Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia has been in our society for many years and as time has passed our knowledge h has evolved to the best of the person’s interest throughout the years.  In the past, people, who had this mental illness, would be outcast by society due to their beliefs.  They would say the person with Schizophrenia was possessed by an evil spirit.  Since our knowledge has changed our views of what is Schizophrenia so has the treatments for it.  

Many years ago, Schizophrenia would be treated in a completely different manner than how it is treated nowadays.  People who were diagnosed with schizophrenia would be subjected to trial and error treatments which some would have lifetime side effects.  They would be institutionalized for the rest of their lives because doctors believed there was no cure or control of the illness.  There were different methods how schizophrenics would be treated in the past.  The most common methods were insulin shock, electroconvulsive therapy, and lobotomy.  These treatments were very unpleasant and dangerous.  Even though these were dangerous treatments, families of schizophrenic patients would still request them believing it could help their beloved ones.  

 Insulin Shock Therapy

 

 In our present days, everything has changed for the best.  Doctors have more knowledge on how schizophrenia is caused and how they can help the patients other than hurting them.  There is still no cure for schizophrenia but there are treatments that patients go through in a more humanely manner.  Now there are psychotherapies and medication treatments the patients can take for their illness.  They do not cure the illness but helps the people diagnosed with schizophrenia to have a better life and not be a danger for themselves. Our society has outgrown the way they would see and treat people with schizophrenia.   

 

Bipolar Disorder

Depression can happen to anyone, but there are different episodes that are diagnosed differently depending on the characteristics of emotions the person is going through.  It can be a mild depression or can be diagnosed as a severe disorder.  Some learn to cope with their illness and others go through denial believe it will go away on its own. 

A bipolar disorder is a manic-depressive illness, which causes unusual shifts of mood, energy, excitement, rambling speech, and the inability to go on with their normal daily tasks.  Some believe a bipolar disorder is usually heavy mood swings but it is actually more than that.  Someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder can be a danger to themselves and others.  It needs to be treated and observed at all times to avoid any episodes.  It usually begins in adult years before age 30 but it can happen to anybody, even young children or teenagers.  Children and teenagers can be diagnosed to bipolar disorder if any of their parents had bipolar disorder.  It goes by many names, such as, manic depression, bipolar mood disorder, or manic depressive disorder.  It is a manic-depressive illness due to the extreme mood changes from one minute to the other.  Sometimes they can be so happy and excited and suddenly their mood changes completely it gives a complete turnaround.   Since the patterns of their moods are not leveled it is a complex disorder to diagnose the first time. 

Bipolar disorder is classified in two categories:  bipolar I disorder and bipolar II disorder.  Bipolar I are episodes has manic episodes.  It also includes psychotic symptoms. In Bipolar II disorder there are hypomanic, milder manic, episodes.  This classification is less severe than Bipolar I because it does not have psychotic episodes or hallucinations. 

Even though this disorder sounds hectic because a person never knows when their emotion will change, it is still treatable and someone can live their life normal as anybody else but treatment is necessary.  The first medications given to someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder are mood stabilizing medications such as lithium.  There is no cure for bipolar disorder but treatment is available to control episodes. 

Here is a video of someone who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and he describes how his life came to be with this illness.

FEAR

 

Imagine being hold at gunpoint with nowhere to run?  Somebody with fully brain functionality would be scared out of their mind, figure of speech.  It would be so terrifying that it would not be easy to forget.  People get traumatized going through that horrific experience.  Fear is naturally needed in our system to show our emotions and protect us from life-threatening situations.  Without fear being an important mechanism in our body, we would be in danger if we would have a close encounter with a venomous snake, a fast car coming your way.  We, as human being, have the fear mechanism in our system to help us survive, but some people do not. 

Have you ever heard of Urbach-Wiethe disease?  This is a neurological disease that affects the amygdala region in our brain.  The amygdala regulates anxiety and fear in our body.  This disease is an unusual genetic disorder that slowly destroys the amygdala. Without the amygdala properly functioning fear is revoked from the system, and the person does not understand or feel what fear is. 

There is a women, SM, who has been studied by many scientists who has been diagnosed with Urbach-Wiethe disease.  She is not afraid of anything what normal people would be afraid of, no spiders, snakes, scary movies, and anything that can be frightful for us. 

Some might think without fear, there would no reason to be scared of anything and live a life without worries, but think about it without fear you would never know when your life is in danger just like the women, S.M., it can be such a risk not understanding the situation of not reacting with an emotion to avoid danger. 

I personally believe that fear, even though it is not a good emotion, helps us to stay alive and alert throughout our life.  I prefer of reacting from getting away of a spider or snake than just be there and see what could happen, the farther the better for me.