?. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Cengage Learning, Inc,
2009. Print. 

Stigma - Any mark of infamy or disgrace; sign of moral blemish; stain of reproach caused by dishonorable conduct; reproachful characterization

"From this we can imagine that people’s highly judgmental attitude stems from fear that they may one day find themselves ‘on the other side’ of the great divide between the sane and the mad."
- Sarah Luczaj

The other day, Thursday the 28th of January,  I was riding the bus home, when a woman got on who didn't seems quite right in her mind.  I only noticed her after I looked up due to a certain smell.  Despite the fact that the bus was fairly crowded, nobody seemed to want to sit near her. Some people even moved.  
    I don't think it applies to just my bus experience in saying that people attempt to avoid those they deem to have mental illness or be in any way unstable.  They don't want to put themselves in a situation that could possibly be dangerous, unpredictable or in any way uncomfortable.  
    Sarah Luczaj writes, "72% of adults in Great Britain believe that there is a stigma associated with having a mental illness...over half of British adults (52%) agree that being diagnosed with a serious mental illness and being diagnosed with cancer are as bad as each other." This is perhaps a naturally built in reaction, or something that "we" as a public have been taught to believe or simply grew into.  According to SAMHSA, "Stigma leads others to avoid living, socializing, or working with, renting to, or employing people with mental disorders - especially severe disorders, such as schizophrenia."
    This doesnt refract well in the minds of these "upredictable" people, who often feel so ashamed and isolated by their problem, that it leads to further amotional damage and can deter their motivation to seek help. (SAMHSA) Additionally, with the way people are being diagnosed these days, most people will technically have some type of mental disorder at some point in their lives (but not necessarily to an extreme.) After all, adds Sarah, "we are all capable of being ‘dangerous’, ‘unpredictable’ and ’scary.’"

Sources:
Luczaj, Sarah. "‘Dangerous and Scary’: The Stigma of Mental Illness ." Counselling Resource. Counselling Resource, 12 Sep 2007. Web. 2 Feb 2010. <http://counsellingresource.com/features/2007/09/12/mental-illness-stigma/>.

SAMHSA. United States. Violence and Mental Illness: The Facts. , 2009. Web. 2 Feb 2010. <http://www.stopstigma.samhsa.gov/topic/facts.aspx>.

On a very happy note, one of my favorite television shows, Supernatural, is back.  Coincidentally it takes place in a psych hospital and focuses on the idea of craziness.  The show is obviously based on a completely sci-fi non realistic idea.  Even the boys (main characters, Sam and Dean) who hunt demons, don't completely trust the word of the people in "the loony bin." They go to a psychiatric hospital because they think a monster is attacking the patients.  When ever any of the patients try to tell someone about the monster, they aren't taken seriously.   The Doctor doesn't believe them, or their point is quashed by another patient making it seem "crazier." Eventually the boys begin to go crazy themselves, while they try to hunt the monster at the same time.  The episode had a bunch of interesting underlaying ideas that seemed connected to my topic.  I just don't know how to explain the relevance. 

As we continue this project, I have found it hard to define my topic.  I began without so much of a statement, as a general idea: the perception of mental illness.  Yet, it seems I could pull that idea into so many directions, that it has become difficult to bring them all back together into one unified thesis.  

On the one hand, there are certain disorders that most of the population looks upon with slight revulsion, like anorexia or bulimia.   However, those disorders mostly exist only because of modern ideals.  They are told to be thin, get thin, and then are stuck in the hospital for being disturbed.  On the other side lies the "crazy people" disorders like manic depression (bipolar), schizophrenia, certain types of dementia, and others.  Society sees people with those disorders with a mixture of apprehension, pity, or slight fear.    

Additionally, more common issues include a variety of depression and anxiety.  Many people fluctuate in and out of depression or have some type of anxiety problem at a point in their life.  This ties back nicely to the point on medicines or antipsychotic drugs, which get shoved in our faces every day.  Most of these disorders don't fall over the line of black or white; they all seem to be grey.  It's really no wonder we don't know how to react.  I don't know where this project is going.  

As we continue this project, I have found it hard to define my topic.  I began without so much of a statement, as a general idea: the perception of mental illness.  Yet, it seems I could pull that idea into so many directions, that it has become difficult to bring them all back together into one unified thesis.  

On the one hand, there are certain disorders that most of the population looks upon with slight revulsion, like anorexia or bulimia.   However, those disorders mostly exist only because of modern ideals.  They are told to be thin, get thin, and then are stuck in the hospital for being disturbed.  On the other side lies the "crazy people" disorders like manic depression (bipolar), schizophrenia, certain types of dementia, and others.  Society sees people with those disorders with a mixture of apprehension, pity, or slight fear.    

