First Impression: Mental Health Treatment

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

When it comes to mental health, the first thing that comes to mind for mental health treatment is the image of a therapist, asking them about their personal life while the patient lays on a sofa. For therapy, there is more than one form of treatment and different dynamics for identifying and coping with a person’s mental health.

First, there is psychodynamic therapy. It follows the standard role of weekly visits to a therapist’s office, following simple conversations about the patient’s personal experience in their life. It mainly helps with understanding current mental health problems and mapping out solutions from their perspective. Humanistic therapy is meant to fulfill the patient’s sense of self-fulfillment, following a path of growth and taking responsibility to their own emotions. Behavioral therapy allows the patient to understand that their reaction towards a certain problem is overexaggerated, like stressing over a test if the logical solution is to study beforehand.

Finally, cognitive therapy is similar to behavioral therapy, but it also follows a person’s generalized thoughts on events and memories. When related to depression, people overgeneralize certain responses as criticism, insults, or pity; letting the therapy work past the ideology that a negative event needs to result in negative thinking of their self or others.

In my opinion, depending on the mental health problem, I believe that cognitive therapy is more probable because it helps to work past a person’s tendency to over-rationalize any situation or response to something that works with or against their general understanding. No matter the case, therapy is one of many ways to solve problems with a person’s mental health, and the general idea of someone else helping them through their own problems and thoughts is an important step to recovery.

Media Production Project: Correllation between Stress and Sleep

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

As far as anyone knows, sleep is a very important aspect of life. While it helps people feel refreshed and energized in the morning, it also helps repair the body and sort out old and new memories for the next day. However, there are different stressors in life that may disrupt a person’s good night sleep, leading to a stressful night and stressful morning.

A study performed by the University of Surrey tests a group of lab mice for the connection between lasting stress and the subsequent change of sleep cycles. In a nine-week period, the mice were introduced to the scent of a predator on random intervals, increasing stress measuring the changes in rapid-eye movement sleep (REM) and non-REM sleep (nREM). During that time, mice exposed to the stressor decrease social activity with other mice, and increase in depressive behavior.

As for sleep cycles, mild stress increases REM activity in the mices’ brain, while nREM stays the same. With the increase in REM sleep, which is in between wakefulness and sleep, generally prevents the body to repair itself and reduce stress in of itself, leading to less energy in the morning.

With the information made, the increase of mild stressors in life may lead to a stressful waking experience, and if the effect continues, may cause symptoms of antisocial behavior and depression.

So while people encounter their own forms of stress on a near-daily basis, too much stress can be just as detrimental as any tragedy, big or small.

For more information on the topic, visit the summarized study below.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/01/190128101104.htm

First Impression: Mental Illnesses

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

One of the many mental illnesses people are aware of are typically mood disorders like anxiety, insanity, schizophrenia, and many more. Although mental illnesses have been studied more extensively, many individuals don’t understand the impact it has on a person’s life on a daily basis.

For example, schizophrenia is one of the more well-known mental illnesses, but also one of the more dramaticized in modern movies and novels. Many depictions of the illness describe schizophrenia as inflicting the individual with violent delusions and sounds, inhibiting the person’s life as well as acting violently around others.

However, based on scientific research and real-life accounts, people who suffer from schizophrenia is far less than violent, only experiences hallucinations and auditory delusions to protect themselves from potential threats.

In a video produced by the Janssen Pharmacutical Company, a person suffering from schizophrenia typically keep themselves inside their house, avoiding food and water for the potential threat of poison, as well as experiencing auditory disturbances to amplify their anxiety and fears of being critiziced. In a real-life situation, schizophrenia is rarely violent to others, and movies only assume that the mental illness is related to grand and violent episodes.

For people with mental illnesses, their minds mainly amplify or deter their understanding of the world, sometimes leaving them to not properly cope to daily life. For the rest of the world, people need to understand the impact it may have on an individual and not assume that such an illness is larger than life than what the movies show them.

For more information on the daily life of shizophrenia, watch the available video on your own discretion.

First Impression: Stress

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

Stress in of itself is a finicky situation to tackle. Because while stress can be easily identified in certain situations, be it happening by random chance or by expectations, there are also many ways to manage a person’s stress.

For the occasional disturbance in personal space, the infuriating traffic jam, or even some kind of mild inconveniece; no matter what, don’t let your rage boil over. From a stranger’s perspective, the one thing they don’t want to see in a person is their bad side, so think ahead on first impressions.

However, there are also the uncontrolable situations. Deadlines for an important assignment, difficult jobs, or the one obstacle standing in their way with no other way around. Try to understand the situation in your own personal solution, working out the possible outcomes and the risks that may be made.

No matter what, if it’s proving too much, don’t be afraid to speak up about it. A great way to removing a stressor is to look at it from another angle, and get the support that you may need. Ask yourself the question of “How else can I solve it?” and decide on the most logical and efficient solution.

