Prompt Seven: Psychological Controversy

BY: SKYLLAR

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    This week I was watching the TV show “Prison Break”. One of the patients in the psych ward never took his medication. He referred to the pills as “handcuffs on his mind”. This made me think about my blog post topic and led me to find the controversy about whether pills are necessary for psych patients or not. When researching, I wanted to narrow it down to one psychiatric condition that involves medication rather than every condition. That would’ve been an extremely broad topic and each condition is different, meaning the way it is treated is different. I came across an article about whether depression should be treated with pills or not, and decided to use it.

Depression is serious, but common mood disorder leaving you feeling intense sadness. It can affect how you think, feel, and handle daily activities (“NIMH » Depression."). Depression affects several people and can be in treated in many ways, although using anti-depressants is one of the most common ways to treat it. According to Psychology Today, there are four main reasons why people take anti-depressant medications. These include, wanting to get rid of the feelings, not being fully informed of the medications’ side effects, not being informed of their relatively low rate of effectiveness, and not being informed by their doctor about alternative treatment options. The biggest risk of taking anti-depressant medication that doctors don’t always inform patients of is that they may become drug dependent and have a hard time getting off of the medication once they start. Alternative treatment options include speaking with a therapist, exercising, eating healthy, setting goals, challenging negative thoughts, taking supplements, and more. These are reasons why some people believe that medication is absolutely not necessary to treat depression.

The three different types of depression medication are Tricyclic drugs, Monoamine oxidase inhibitors, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Many people find that these drugs work very well to treat their depression. They’re rather effect for giving quick relief to cases of depression. Antidepressants are a hit or miss drug. For some people they work extremely well and for others they do not work at all. The medication works for about 60% of people who use them. For some, the medication sets their mind at ease and makes them believe that they are getting better even if the drugs aren’t actually doing anything.

The use of medication is completely up to the patient, but it is clear why it has become such a controversial topic. While some people deem it unnecessary, some patients still are having good results from using medications and some doctors still feel that anti-depressant medication should be an option.

"NIMH » Depression." U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 30 Sept. 2016.

Heitler, Susan, PhD. "The Blues Is Depression. Should You Treat It With Pills?" Psychology Today. N.p., 27 Oct. 2011. Web. 29 Sept. 2016.

Becoming Terminally Ill May Cause Depression, and Make You Feel Hopeless

BY: TORI

PICTURE LINK

My safe haven, the only person I could count on… slowly turning into my worst enemy.

My dad was murdered, only two weeks before my first birthday. So I don’t really remember that much about him. Only a very small part, it was late October and he was bringing my grandmother a birthday cake. It was a carrot cake. My grandma tells me I’m way too young to remember that. But I do, and everything that I told her I remembered, she did too. It wasn't long after my father’s passing when my siblings and I were taken away from my mother by Child Protection Services. They say we were in an “unsafe environment” whatever that means. Not even a whole day went by, before my grandmother came bursting into those doors. I really don't remember much of what was said. Honestly, I didn’t pay that much attention either. All I knew was that in the next few hours, I was going home with my grandma. There she went again “Saving the day.” She always saved my day.

Unfortunately the roles started to change quicker than I expected. My grandmother is 62, and I’m now 16. Her health took a turn for the worse, and now the person who I depended on started to depend on me. So because of this our relationship changed... I never knew that with sickness comes a change in personality. I’m trying to get used to it, but it seems like it gets worse everyday and only towards me. At times I sit and think about what it is that I’ve done to deserve it, but then I have to realize that it’s not about me. She’s sick and she feels helpless. As if she isn’t in control over anything anymore, so therefore the only way that she feels some type of dependency is by being extremely mean.

Yes maybe using the phrase “my worst enemy” may be a bit over dramatic, but there are days where I feel exactly like that. As I think of it, maybe she feels the same. But for her it’s not about a specific person, it’s her body. Her body is now her worst enemy. I decided to write about this cause it’s something that’s currently happening in my life and I consider it a very difficult trial for me. As I look more into it I understand that this is considered the 5 stages of grief theory, and anger is a huge part of it.

Feel free to tell me about a time in your life where you had deal with a situation like this.

Mental Health

BY: SAVANNAH

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    One out of five adults in the US suffer from mental illnesses each year. This is a high rate of people suffering from diseases that disrupt life in a negative way. Mental illnesses can occur to anyone in age and during any time period of life. A path you can choose in the field of psychology is going to be a clinical psychologist or a psychiatrist. These two are super important while talking about mental health because these are the doctors of psychology who will be helping you out if you are ever feeling like you are struggling from mental illness.

Some examples of mental illnesses are depression, anxiety, phobias, PTSD, OCD, eating disorders, and addiction. There are of course many other disorders that unfortunately can happen to you and many others and it is a serious problem. Many people who have mental illness symptoms never go see a doctor and suffer tremendously. Clinical psychologists are here to help talk to you about what you are feeling and just be someone you can openly talk to about any problems you may have. Many conditions stated above have cures as it is a chemical imbalance in your brain making you feel not normal. All mental illnesses have treatments that you can go through in order to fix the chemical imbalance. Going through treatment can make you feel like the happy person you were before the symptoms came into your life. Psychiatrists make this possible by being there to prescribe you the right medication. This is so important to go see a doctor about any concerns you have regarding your mental health state. In the US, mental health is a huge part of health that is not looked at. Unfortunately suicide is in the top ten ways Americans die and nine out of ten suicides had a secret mental illness that was not treated properly.