Additionally, more common issues include a variety of depression and anxiety.  Many people fluctuate in and out of depression or have some type of anxiety problem at a point in their life.  This ties back nicely to the point on medicines or antipsychotic drugs, which get shoved in our faces every day.  Most of these disorders don't fall over the line of black or white; they all seem to be grey.  It's really no wonder we don't know how to react.  I don't know where this project is going.  

This post will focus mostly on an fairly long article I read recently.  We were quickly fining news sources in class, and I came across a site that turned out to be about mental illness.  A large portion of it talk about anorexia nervosa.  Anorexia, while in its own category with other eating disorders, is considered a mental illness of sorts.  However, I wont discuss it too excessively because it's not my entire topic.  Again, for more on eating disorders, take a look at the blogs of Devon Thomas and Kim Bush.  

WARNING: link contains unsettling images

"...the expectations and beliefs of the sufferer shape their suffering (Ethan Watters)."

The article  talks about how the perception of mental illnesses has been bent by American Standards.  Americans have a certain way of viewing mental illness.  There seems to be a codex of disorders, treatments, likely victims and explanations for why these things happen.  In other countries, and even in American history, certain disorders were often associated with spiritual or religious causes. According to Ethan Watters,  "In any given era, those who minister to the mentally ill — doctors or shamans or priests — inadvertently help to select which symptoms will be recognized as legitimate." This has mostly changed into a purely medical approach of late.

   
America, in its need for everyone else to think like them, has also spread these ideas, and other countries are now suddenly seeing an explosion of these disorders and symptoms.  For things such as anorexia, people perhaps subconsciously see it as the way to manifest some type of depression.  In China for example, where some girls, although hard dieting, had never associated it with wanting to lose weight fast, seemed to then conform to the idea of "fat phobia."  This took place in around the 1990's.  Ethan Watters writes "the transfer of knowledge about the nature of anorexia (including how and why it was manifested and who was at risk) went only one way: from West to East."

I understand that this scenario which applied to anorexia might not necessarily be the same for other this such as schizophrenia, but its still an interesting concept when a persons illness can be transformed to meet with how its supposed to be defined and expectations.  This is also a pretty disturbing topic by itself, and it even scarier because I know that many of the girls affected by this are my age and younger (17). 

• The average age of eating disorders onset has dropped from 13-17 to 9-12.
  
• The number of males with eating disorders has doubled during the past decade.
  (Abigail Natenshon)

An final interesting quote from Ethan Watters:
"...a mental illness is an illness of the mind and cannot be understood without understanding the ideas, habits and predispositions — the idiosyncratic cultural trappings — of the mind that is its host."

For the future:
Id like to specifically look at the relationship between the drug industry and mental illnesses.  Society is so easily bent by drug administrations, so their connection should be key.  

Sources:

 Natenshon, Abigail. "Statistics." Empowered Parents. 2000. Empowered Parents, Web. 14 Jan 2010. <http://www.empoweredparents.com/pages/statistics.htm>.

Watters, Ethan. "The Americanization of Mental Illness ." New York Times 08 Jan 2010: 6. Web. 14 Jan 2010. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/10/magazine/10psyche-t.html?pagewanted=3&em>.

I spoke with my teacher, Mr. Chase and he helped me focus the direction of my topic.  Instead of looking just at treatments of mental illnesses, I will look at the portrayal of them and how they are viewed by the public.  I might still look a bit at treatment and problems that drug medication can cause, but I think this way will make it more interesting.  

Mark Dombeck from MentalHelp.net states, "As a society we are moving ever closer towards an exclusively medicalized vision of mental illness."

Acording to the NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health):

- "Only about half of American children and teenagers who have certain mental disorders receive professional services."

- "An estimated 26.2 percent of Americans ages 18 and older — about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year."

- "Major depressive disorder is more prevalent in women than in men."

- "Females are much more likely than males to develop an eating disorder. Only an estimated 5 to 15 percent of people with anorexia or bulimia and an estimated 35 percent of those with binge-eating disorder are male." (to read more, view kbush & dthomas)

Sources:

United States. The Numbers Count: Mental Disorders in America.
, 2008. Web. 8 Jan 2010.
<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml>.

Dombeck, Mark. "The Medicalization Of Mental Illness." MentalHelp.net (2008): n. pag. Web. 8 Jan 2010. <http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=687>.

My project is so far off to a pretty slow start.  I'm hopeful that it will pick up pace now that I have a more solid topic.  Unfortunately this means that i haven't yet learned a great deal.  The first information I found was basic categorization of various mental illnesses.  

