Schizophrenia

There are many things about schizophrenia that remain a mystery. A common myth is that people who suffer from schizophrenia will never recover when in fact there are multiple effective treatments. For someone with this disorder, the world is a jumble of confusing and disturbing thoughts, images and sounds. Symptoms of schizophrenia include delusions, hallucinations, thought disorder and disorganized behavior; however some symptoms can also be attributed to other mental disorders. One definition for schizophrenia is that it is a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental fragmentation (in general use) a mentality or approach characterized by inconsistent or contradictory elements (google web dictionary). Imagine yourself trying to carry on a conversation with another person while being bombarded with voices coming from all over, these voices may constantly be telling you to do things or they may be insulting and make you angry. Situations like these are real for the people who experience them. The images and sounds do not seem in any way a trick of their imagination or something that can simply be ignored. Hallucinations and schizophrenic delusions can happen at any time of day or night. I’ve included a link here which provides many interesting facts about this disorder. The most common treatment for schizophrenia involves therapy and medications (antipsychotics). Treatments are usually ongoing and lifelong but they can provide much help especially in cases that involve suicidal thoughts. Living with schizophrenia involves many challenges but with a positive and supportive atmosphere there can be a steady growth of independence.

Mood Disorder

When we think of a mood disorder the first that are likely to come to mind are depression, bipolar disorder and seasonal affective disorder. This is because they are very common. I believe we have all at some point in our lives felt some type of variation in our mood. In a mood disorder the symptoms are tied down to how we feel. Some of us are usually in a moderate type of mood, while others may feel at an extreme low or other times in a state of euphoria. Another characteristic of mood disorder is when the mood gets stuck. While most of us may feel worse or better depending on what is going on in our lives, others may remain in profound despair or in an unrealistically high and exhilarated state of being as is the case with bipolar disorder.  I wanted to include a visual aid to help illustrate what a person with this condition might feel during this condition and was able to find a video in which a person who suffers from a mood disorder tries to put us in a first person view of the condition. It gave me a much clearer idea of how impacting this disorder really is.

Mood disorders do not discriminate and it can affect any person. I most recently read online that Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr is currently undergoing treatment for depression and young teen celebrity Demi Lovato has also expressed how her diagnosis with bipolar disorder has affected her life. I have no idea what it is to go through everything that people go through with mood disorders but I’m glad to see public figures are willing to talk about it and let others know their story which can encourage others to seek treatment. Mood disorders are chronic illnesses that can be successfully managed and treated with medication, sleep and stress management and psycho-education. Family can be a valuable resource in helping a person with a mood disorder by positively encouraging them to fully participate in his or her own treatment. This can be done by simply monitoring medications, providing emotional support and helping with financial means. Having an effective treatment can help a person return to their normal work or home life. Also, by eliminating any negative behaviors a person with mood disorders can lead a productive, safe life.

Stress

Just because I’m running around in circles for ten minutes looking for my car keys without realizing that they’re in my left hand all that time does not mean I am undergoing stress. Or does it? The bad thing is that it’s not the first time this has happened in the same week. Ok, so maybe I am working too much and taking too many classes at the same time, but I can handle it! I’ve noticed that I say this to myself a lot. Recently, like I mentioned with the keys incident, I have experienced memory problems and difficulty concentrating along with some moodiness and irritability; I’m normally not like this, honest! So then let me just go ahead and admit that stress is not something that I had ever considered to be a health problem, until now. In my research on stress I came to find that it can actually lead to many serious future health complications. Stress is defined as an organism's total response to events that make you feel threatened or can upset your balance in some way. The body is wired to deal with different types of stress in different ways. The following video provides an illustration of how this works.

How much stress is too much depends from person to person. Some people just roll with the punches while others may crumble at the slightest frustration, which is why it is important to know one’s own limits. People’s ability to tolerate stress depends on several factors like their support network, sense of control, attitude and outlook towards their future. In reading about stress I’ve learned that long term exposure to stress can cause serious health problems like high blood pressure, depression, obesity, autoimmune diseases, and sleep problems just to name a few. While it is practically impossible to eliminate stress from our life, the good news is that we all have the power to reduce the impact of it. With practice we can learn how to stay in control when the pressure builds and recognize when it’s time to give our body a break. I know for me, listening to soft music and a bubble bath works wonders. Knowing that we have the ability to bring ourselves back into balance gives us confidence to keep moving forward in facing new challenges.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA)

About a month ago, my dad told me that he was diagnosed with a sleeping disorder known as obstructive sleep apnea and I was surprised to learn that this condition causes him to stop breathing during his regular sleep. This was very confusing to me since I could not imagine how this happens. Sleep disorders include a range of problems, from narcolepsy to insomnia. I did a little “Googling” in order to help me get a better sense of it all. Obstructive sleep apnea is basically a disorder in which a person experiences abnormal pauses in breathing during sleep; some will stop breathing for a few seconds to a full minute. In my attempt for a better understanding of that, I imagined it was something like extreme snoring.  Little did I know sleep apnea is much worse, since after doing this repeatedly during one night it can deprive a person's brain from some much needed oxygen due to a buildup of carbon dioxide in the blood. This build up requires the heart to pump harder to try to remove the excess carbon dioxide from the blood.  This adds a great deal of stress on the heart, especially if it occurs repeatedly. I have added a video here with an illustrative overview.

 

 

Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious condition that can have some devastating effects on the body if it goes untreated. The effects of this condition vary depending on the severity of it. In the beginning the side effects may only be that the person feels tired and drowsy during the day. They may feel as if they are never able to get a good night of sleep no matter how long they are in bed. I am glad to know that there are many treatments, from lifestyle changes like losing weight to surgery, but the most common is the use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), which is a machine that delivers air pressure through a mask placed over your nose while you sleep. Many people don’t like having to sleep with something on their head but it has proven immediate results and a relief in symptoms. People who do not see a change in their symptoms are people who do not follow through with the treatment. With regards to my dad, he complains of sounding like Darth Vader, but I think that’s sort of cool.

Girl...? or Boy..?

The suspense is torture; will it be a boy or a girl? Very important question and it can become the central focus of a woman’s first part of pregnancy. One thing is for sure, it helps to know the sex of the baby in order to shop for baby clothes and pick out the color of the nursery. But on a more serious note, a baby’s sex is determined at the time of conception. While on my journey for information on this subject I came across an interesting website that gives a step-by-step explanation on how a babies sex is established, you can access it here. When the baby is conceived, a chromosome from the sperm cell, either X or Y, fuses with the X chromosome in the egg cell, determining whether the baby will be female or male. Two X’s means the baby will be a girl and XY means it will be a boy the following video gives a short explanation on this.

 Even though gender is determined at conception, the fetus doesn’t develop its external sexual organs until the fourth month of pregnancy. At seven weeks after conception you can see that the fetus appears to be sexually indifferent, looking neither male nor female. Over the next five weeks, the fetus begins producing hormones that cause its sex organs to grow into either male or female organs. This process is called sexual differentiation. If the fetus is going to be a male, it will produce hormones called androgens, which will cause his sexual organs to form. On the other hand, a female fetus would not produce androgens; she would produce estrogens. I have also included a video here in reference to this.

 

We all want to have healthy babies, but it is common to have a preference as to what sex we want our baby to be. I would consider this to be a matter of what sex we feel more familiar with. Women perhaps would prefer to have a little girl since she knows how to identify with her and a man may desire a son being that he was once a little boy himself. But in the end we all settle for whatever we get so long as the baby’s health is not a concern. Thank you for reading! :)