Schizophrenia: one of many types of mental illnesses that is able to stretch and mold one’s inner mind and emotions to monstrous proportions. Imagine the person that holds your affection the most, a spouse, a family member, a close friend, anyone, now imagine that person writhing with anger to an extreme extent within the confines of their own mind. Behavior such as that of schizophrenia is what columnist Steve Lopez tries to describe in his novel, The Soloist. And the character of the mentally ill Nathaniel Ayers, for instance, is not only the main reflection for Lopez’s interaction with a schizophrenic mind, but is only a part of what the novel has to deliver to the reader. In a brief summary, the entire novel consists of Steve Lopez: columnist
“Having anxiety and depression is like being scared and tired at the same time. It 's the fear of failure but no urge to be productive. It 's wanting friends but not socializing. It 's wanting to be alone but not wanting to be lonely. It 's caring about everything then caring about nothing. It 's feeling everything at once than feeling paralysingly numb,” writes Maria Henriksson. Mental illness refers to many conditions that individuals could go through. For example depression, addictive behaviors, and eating disorder have effects that could indicate whether or not an individual has a mental illness. In the novel The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, Holden faces many hardships after his brother 's death. Holden 's mental illness is inferred through his lack of control, isolating himself from others, and relieving the past which caused him to not move
Schizophrenia is a chronic mental disorder that is most commonly associated with delusion and hallucinations. It has been estimated that 0.4-0.7% of people develop schizophrenia, with the mental health condition being equally prevalent in both men and women (Saha et al., 2005). It is a particularly expensive illness due to its severity, reportedly costing the U.S. around $62.7 billion in 2002, with unemployment the most significant factor causing this staggering figure (Wu et al., 2005).
Another way that Jim Stevens used symbolism in the poem Schizophrenia, was by using the appearance of the house on not only the inside but also the outside to represent the way outsiders see the family as opposed to the way the family actually is. The outside of the house is representing what the family is showing to others, they do not put up a perfect front, but it is not nearly as hurt as the inside. In reality, the inside of the house is what the whole family is really dealing with, and what it actually looks and feels like to have schizophrenia. The inside of the house is talked about much more than the outside because Jim Stevens wants the reader to understand that the family is hurting from the schizophrenia on the inside and trying
During the Vietnam War the soldiers, whether or not they wanted to be there, many of them developed mental illnesses. The things they would experience would cause burdens on them for the rest of their lives. “Ted Lavender, who was scared, carried tranquilizers until he was shot in the head outside the village of Than Khe in mid-April.” (The Things They Carried) Lavender carried tranquilizers until he died, because he was scared. This is one the effects war had on people. Due to cultural aspects these soldiers were burdened by drugs, the environment and social pressure to perform well, ultimately effecting their state of mind.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, by Ken Kesey, considers the qualities in which society determines sanity. The label of insanity is given when someone is different from the perceived norm. Conversely, a person is perceived as sane when their behavior is consistent with the beliefs of the majority. Although the characters of this novel are patients of a mental institution, they all show qualities of sanity. The book is narrated by Chief Brodmen, an observant chronic psychiatric patient, who many believe to be deaf and dumb. The question of sanity becomes apparent when McMurphy, a confident gambler, who might have faked psychosis in order to get out of the work farm, is assigned to the mental hospital. He quickly stirs up tension in the ward for Nurse Ratched by encouraging the men to have fun and rebel against her rules.
The birth of hip hop took place in the Bronx, New York , during a time of poverty , Initially when Hip Hop first came about no one would have imagined how vastly and quickly it grew nor would they have predicted the influence on society it has today. This particular enriched and animated, genre of music went from the local backwoods of the projects to a multi millionaire industry. If you ask most people today their definition of Hip Hop , generally they would say a cool rhyming scheme with a hook and a catchy tune, which is not too far off. But it is much deeper than that .Hip hop is a form of expression like a factory , if you may . You take the reality of the world or the “ bad,” you ball it around with the latest slang, trends and
A house characterized by its moody occupants in "Schizophrenia" by Jim Stevens and the mildewing plants in "Root Cellar" by Theodore Roethke, fighting to stay alive, are both poems that reluctantly leave the reader. The house in "Schizophrenia" raises sympathy for the state the house was left in and an understanding of how schizophrenia works as an illness. In "Root Cellar", the conditions disgust at first, but then uncover a humanly desperate will to live in the plants. Both poems contribute to their vivid meaning by way of well placed sensory details and surprising personification.
