Enter The Simpsons Movie Contest with me!
More Information About The Simpsons Movie Contest
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How about a short break away from Mental Wellness/Illness issues?
I'm entering The Simpsons Movie Contest that Fox TV and Opera (yes, the browser people) have put together recently. Contest ends July 27th - that's only 7 days from now, so enter The Simpsons Movie Contest with me before the 27th!
I have to run - I have to make sure that my friends have this information. I'm in a rush because I just found out about the contest a few hours ago.
More Information About The Simpsons Movie Contest
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I hope you'll enter the contest. Winner announcement will be on the 27th, the day that The Simpsons Movie premiers! I hope you win the contest!
Good Luck!
Friday, July 20, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
Back To The Topic of Self-Harm
I noticed a post in the 'comments' area of the 'Self-Harm' post a while back and have been surprised that it didn't gain some more comments. I think that it's a really good bit of information, so I've decided to bring it up front and copy it as an entry on its own so that people can see it.
"Vanessa Vega said...
Self-injury remains one of the most misunderstood disorders in the world. Because it is a disorder rooted in shame, few sufferers will come foreward and share their experiences. I am hoping to change that.
I have struggled with self-injury for more than 30 years. I have never met anyone else who self-injures or thinks the way I do. And yet I cannot imagine that I am alone. After many months of intensive therapy, I have come to understand some of the underlying factors behind my behavior. As a result, I have just celebrated my first year of being injury free! It has been a long, hard journey, but a deeply insightful one. It is my hope that by speaking out and claiming my behavior, others will have the confidence they need to seek out help. I have a blog and would love love visitors and comments! http://comes_the_light.livejournal.com "
I hope that readers will visit Vanessa's link. Vanessa's material at her Live Journal location is very down to earth, and personally revealing, and I think she is right in saying "Speak out" and claim your behaviors because it does, indeed, help other people gain the confidence they need to ask for help.
People need to know that they aren't experiencing symptoms of mental illness 'all alone.' Millions of people worldwide experience symptoms of mental illness and they need to speak out and gain help just like someone who has fallen while running might need to see a doctor and have a sprained ankle or broken ankle tended to properly. A person who falls while running isn't a freak. Maybe they aren't even clumsy - a fall can just happen. Mental Illness can just happen, too.
I haven't read ALL of Vanessa's posts on her Live Journal blog yet, so I'm going there now to finish reading
"Vanessa Vega said...
Self-injury remains one of the most misunderstood disorders in the world. Because it is a disorder rooted in shame, few sufferers will come foreward and share their experiences. I am hoping to change that.
I have struggled with self-injury for more than 30 years. I have never met anyone else who self-injures or thinks the way I do. And yet I cannot imagine that I am alone. After many months of intensive therapy, I have come to understand some of the underlying factors behind my behavior. As a result, I have just celebrated my first year of being injury free! It has been a long, hard journey, but a deeply insightful one. It is my hope that by speaking out and claiming my behavior, others will have the confidence they need to seek out help. I have a blog and would love love visitors and comments! http://comes_the_light.livejournal.com "
I hope that readers will visit Vanessa's link. Vanessa's material at her Live Journal location is very down to earth, and personally revealing, and I think she is right in saying "Speak out" and claim your behaviors because it does, indeed, help other people gain the confidence they need to ask for help.
People need to know that they aren't experiencing symptoms of mental illness 'all alone.' Millions of people worldwide experience symptoms of mental illness and they need to speak out and gain help just like someone who has fallen while running might need to see a doctor and have a sprained ankle or broken ankle tended to properly. A person who falls while running isn't a freak. Maybe they aren't even clumsy - a fall can just happen. Mental Illness can just happen, too.
I haven't read ALL of Vanessa's posts on her Live Journal blog yet, so I'm going there now to finish reading
PTSD - More Common Than You Think
You may think that PTSD only happens to victims of war, rape, deliberate psychological abuse and things like that. You might think that PTSD only happens in soldiers, abused people, and people who have experienced severe accidents like plane crashes, automobile accidents and things like this.
You couldn't be more wrong!
Though the types of events mentioned above do contribute to causing PTSD and the types of people above often develop PTSD, there are a lot more details to the condition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that need to be considered.
A person considered more 'emotionally sensitive' than those around him/her may experience certain events as 'traumatic,' whereas peers do not. In a sense, a main 'requirement' for developing PTSD is pretty simple:
If a person's response to an event or situation involves intense fear, feelings of helplessness, or horror...
This can lead to PTSD symptoms where the affected person might:
* Have recurrent recollections of the experience (thoughts, feelings, 'impressions' and perceptions)
* Have nightmares
* Feel, at times, as though the event is happening again (reliving the experience)
* Be triggered by visual, audio or any kind of 'cues' associated with even a small part of the event - and react severely to these triggers while experiencing intense psychological distress (panic, fear, despair, hopelessness, anger, etc)
There are more symptoms, but these are some basic ones.
Children often experience these symptoms if they have been exposed to violent videos at too young an age, before their 'life experience,' emotional and mental capabilities are able to sort out 'reality' from 'fantasy.' In certain cases, it would be correct to determine a child as suffering from PTSD - if they are having recurring nightmares, are having trouble determining that the experience is 'over' and instead, are 'reliving' the memory over and over again - if they feel intense fear, hopelessness, are feeling 'horrified' by whatever they have seen.
On a different note, it is possible that PTSD can also circulate on a mass level and reach people who do not actually experience DIRECT contact with a traumatic event. And example of this is how people reacted, internationally, to 9/11 with horror, fear, and hopelessness.
Do you think that there are still residual PTSD sufferers from 9/11 who weren't even in New York during the disaster?
You couldn't be more wrong!
Though the types of events mentioned above do contribute to causing PTSD and the types of people above often develop PTSD, there are a lot more details to the condition of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder that need to be considered.
A person considered more 'emotionally sensitive' than those around him/her may experience certain events as 'traumatic,' whereas peers do not. In a sense, a main 'requirement' for developing PTSD is pretty simple:
If a person's response to an event or situation involves intense fear, feelings of helplessness, or horror...
This can lead to PTSD symptoms where the affected person might:
* Have recurrent recollections of the experience (thoughts, feelings, 'impressions' and perceptions)
* Have nightmares
* Feel, at times, as though the event is happening again (reliving the experience)
* Be triggered by visual, audio or any kind of 'cues' associated with even a small part of the event - and react severely to these triggers while experiencing intense psychological distress (panic, fear, despair, hopelessness, anger, etc)
There are more symptoms, but these are some basic ones.
Children often experience these symptoms if they have been exposed to violent videos at too young an age, before their 'life experience,' emotional and mental capabilities are able to sort out 'reality' from 'fantasy.' In certain cases, it would be correct to determine a child as suffering from PTSD - if they are having recurring nightmares, are having trouble determining that the experience is 'over' and instead, are 'reliving' the memory over and over again - if they feel intense fear, hopelessness, are feeling 'horrified' by whatever they have seen.
On a different note, it is possible that PTSD can also circulate on a mass level and reach people who do not actually experience DIRECT contact with a traumatic event. And example of this is how people reacted, internationally, to 9/11 with horror, fear, and hopelessness.
Do you think that there are still residual PTSD sufferers from 9/11 who weren't even in New York during the disaster?
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