Assisted Suicide

http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/12/16/swiss-suicide-tourism/

The article i have decided to blog about is on Assisted Suicide. It is becoming a more and more popular thing in recent years for people with terminal illnesses to go over to other countries and get assisted in basically comiting suicide. The person simply drinks a glass of water laced with sodium pentobarbital and within 30 minutes they die peacefully. An observer described it like a person drifting peacefully to sleep.

This whole issue is very controversial and i thought it would be an interesting topic to "blog" about. I am honestly not sure what i feel about it. I can see where it would be a very reasonable and good idea, but then i think... wait.. after they do this.. that's it.. they are GONE.

For people with terminal illnesses who have been suffering for years and years this may seem like a great resort and option to consider... but the only problem i see is that what if a couple of months or even days after ther person does this "procedure" the doctors have a HUGE breakthrough and end up finding a cure. The person's life was cut short, but even if that did happen... it is still a VERY small chance.

Honestly, i really do not know what to think...

Personality Tests

On the first exam i took, the HUMANMETRICS Jung Typology Test, i was told that i was an ENTJ. It said that i have a distinctively expressed extravert, moderately expressed intuitive personality, moderately expressed thinking personality, and slightly expressed judging personality. I dont know if i fully agree with the evaluation, but some of it seems to be true... i guess?


Next i took the attractive test and surprisingly it said that i was not attracted to intelligent girls.... somehow i disagree with this, but i guess it's just a test. Also said that i found the girls were "trendy" were attractive.

Third, i took the True Crime test and found that i am not likely to be attracted to a criminal. Also, it said that i have very little sympathy for criminals.

Next, i took the relationship survey which said that i fit into these 2 categories.

Low scorers tend to be comfortable with the perceived availability and responsiveness of their partner. They may be warm and affectionate (when combined with low attachment avoidance), or they may value their independence and be comfortable without a close relationship (when combined with high attachment avoidance). Low attachment anxiety is associated with higher relationship stability and greater ease in social situations. For women, low anxiety is associated with providing more support to their partners in stressful situations. For men, low anxiety is associated with higher relationship satisfaction.

Low scorers tend to be more comfortable in intimate relationships and are more secure about depending on others and having others depend on them. They may approach close relationships with a flexible sense of self-confidence (when combined with low attachment avoidance), or they may be uncomfortable without a relationship and be heavily dependent on their partner as a source of support and worth (when combined with high attachment anxiety). Low attachment avoidance is associated with higher relationship closeness and more positive descriptions of relationship partners (both romantic and non-romantic), as well as with greater friendliness and more frequent positive facial expressions (such as smiling). For women, low avoidance is associated with higher relationship satisfaction.

Lastly, i took the sims personality test and it told me that i was very neat, outgoing, and active. I was mildly playful and nice.

DISORDER

Dear Mom and Dad,

These first few weeks at college have been VERY frustrating. Im already fed up with most of the things going on around me. My room mate is so messy. My exact half of the room is spotless while his side is dirty with clothes on the floor, an unmade bed, and trash on his desk. It really bothers me, and everytime i go to clean it up, since he obviously cant do it himself, he gets offended. Another problem comes with the projects and homework i have had. The teacher gave us group projects and i have stayed up till 4am every night perfecting it, since my group members cant ever do anything right. They always have grammar and spelling errors that really bug me, so i end up redoing their whole part to make it perfect. Lastly, nothing is organized here. The cafeteria has a sign which says it opens at exactly 6:00 am, but when i was there promptly at 6, it was still not open. I had to wait 7 minutes for it to open. Another example is the day we moved in here. Nothing was on schedule. I was set to move into my room at 4:45 pm, but i had to wait 14 whole minutes because they said there was a "delay" with the people before me. It is so unorganized it just really bugs me. Hopefully people can fix all the problems that flood this place. Hope to see you in about 13 days and 4 hours!

Love,
Shaadi

Case Study 1: Amy, age 38, is a worrier. She is restless, irritable and has difficulty concentrating. She worries that she worries so much and isn’t always sure what it is that she is worried about. She can’t let her husband or children leave the house without making them call her regularly to reassure her that they are ok. Her husband is growing weary of her fretting. Her children can’t understand what all the fuss is about. Their impatience with her only makes her worry more.


Amy has Generalized Anxiety Disorder. With this disorder, there are six main symptoms: (1) restlessness or feeling keyed up or on edge (2) being easily fatigued (3) difficulty concentrating or mind going blank (4) irritability (5) muscle tension (6) sleep disturbance (difficulty falling or staying asleep, or restless unsatisfying sleep) . Amy has atleast three of the above. She is always restless, she has difficulty concentrating, and she is very irritable. With Generalized Anxiety Disorder, the patient finds it difficult to control their worries, and, at times, the patient worries about how much they are worrying. This shows the extent to which this disorder causes problems with the patient. This disorder does not only cause problems for the patient, it also causes problems to the people that are around the patient. It can be very stressful and frustrating to always have to deal with the worry-er.

There are a couple of ways to treat Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The first, which might not always be the best would be to give the patient anti-depressants. These might be effective, but they might cause future problems with dependence. Psychotherapy might also be an option, depending on the case; the two can even be combined. Relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing, might also be recommended. Lastly, the patient should try to avoid substances that trigger anxiety such as caffeine.

Source: http://www.johnshopkinshealthalerts.com/symptoms_remedies/generalized_anxiety_disorder/75-1.html

http://www.behavenet.com/capsules/disorders/gad.htm

Kurt Cobain: A Legen Cut Short

Kurt Cobain was a very talented and emerging rock star. At an early age, his talent was evident and his band, Nirvana, emerged into the main stream music with their lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which proved to be a huge hit. Nirvana became one of the most famous rock bands of its time. Because of Nirvana, and Kurt Cobain's lead singing abilities, a new subgroup of rock was formed. All this fame was not welcome for Kurt Cobain, so he took all the stress and began to drink and do drugs to relieve it. This just made everything worse and worse.

Kurt Cubain, the former lead singer of Nirvana, died at the early age of 27. His life was cut short because of his drastic decision to commit suicide. This suicide was the final result of many years of both acute depression and a bipolar disorder [also known as manic-depression]. Bipolar disorder causes many simptoms including mood swings, which present as rage, euphoria, high energy, irritability, distractibility, overconfidence, and other symptoms. All these made life extermely hard for Kurt. He turned to drugs and alcohol as a means to "soothe" the pain in his life. Another thing that made Kurt at a higher risk of suicide was that suicide had already occured in his faimly, putting him at higher risk.

Although many may not see the severity of both acute depression and bipolar disorders, it is apparent that they can have HUGE side effects on the brain and ability to think rationally. No normal person would ever think that suicide is the right path to take, no matter how hard their lives are. It was also shown that Kurt had these illnesses since the beginning of his life. As a teenager, he had been diagnosed, but nothing was done about it. This just goes to show that it is important to be both aware of the symptoms and aware that there is a means to get passed these illnesses.

Source:

http://www.ahealthyme.com/topic/cobainqa

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurt_Cobain

http://www.geneticfutures.com/cracked/info/sheet13.asp