Month: September 2016

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Now and Then

At some point in my life I was 325lbs of pure fat. This was a result of me eating too much (having a sweet tooth and loving junk food) and not working out, I did not have any health conditions that caused me to be fat. Something as little as climbing up the stairs to get to my room, would get me breathing heavily and sweating. Looking myself in the mirror was always very difficult because my man-boobs and love-handles would irritate and make me feel uncomfortable. I remember all the insults I received from some of my family members, peers, and even strangers about my weight. Some of them were being hateful and bullies, but most of them were actually just trying to help/motivate me to lose weight. It didn’t matter if they had good or bad intentions, I was always sensitive about my weight.

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They Say I Have Her Eyes, Did I Also Inherit His Pain

CW: This post deals with trauma and the resulting mental repercussions and includes mentions of sexual assault and the holocaust.

 

Ever since I was a baby, people have compared me to my parents. When I was younger, my parents would often be told I resembled my father. As I grew older, the comments changed. I was now told I look almost exactly like my mother. I got my mother’s acute sense of smell and taste. It’s easy to point out the observable traits I inherited from my mother, but I may have gotten even more than that. According to recent scientific studies, my mental health may have been affected by my mother’s trauma. Continue reading →

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Balancing Happiness With Acceptance

Every child, for the most part, growing up, regardless of race, religion, ethnicity, social hierarchy, or where they are raised, are wished success, wealth, and health from their parental units. Only in the F-ed up situations, where the parents are really scummy people, do they not want the best for their offspring, or their adopts. But focusing primarily on the “good parents” or the parents who desire to see their children succeed, it is a unanimous trait to want a better life for their children versus the life that they had. This becomes possible through sacrifice, determination, and patience. With all of this being said, it is a responsibility for the child to achieve so much because of  what their parents are giving up in order for them to accomplish the dreams they have for themselves and the dreams that the parents have for them. Continue reading →

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Mental disorder, where mind, body, and society meet and create identities

Thinking about mental health, part 1:

I begin this post with a question: How can we tell if someone has a mental disorder? According to the National Alliance for Mental Health, “a mental illness is a disease that causes mild to severe disturbances in thought and/or behavior, resulting in an inability to cope with life’s ordinary demands and routines.” According to Wikipedia, it is “is a diagnosis, most often by a psychiatrist, of a behavioral or mental pattern that may cause suffering or a poor ability to function in life.”

What’s most interesting to me is that there are two parts to the definition- “A disturbance in mental thought/pattern”, and “Affects the individuals’ ability to function in life.” Taken at face values, these make perfect sense, if someone has abnormal mental thoughts and it makes them unable to function normally, then they have a mental disorder. Now, what are we comparing “abnormal” to? The “normal” identity, which has been crafted by society.

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Number 1 excitement

I struggle to type (I’m a great typist, 88 wpm, not to brag or anything) that I suffer from chronic illness.  I have an idiopathic immune system “issue” that makes my body more susceptible to bacterial/viral infections.  Despite being more wordy, for whatever reason, that’s a lot easier for me to type.  So basically, I get sick. A lot.

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