And no matter what life has for a person, there are many other ways to solve stress. No matter the methods, just step back from the problem and relax, the answer is sure to come to you.

First Impression: Personality

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

Personality has been one of many components to describe an individual, and a person’s interaction with the world is both similar but unique to someone else. On hindsight, a multitude of personality tests are formulated by thousands of traits and information, For example, in completing a 68-question personality test, the attributes connected to each answer is measured out in a series of letters called the Jungian Personality Type. (http://www.personalitytest.net/cgi-bin/q.pl)

In performing the test myself, it describes my personality in the INTJ aspect, the Scientist. This percentage of the population are theoretical thinkers and perfectionists, setting expectations for themselves in order to acheive them in the highest standard. While that does describe my personality in a analytical standpoint, I do find myself straying sometimes from my work and occupy myself with other matters.

It is an interesting to think back on myself, even for the people who see me as a creative and intellectual mind. And even if personality tests are not for everyone, there are times where you can look into the details behind the results, and think about how some people have the same mindset as someone else.

First Impression: Sleep

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

For a freshman college student like myself, there are many twists and turns when it comes to how much sleep people should regularly have. While I have the chance to work on assignments and projects, I at times have time to sleep at 9-10 p.m. to 7 in the morning, allowing myself to prepare with the basic necessities.

However, the basic knowledge of acquiring the standard 8 hours of sleep can become either reasonable or problematic in relation to how someone’s daily assessments are. If there time is properly managed, there is a chance that that person will be well-rested in the regular 8 hours or more. But for harder-working individuals, in regards to either jobs, careers, or normally scheduled events, times can become hectic and stressful; giving the person inadequate time to relax and slow down.

While my own schedule has been tightly-knit or carefree, there are some instances when I could not get tired at the regular time, feeling far too busy with whatever is on my mind at the moment. But for any working individual, sleep is meant to be a natural stress reliever, to let their body wind down and assess itself in a orderly manner.

If sleep is still a relatively askew concept, there is no denying the sense of relief that anyone feels once they get a proper night’s rest, no matter how many hours they believe is acceptable.

First Impression: Motivation

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

Motivation can become one of the greatest driving-points in a person’s life, whether it is for a short-term or long-term goal that they may be facing in the future.

For the majority, one of many ideas that relate to motivation is a change in self, relative to weight control, health, beauty, , business in a job, or a boost in self-confidence; which can mostly be obtained by weeks or months of a set schedule. For the most part, the idea of getting used to a fixed schedule will deter most, but there will always be the sense of satisfaction that comes alongside the action when people finally get the result they aimed for.

If someone ever needs the motivation to get something done, the idea of “Everything will get better after this” or “You’ll be a better you” is what people need to understand if they want to get something satisfactory in the future, the simple act of believing in themselves.

Synesthesia: TED Talk by David Tammet

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

There are many manners of understanding that people have cultivated and theorized as generations go, how a person is able to perceive the world in such an alike but unique way. For us, that way of perception can be made into stories, paintings, poems, theories, inventions, just everything that has ever existed. And while the world is brought together by similar passions and dreams, there is always a rare case of thought that has yet to be properly explained.

In this case, a rarity of the mind is to view the world with a blend of two or more senses, much like the phrase “seeing sound and tasting color”, known as synesthesia. As David Tammet explains, there is a spectrum of synesthesia that can affect a small number of individuals, especially letting people properly explain what they see and understand on a daily basis. Tammet then puts up a series of paintings that he created himself, to show that he sees simple numbers as lines, dots, and even varying shapes and colors, one of the many ways to put synesthesia out for all the world to see.

Even if a condition as synesthesia is greatly unstudied and unknown, it would be great to follow Tammet’s example to see the world in his eyes, to describe every day in another light.

First Impression Prompt-Memories

--Original published at Jessica K's College Blog

The first day of school, finding the love of your life, marriage, and everything else a person may love in life, they have the power to remember it all.

No matter what the circumstance, people have evolved their way of understanding the situation with the power of their minds, rethinking past experiences or evaluating past advice to solve any problem at hand. For the most part, memories also serve as a timeline for everything a person has gone through and can be remembered if the impression was longlasting and memorable. That is how people from all ages can go about their lives as well with the information they learned earlier in their life, like the alphabet for example. People have to rely on memory to do jobs, know their location, focus on certain tasks in hand, and so much more.

Throughout the centuries, humanity has evolved with the use of technology, relying on their memories to create new ideas and innovations, which is far more powerful than any supercomputer built to this day. People’s minds not only have the power to remember, but to improvise, to create something new that may have worth in the future.

And even with the science of it all, to analyze the brain’s mechanics of memorization, there is no denying that memories and the inner workings of the brain have lead humanity into the time it has created now.