All mental health is a very serious issue and can be treated. If you or anyone ever feels side affects of a mental health disorder, please go see a doctor because they are there for you to help you out. No one will shut you down and you will eventually feel better if steps are taken accurately.

Suicide Hotline: Call 1-800-273-8255

                            24/7

Facts About Mental Health in the United States

"NAMI." : National Alliance on Mental Illness. NAMI, n.d. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

Types of Psychology

BY: SKYLLAR

PICTURE LINK

As I sat through my psychology class this week I began to realize just how broad of a field psychology is. I began to wonder what different types of psychology there are and what path I would like to take. Choosing a major was hard enough, I had no idea that I would also have to choose which path of psychology I want to go down. Learning this made me want to do some research and see what I may be interested in most, just to have some sort of idea. My professor gave us a little idea of some of the popular types of psychology such as cognitive, developmental, and social, but they were brief descriptions since we are still learning the basics of psychology. I went ahead and looked online to see what some of my options were and narrowed it down to the top three types of psychology I am most interested in at the moment; developmental psychology, personality psychology, and neuroscience and biological psychology.

Developmental psychology portrays the growth of humans throughout their life, as my professor Dr. Hambrick described it “from womb to tomb”. Psychologists in this fieldwork to understand the changes that people go through during their lifespan. After being able to understand this they work to spot possible problems that may occur in someone’s life and offer their assistance. They work with people of all ages, but some developmental psychologists decide to specialize in specific age groups.

Personality psychology is the largest and most popular branch of psychology. They seek to understand how personality develops over time and how it influences the way humans think and act. They also try to understand how personality changes among different people, as well as how it’s the same. Personality psychologists diagnose and treat personality disorders that may be interfering with someone’s everyday life.

Neuroscience and biological psychology is all about how the brain and nervous system works. The brain and nervous system impact our behavior tremendously and these psychologists work to understand how that happens. They study genetics as well and how certain traits make me passed down. Biological psychology studies thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and tries to find a biological cause to them.

Uniform Crime Report "UCR"

BY: DWAYNE

PICTURE LINK

This weeks post is based on the UCR “Uniform Crime Report” which was established in 1930. The purpose of the UCR was to bring accurate crime statistics to the public. If you examine the UCR correctly it suppose to show you how much crime is in your city-state, or another state for that matter. These crime reports are put out on a year to year by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is in charge of organizing and manufacturing the uniform crime reports.

In my opinion, The UCR is 100% false based on my research. Crimes in the UCR are only crimes that is report what about crimes that get committed but the wrongdoers are never brought to justice. Do those crimes count?

I do feel as if its not government officials fault but more so the citizens. If crimes are being committed it’s the people in the community job to report these crimes because that’s the only way the UCR will ever be accurate. Please feel free voice your opinion below.

Hagan, Frank E. Introduction to Criminology: Theories, Methods, and Criminal Behavior.
https://ucr.fbi.gov

The Many Preconceptions of the Field of Psychology

BY: MELISSA

PICTURE LINK

There are many preconceptions in the field of psychology today. When I was growing up and decided I wanted to pursue psychology I had a lot of preconceptions myself, that may I add were nowhere near true. When I was growing up I believed that psychology only offered one or two career choices, a therapist or a researcher. I knew my crazy preconception was totally wrong when I started to learn more about this diversified field. Today I read a few chapters in a textbook called Clinical Psychology: Concepts, Methods, and Profession by Jerry E. Phares and it even furthered my knowledge in the field of psychology. There are so many diverse career opportunities to choose from in the field of psychology. Some examples of careers stated are psychiatrists, social worker, counseling psychologists, rehabilitation and health psychologists, and school counselor.

All throughout my high school career I had a preconception that the majority of clinical therapists were women and that the majority of research psychologists were men. Whether this preconception is true or not, for a few years I actually believed it because if you google clinical therapists a majority of the pictures that pop up are middle aged women helping young children and teens. But on the other hand if you google research psychologist you get a lot of results with men as the professional.

Another preconception I had before I entered this field was that psychologists and therapists get paid an awful lot to help people out. Which for me, as a kid trying to figure out her future career, sounded like an awesome job! When I did more research on becoming a clinical therapist I began to realize that my preconception was kind of true but at the same time could be false. Psychology is a field that can offer high paying careers and that might be the case for some therapists with salaries up to 200,000 dollars, but other therapists may be receiving as little as 20,000 to 30,000 dollars.

The textbook called Clinical Psychology: Concepts, Methods, and Profession by Jerry E. Phares was a very helpful and informational source for me when it came to writing my blog post. My understanding of the field of psychology has expanded and I definitely learned a lot more about other career options besides just becoming a clinical therapist and it really opened up my eyes to learning more about not only the broad field of psychology but also its history and background. I might even use this source again in the near future because it offers chapters about admission to graduate programs and information on the training aspect of clinical psychology and the different types of training programs offered.

In conclusion, people often assume that psychology is an easy major just because of all the preconceptions they have been exposed to. I think everyone should have a little knowledge on psychology even if their major completely different because it deals with human behavior and the human mind. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post! Please comment below any thought or concerns about my post and what some preconceptions of your major are!

@educareerinfo. "Everything about Clinical Psychology." Education Career Articles. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Nov. 2016. <http://educationcareerarticles.com/education-articles/higher-education-articles/everything-about-clinical-psychology/>.