I think that society probably views people with mental disabilities difference, depending on the environment they are it.  For example mentally "off" celebrities are sometimes ostracized, but children are looked on with pity, and even some with humor.  

Over the summer I took a psychology class at CCP.  I might try to see if I can interview the professor about mental disorders.  I also might take a trip to the library. 

I want to:

- look into mental illnesses in Political figures and celebrities.  
- find how the treatment has changed.  
- look into how people react to others with mental illness.
- what the difference is in reaction to a rich person with a mental illness and a homeless person?
- find out more about specific drug treatments.  Which ones worked? Are the side effects worse than the treatment?

It took too much time, but I've finally settled on a topic (or a slightly broad spectrum.) I was  going to pick something about food corporations/food contamination, but I've done other projects on food before, so I thought I would try something different.  My biggest concern is that my topic won't turn out to be a good one, or that I will lose interest.  I'll see how this goes.

Topic:
medical treatments of psychological disorders

Types of Psychological Disorders

Depressive

• Depression
• Bipolar disorder

Anxiety

• Phobias
• Stress
• Anxiety disorder
• Post-traumatic stress

Personality

• Multiple personality
• Paranoia
• OCD
• Schizophrenia

Behavioral

• Addictions
• ADHD
• Alcoholism  
• Autism

Eating

• Anorexia Nervosa
• Bulimia Nervosa

(Wrong Diagnosis)

What I wish to further investigate

Statistics
Drug treatment for various disorders
drug safety and regulations
drug recalls and testing
what we don't know
treatment history

Citations

"Psychology." Psychology. Web. 5 Jan 2010.
<http://p-s-y-c-h-o-l-o-g-y.blogspot.com/>.

"Psychological disorders ." Wrong Diagnosis. 05 Jan 2010. Health Grades Inc., Web. 5 Jan 2010. <http://www.wrongdiagnosis.com/p/psychological_disorders/intro.htm>.

Continuous problem of the moment:

I have yet to choose a topic

Perhaps...
- child abuse
- cloning
- abortion (Rob)

- food contamination/ disease (ex: mad cow & ecoli)
- child pornography

I fear I will choose a topic that I will be bored of in a week, or one that will take me nowhere.

Some research:

Did you know...

• about 5 children die everyday due to abuse (USA)
  http://www.childhelp.org/resources/learning-center/statistics
• Cows with mad cow disease can be fed to chickens that can be fed to cows that can be fed to humans.  Nice food chain?
• The amount of Internet child pornography pictures increased by 1500% since 1988
  http://www.enough.org/inside.php?id=2UXKJWRY8#3

I went to the Kendrick recreation center and talked to a senior lady working at the poll.  It seemed as those most of the people I saw there were fairly old, actually.  I asked her if she had been there last year for the Presidential election, and she said yes.  When I asked her is it was much difference from this year she nodded vigorously.  Last year there was a line of voters the entire day.  At the time I was there the room was pretty much empty.  
    The turnout was much less than last year, and apparently the place I went to had been doing better compared to other polling places.  Last year voters of all ages came.  She said there were a lot of enthusiastic young voters then, but not so many now.  Thats one of the reasons she enjoys working there.  She likes to meet new people and see them interested in voting.  When I asked her why she thought it was so slow, she said people don't see as much significance in this type of election because its mostly just judges.  Working there mostly just involves paper work/checking and double checking all sorts of lists.  Other than that, she said "the job is easy."

I think O'brian (in his story-true story) kind of deserved what he got in that section with bobby Jorgenson.  I don't mean the part where he got shot in the but and had gangrene; that was unlucky.  I mean the part where he tried to get back at Bobby for messing up the medical treatment, by trying to scare him.  I see that it must have really ticked him off to get a bad medical job.  He got infected and the guy responsible for it eventually fit in with the group, while he had to go off to the hospital.  Even still.  
Somewhere at the beginning of the book O'brian said you cant be at war with the enemy and your co-soldiers.  Thats sort of what happened.  During his "revenge" he couldn't do the whole thing and was left whimpering on the ground while Azar finished the set-up.  Thats what happens.  He got even, but still looked the fool.

pgs. 200-216

I was actually kind of let down when I found out The Things They Carried is fiction.  I thought it was true, maybe a slightly bent and mystified truth, but based on truth all the same.  No; it isn't.  I now can't read the book in the same way.  Its still interesting, but now I'm forced to read it from a slightly different angle.  Even though the stories are kind of wild, I almost wish they were true.  Then again I'm glad they're not.  Just because they didn't actually happen and some of the shocking things he wrote never took place, doesn't mean it didn't happen to other people who really fought.  I still wish I knew that before I started reading.