As two people play a game of rock-paper-scissors, they both weigh out the options of choosing one of the three choices. As they think of which hand gesture to choose, there are unknowingly using game theory to predict the outcome of their choices. Game theory is the mathematical study of how people make rational/irrational decisions or choices in games. John Von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern invented the modern way people think about game theory in the year 1944, in the almost indecipherable book titled Theory of Games and Economic Behavior (1). Another man who helped to pioneer game theory was John Nash, who is a schizophrenic with a brilliant mind. Sylvia Nasar wrote a
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, in the book Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General, reports that “[o]f children ages 9 to 17, 21 percent have a diagnosable mental or addictive disorder that causes at least minimal impairment” (http://www2.nami.org/Template.cfm?Section=federal_and_state_policy_legislation&template=/ContentManagement/ContentDisplay.cfm&ContentID=43804). With numbers as high as twenty-one percent, this is an issue that is probably more widespread than we realize it is. Statistics like these raise many questions as to just how many characters are afflicted with mental illnesses. One such case is Holden from the book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, who may have any of a number of mental illnesses
Andrea showed signs of severe mental illness before, during, and after the crime had taken place. It was clear that Andrea’s judgment had been impaired more often than not. The extent of Andrea Yates’s mental health issues were shown through many documented psychotic episodes of hallucinations, delusions, attempted suicides, eccentric behaviors, and homicidal ideations. Over the course of the births of her five children, Andrea went through many treatments, psychiatric hospitalizations, and antipsychotic drug therapies. According to Deborah Denno, Founding Director of the Neuroscience and Law Center, Andrea’s struggle with postpartum began to appear following the birth of her first child, in which she experienced hallucinations of stabbing someone with a knife (Denno, 2003). After the birth of her fourth child, Andrea attempted suicide twice, once by overdose, and the second by holding a knife to her own throat (McLellan, 2006). Yates had also suffered from delusions in which she believed that cameras had been placed in her home in order to monitor the quality of her mothering, and that her defective parenting would cause all of her children to burn in hell (Resnick, 2007). Yates held the belief that she had failed her children in the eyes of god, and became fixated on biblical scripture. Despite medical advice to not have any more children in order to prevent postpartum relapse, Andrea and Rusty continued to grow their family. In order to become pregnant, Andrea discontinued her use of antipsychotic medication. The discontinuation of medication prompted more psychotic episodes, which resulted in further hospitalization. In many instances, when Andrea was being treated in mental health facilities, doctors would often release her before the end of her treatment due to insurance no longer covering her stay. Any progress that was being made under psychiatric care was cut short, and as a
When Andrea first became ill and it was never diagnosed to be postpartum depression and psychosis, many people told Rusty that she needed help and he failed to acknowledge that until he was forced to. And even when it was presented that she was not stable, he still allowed Andrea to be alone with the children, as well as homeschool them. Even after Andrea first attempted suicide, she was still allowed to be alone with her children full time. At the time of deciding whether or not to declare Andrea guilty, prosecutors also questioned whether or not to charge Rusty with crimes of omission and child endangerment (“Was Russell Yates Culpable?”) and after that, Rusty then began to point fingers at Andrea’s doctors and also Andrea. Before he was being questioned, he stated “Part of me blames her because she did it but part of me doesn’t blame her because it wasn’t her… she had psychotic side effects of her depression that lead her to do this ”. (“A Mother’s Madness”), so essentially, he began to put more blame on her once he was becoming more culpable to prosecutors. Another factor that could lead to some of the responsibility being put on Rusty is the fact that when Andrea had her fourth child, doctors and psychiatrists warned him that having another kid could lead to more problems after birth. And after a year or so, they had another kid. Rusty knew the potential effects of having another child and had they not, the case could have been
Many people in our society refuse to think that mental illness is something real or that it affects many people. Mental illness is something that is looked over and never gets any real attention. Many people are not able to get help because they don’t have the resources or it is considered to feminine. “The C-Word in the Hallways” by Anna Quindlen and the book, The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger and the movie Dead Poets Society, explore society’s attitude towards teenage mental health. Anna Quindlen explained that if people aren’t able to get proper mental health care, then they could possibly do something harmful to themselves or others. In Catcher in the Rye, if Holden had not been institutionalized, then he would have likely committed
In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash, a mathematician, suffers from schizophrenia. This is a harrowing disorder, as mentioned previously, that causes abnormal thought and emotion processes, strange or false views of reality, and, occasionally, abnormal motor functions. These people often struggle to function on a personal level, in social interactions, as well as in the work setting. This disorder often presents between the late teens and the mid-thirties (Comer, 2015, p. 466). John Nash presented with signs and symptoms of schizophrenia when he attended graduate school, putting him in the later years for diagnosis. NEW PARAGRAPH? In addition, schizophrenia is a spectrum disorder and has three phases: prodromal, active, and residual. The prodromal phase involves the beginning of mental deterioration with symptoms being less obvious. This phase often includes withdrawing from society and social
Why do the people of today still associate stigma, shame and blame with mental health issues? Mental health issues are extremely and widely misunderstood. Despite the fact one in four people are likely to experience some kind of mental health problem a year in the United Kingdom. “Mental health is a person’s condition with regard to their psychological and emotional well-being and it affects how we feel, think and act. It also helps to determine how we handle situations such as stress, how we relate to others and how we make decisions. Considering mental health issues are so prominent in our day to day lives, why is it that they’re so vastly misapprehended?