"story truth is sometimes truer than happening truth." (179)

I had to double check what he wrote a few times.  Some of that stuff was ridiculous.  He just pops up with these stories about his fellow soldiers, all the profound things they said and the crazy stuff they did.  Some guy pulled a buffalo into town and shot it up.  Hang on.  Ok.  Then he goes on to talk about the act of talking about war.  War stories are apparently ones that listeners almost can't believe.  Well yes.  I absorb all that stuff about buffalos and everything else in various stages of incredulity, but cant help thinking its a great read.  There's that interest, even though he's shooting up an animal in the face, to hold your breath and find out what he's going to shoot next.  

Sometimes when I read a book, there's something about it in the style of writing that seems different and interesting, but I can't seem to pinpoint what it is.  This is one of those books.  Tim O'Brien is descriptive, but then there's still something simplistic about they way he's written everything; plain-spoken.  It might be in the way he segments the writing, or how he returns to key points over and over.  It might be the way he talks about Ted Lavender and his tranquilizers or blowing up puppies, but it works.  

Today he crawls through a tunnel.  
Today a puppy dies.  
Now a helicopter ride, now marching, now death, and again.  
This is how things are.
 

 The first project of the year was just for review.  I had to write and sing a song describing my summer, using preterite and imperfect past tense verbs.  The first step was to just write each verse at a time and then put it together.  Afterwords we either chose an already existing melody, or make our own to sing over, and put the two together in GarageBand.  I chose an already existing song and matched my lyrics to that tempo.  

 Song mp3: click here

Song melody acknowledgement: "Fidelity" - Regina Spektor

I have never been a big fan of religion, not being brought up in a religious family.  I have never considered myself a spiritual person either and have never really stopped to think critically on what spirituality is.  
    Many of the religious participants in our discussion said that spirituality is, following your religion, believing in god, or simply just having faith.  (Looking back I wish that I had asked what they meant by ‘faith’, if they meant god, a higher power, religion, faith in the world, faith in existence? I am not sure.) I disagree.  I actually agree more with my selected spiritual thinker, the Dalai Lama, other Buddhists in the room and Nietzsche.  

Human lives are defined by their actions and relationships to the world and others around them.  People clump together into groups, societies and civilizations designed for organization and control.  Despite that, no matter what age or how civilized, humans will break down into chaos when given the bases for savage disorganization.  It is the intuitive and natural order of mankind.  William Golding emphasizes this idea in Lord of the Flies.  

The final advanced art project was a making a silk screen print.  The idea was to find or create an image that could be used as a print, draw it and turn it into a stencil.  Then we had to print the image onto a piece of paper or t-shirt.

We were assigned a figure drawing project to finish quarter three.  We were given a choice: copy a historical art figure, draw a historical art figure in your own way, or draw a life figure.  I chose to draw a life figure or a classmate.  I had to make three first draft sketches to see how I wanted the final to look.  I drew my classmate in three different positions, chose the best one, and made a new final with much more detail.  I am pleased with the way it turned out.  if i were to do it again I would probably make her sit it a more complex pose.  I didnt want her to get tired. 

 FINAL DRAWING

Prompt 1:

A city sports team gives everyone a sense of unity, accomplishment,

presense and hope.   Its an oportunity to feel signifigant and be happy in

victory with hundreds of other people.  It hasn't happened since 1980.  

For quarter three, our ninth grade class conducted a research on permeability.  We were split into pairs an given an egg to experiment with.  The idea was to put the egg into three different substances to see how permeable the egg mebrande was.   The active study of the egg took about two weeks.  After that we had to write a research lab paper on what we found. 

The class conducted a quarter long project about how American laws have affected African American history.  We were split into groups of two and given a US colony. The group had to research, analyse and summerize three colonial and three state laws.  In adition to that, the class made a timeline, an iWeb website page, a recorded and finally, this reflective paper on the whole project.  There was a rough draft and a finl draft of the paper.  Admitedly, neither was some of my best work.  If I could re do it, I would have put alot more time into the paper.

For this project we had to research an assigned topic with a group and find ways in which that topic or that person's work related to geometry and how geometry relates to the real world. 

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The Q1 benchamark assignment wa to write a 5 paragraph essay about one of three choices or our own Idea. I chose to talk about different levels of power women had in the book, Kindred, compared to the men/ power over the men. We wrote most of the essay at home, but then had a full class of editing time.  The teachers told us which words we should not use, to make our language more powerful. The project took about a week or a little more. I would not change anything if I could go back and re do it. The only thing I might change would be the corrections that Ms. Weinraub and Mr. Chase made when they graded it.